Yoga

Anyone can benefit from yoga; it isn’t just about being flexible and you don’t need to know anything about chakras. 

I started Mourne Yoga in the summer of 2018 to try and make yoga accessible to everyone who wants to feel a bit better - physically, mentally, emotionally. I personally started yoga as a way of moving again that wouldn’t put too much strain on my body. Other people practice it as a way to reduce day-to-day stress or relieve some of the stiffness in their bodies. Athletes might use it to improve their performance. It’s also a great way to learn how to clear your mind and become more focussed.

On a physical level, the poses you do in a yoga class help to create space in the body - in your joints, in your myofascia. This helps you feel better physically because it helps to reduce a lot of tension that builds up over time. Who doesn’t want that these days?

There’s also the fundamental aspect of breathing as you move which helps with two things:

a) it keeps you present (rather than thinking about all the stuff that’s taking up a lot of your head-space) because you’re being encouraged to focus on any combination of movement and breath 

b) it improves the quality of your breath, in turn affecting the state of your autonomic nervous system

There are no real downsides to yoga as far as I can see.

What you want to take from your practice is very much up to you. If you’re quite spiritual, there’s a lot of elements you can immerse yourself in. If you’d rather just practice to feel less stiff, less stressed or help improve your performance in other sports that you play, that’s cool too.