[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.4.6″ min_height=”2691px”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.4.6″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.4.6″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.6″ text_font_size=”20px” custom_padding=”||0px|||”]<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard them all. I may have even said some of them myself. And yet, really, you can do this. I believe in you!<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m too old for yoga\u201d. <\/strong><\/p>\n There are hundred-year-olds teaching<\/em> yoga. You can modify almost any posture to suit your needs. Maybe you had a bad teacher, once, who didn\u2019t make sure that the class was welcoming, and didn\u2019t pay more attention. But that\u2019s not your fault. It\u2019s the teacher\u2019s responsibility to ensure that all students are comfortable, and I\u2019m used to making adjustments, to ensure that things like high blood pressure and heart issues are taken into account. I recommend talking to a doctor to get their advice on whether yoga is right for you, and always, taking it at your own pace. But are you too old to breathe? Because that\u2019s all yoga is, really. Breathing, and finding unity and peace.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m too fat for yoga\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yoga isn\u2019t a competition, and honestly, the physical practice is about 12% of it. There are so many more benefits to being in a class, like calming your mind, detaching from stress, and reconnecting with your breathing. If the teacher is doing the right thing, they\u2019ll make you feel comfortable in your body. Let me worry about whether you\u2019re too fat for this class, ok? Because you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n \u201cI like the idea of yoga, but I\u2019m too lazy to do it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n My classes are free, you\u2019re stuck in your house for the coronavirus, and I\u2019ll go so far as to bet you $10 (*I\u2019m not sure gambling is\u2026technically encouraged, but\u2026you know) that you\u2019ll feel better after this class than you did before you started. The only reason you wouldn\u2019t take an offer like that, I suppose, is if you didn\u2019t like feeling good.<\/p>\n \u201cI like feeling shitty about myself.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Me too, actually. Like, I\u2019m surprised at how many of us are unwittingly addicted to having bad friends, bad relationships, bad jobs, and just generally being unhappy. The fact that you\u2019re prepared to even vocalize that sentiment shows a hell of a lot more awareness than most people who come to the yoga mat, and trust me, it\u2019s a great place to start.<\/p>\n \u201cSome weird shit happened to me. So: Nopes.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Actually yoga is super good for helping people recover from, and process, trauma. I\u2019ve done classes on teaching yoga in prisons and I\u2019ve, personally, found that yoga is more effective than almost any other method for moving through difficult emotions and rediscovering your confidence. If a prisoner can benefit from yoga, with all the trauma they\u2019ve been through, then I\u2019m pretty certain you can. Although of course, trauma isn\u2019t a competition.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a man. Men don\u2019t do yoga.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Prove it. Honestly some of my favorite yoga teachers love it when a macho man joins their class and is ready to show off. They relish in making them\u2026humble. So many exercise regimes for us men are about hurting ourselves, but I\u2019ve not experienced anything that gives me the same benefits as daily yoga practice. Also, think about how we\u2019re defining our masculinity. The Bhagavad Gita, one of the books on which yoga is based, takes place on a battlefield. It\u2019s a dialog between a warrior and God. You think Michael Jordan won all those championships without being able to be present in the moment? Maybe what we mean is, \u201cI\u2019m scared to be vulnerable and try anything new,\u201d which is fairly common, I\u2019ve found, in men, as we age. But trust me, mate. You\u2019re going to feel better after you do this.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m too normal for yoga.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>A lot of the spirituality and, let\u2019s face it, outfits, worn in yoga classes can scare the shit out of many of us. We don\u2019t want to shave our heads, wear orange robes, or move in with any members of The Beatles. Least of all Paul, or worse yet, Ringo. I come to yoga from a spiritual perspective, these days, but it\u2019s the same way I go to church: I feel so guilty about not believing in God, that occasionally, I think maybe I believe in something to feel guilty about. If yoga\u2019s spiritual connection is with anything, then I encourage you to consider it about connecting with spiritual energy as you understand it. And if you\u2019re a hardcore atheist, then that\u2019s cool with me. I can still get you to chill out, lower your stress levels and smile more often. But I\u2019m not out to convert you. Promise.<\/p>\n \u201cI prefer drugs.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not judgmental, but trust me, the highs you\u2019ll experience in corpse pose are pretty monumental. I do have an addictive personality, and the first 30 times I did yoga, I was pretty much chasing that first high, actually. But then I found something deeper and more sustaining in it, and my attachment to the practice got a lot healthier. The way I see yoga is that it\u2019s got something to offer for everyone, and honestly, I\u2019d just encourage you to try on some of the practices and see if they help you. If you still want to smoke a bowl afterwards, then good for you. But honestly, I don\u2019t drink, smoke, or use any drugs these days. And if you\u2019d told me that before I started, that I\u2019d voluntarily prefer the benefits of sitting in warrior two for a bunch of breaths to whatever else might be on offer, I probably would have thought you <\/em>were high. So.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m too busy to try yoga.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the amazing benefits of yoga for me has been getting me comfortable with doing less. I don\u2019t always need to be overworking just to prove to other people how much I care, or how much I\u2019m worth. I\u2019m comfortable knowing that I\u2019m enough. And honestly, wouldn\u2019t you be happier pushing yourself a little less? Bear in mind that I trained in New York City. It\u2019s not a low-key, low-stress place. And yet? We can do this!<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to hurt myself.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n And trust me, I don\u2019t want you to, either. If you trust your teacher and take it easy, you could spend your whole first class in child\u2019s pose and nobody would mind. The only times I\u2019ve got injured during yoga were when I was doing it to a video, so there wasn\u2019t a live instructor there to tell me to chill out, and when I was trying to show off by doing a posture really aggressively, over and over again. The hardest thing in life is to do something at a slow and sustainable pace, and if you\u2019re impatient, you can hurt yourself. That\u2019s why it\u2019s good to work with a teacher who encourages you to take it at your pace. Nothing to prove, no competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Header” _builder_version=”4.4.1″ background_color=”#f9f6f5″ background_image=”https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/yoga-pattern-01-1.png” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”||-128px|||” custom_padding=”||||false|false” global_module=”148″ locked=”off”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.4.6″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.3.4″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_6055.jpeg” title_text=”IMG_6055″ _builder_version=”4.4.6″ max_height_tablet=”400px” max_height_phone=”” max_height_last_edited=”on|tablet”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.4.6″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.1″ text_font_size=”24px” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”Domine||||||||” header_font_size=”70px” header_line_height=”1.3em” header_2_font=”Domine||||||||” header_2_font_size=”60px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” text_font_size_tablet=”18px” text_font_size_phone=”16px” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” header_font_size_tablet=”48px” header_font_size_phone=”38px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” header_2_font_size_tablet=”45px” header_2_font_size_phone=”35px” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” locked=”off”]<\/p>\n Honestly, I never thought of myself as a “yoga person”, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_text=”Let’s do this!” _builder_version=”4.4.6″ button_url=”https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/” hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_divider color=”#000000″ divider_weight=”200px” _builder_version=”4.4.1″ position_origin_a=”bottom_center” horizontal_offset=”0px” width=”1px” custom_padding=”|4px||4px|false|true” scroll_vertical_motion_enable=”on” scroll_vertical_motion=”0|80|80|100|0|0|2″ motion_trigger_start=”top” box_shadow_style=”preset7″ box_shadow_horizontal=”0px” box_shadow_vertical=”9px” box_shadow_color=”#000000″ locked=”off”][\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “The downward dog ate my homework.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yoga-for-people-who-hate-yoga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattdavisyoga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Yoga…for people who hate yoga.\u00a0<\/h1>\n