It all started when I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease and I was told I couldn’t do high impact exercise. I was nervous and body “self-conscious” my first day in yoga class. For one, I was feeling down about being in a Silver Sneakers Yoga Class because it was for Seniors as the Yoga 1 class may have been too challenging for me at the time. I was not and am not a senior. My yoga instructor was amazing. The seniors in that class loved that I was the youngest and they treated me like a baby! When you have a yoga instructor that knows yoga is a practice, it is about mind and body, and it is not a place you come to be judged, judge others, judge yourself or show off you have a solid foundation laid.

Yoga is not about what you can do and it’s not about what you can’t do in the egotistical way many Americans think. It is about simply doing what you do and YOU deciding if you want to push those limits or not. It is about peacefully accepting your limitations and altering or choosing another pose that will suit you better. You are only to focus on your own practice and no one else’s. AND IF YOU APPLY THIS TO YOUR LIFE JOURNEY, HOW MUCH BETTER YOU AND THE WORLD AROUND YOU WOULD BE. The problem I have found with most Americans that practice yoga for body only is they tend to still remain judgmental of others in yoga class. Hence, for a long time you saw very few overweight, plus size, or different body types in yoga. Because of course only slim people are flexible. Yoga was never solely about flexibility of the body as much as it is about the flexibility of the mind.

It really helped my mind and my body and it continues to do so weekly. I became more positive about my body. I began to understand where I could push and what was not happening anymore. I learn alternatives and I learn not to be upset if I can’t do certain things. I also have had some great online yoga teachers that understand not everybody is created the same and we are talking about anatomically. I do what stretches me and not what stresses me.

Yoga helps with Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease, Fibromyalgia, Anxiety and Depression. It helps me to focus. It aids in calming my nervous system. It can help boost endorphins when I am depressed. Sometimes yoga is all that I can do. There are so many forms: Gentle or restorative yoga, yin yoga, level 1,2, and 3 just to name a few. There is chair yoga. I practice gentle, restorative, level 1, chair yoga, and yoga for different things I may be feeling. There is yoga for trauma. There is yoga for anxiety and depression. You can even look up yoga for sciatica or bursitis.

This week I will tell you how yoga helped in my recovery from a surgery that almost took my life.

~Nikki

P.S, I chose this photo because people still criticize and shame bodies that obviously can-do amazing things like slim bodies. Hell, not all slim bodies can do those poses and all slim bodies aren’t healthy or healthier.