Why yoga is not about having a perfect body

I often hear from people: “Yoga is not for me. I am not flexible.” Or: “I am not slim enough” Or: “I will never be able to do these crazy poses.”

This is a misconception which maybe is due to some ways in which yoga is being commercialized. It makes me sad because it deprives many people from an experience that could change their life. Yoga has changed my life. This is why I have chosen that I want to teach it.

Yoga is not about having a perfect body. Nor is getting a perfect body the goal of yoga.

If yoga is about anything related to our physical body, yoga is about having a healthy body. For me, our body is a vehicle for our soul. We want to keep a healthy body as long as possible so that this journey, which we call our life, is as long and pain-free as possible. Anyone, at any age and in any physical condition can use the tools of yoga to improve his or her physical and mental health. As one of my teachers likes to say: “As long as you can breathe, you can practice yoga.”

When I say yoga here, I refer to the physical practice of yoga and I also refer to breathing and mediation, the three aspects of yoga which people are usually interested in when they come to a yoga class, and which are taught in a yoga class.

Beyond these three elements, yoga also includes a vast philosophy and anyone who knows a little bit about yoga philosophy knows that yoga is not about having a perfect body and being able to do all the poses which exist in yoga. In fact, do you know any philosophy or spiritual tradition in the world which pursues having a perfect body that you can show on social media? I don’t.

Of course, learning a challenging yoga posture can be beneficial for our body and our mind. It helps us to improve strength and balance for example, and it teaches us important life skills such as, to be patient, to overcome fear, to try again and again, and also, to know and respect your own limits. What counts, from the point of view of yoga philosophy is not, whether you are able to balance on your forearms or to stand on your head. It is what you learn on the way. And, by the way, yoga, as life, is not about comparison either. It is about showing up and giving your best on your individual journey without being attached to whatever the outcome will be.

And again: you don’t need to do headstand to be good at yoga. In fact, it is discouraged for people with neck issues for example. I still cannot do it without assistance.

This is another thing which people often don’t know. There are many types of yoga. There is the fierce, fast-past practice which can be very challenging, but there are also gentle types of practices which put the emphasis on stretching or deep relaxation. There are two elements which are common to all the physical practices of yoga: breathing and becoming aware of everything which is happening in your body. This is why I said before that as long as you can breathe, you can do yoga.

This is why yoga is so good for anyone, including for people with mental or physical conditions. Our life today is often so busy that we are disconnected from our body. Often, we do not feel anymore what is happening in our body. The result is that we push ourselves too hard, we ignore our need to sleep, we eat food which is not good for us, and we only realize that something is wrong when have a lot of pain or become ill. When we practice yoga, we try to be aware of all of our muscles, of how our body is positioned in space, of everything which is happening inside of our body. This is called “proprioception”. It can be very beneficial for athletes of any discipline, because being aware of every tiny space of your body gives you better control of your body and how to move it.  For everyone, athletes or not, being aware of our body means being able to take good care of it because we detect imbalances from their very beginning. When I say, take good care of your body, I do not mean to change your entire lifestyle overnight. This can be very challenging and drastic, and I believe in gentle changes happening over time. And believe me: if you practice yoga on a regular basis for several months, you will gradually, without forcing anything, start to live in a more healthy and conscious way. This is part of the magic of yoga.

The biggest magic of yoga for me, personally, is this experience that you can come to your mat feeling one way and leave your mat feeling completely transformed. There have been times in my life, during the loneliness of the pandemic and a painful break-up, when I could not stop crying and the last thing I wanted to do was yoga. But I forced myself and I cried throughout half of the yoga practice. But after a while, I stopped crying, and when I ended my practice half an hour later, I felt calm, grounded, strong enough to continue my day. I felt trust that everything will eventually be alright again. The same goes for meditation. I hated meditation so much that for years, I was resistant to all advice to at least try it. Even today, I often struggle with it. It was not until the beginning of the pandemic, when I was alone and I had Covid and I was in panic every night asking myself if my illness would get worse, that I finally started to meditate. I started gently. Five minutes, ten minutes. But it was enough to get me out of my panic attacks. Today, I believe that yoga, together with meditation, has helped me more to overcome anxiety and depression than anything else. When I say this, I do not mean, stop seeing a therapist. But I believe that anyone struggling with mental health should try some type of yoga, breathing and meditation. And as I have said before, there are many types of yoga and there are many types of teachers and I believe there is the right type for everyone and what is right type might change over time.

I believe in the magic of yoga, and I would encourage anyone, of any gender, age or physical condition to try it. When I say magic, it might sound esoteric to you. But yoga is not esoteric. It is a system which has been developed and tried out in India for roughly 5000 years and today, we have a lot of scientific evidence today showing that it works.