I say the same exact thing every time I end my yoga class. Repetitive? Maybe. But it’s truly something I hope each student walks away with at the end of my class. No matter how I feel that day, what my intention for class is, or who the people in the studio are, I mean it every single time I say it.
May you feel strong in your body, may you feel at peace in your mind and may you feel love in your heart.
May you feel strong in your body. No matter what level a student is at, I want them to walk out of class feeling strong. Whether it’s coming into headstand for the first time or holding their boat pose for one more breath than they thought possible, I want them to acknowledge that strength. Yoga is not an easy physical practice; moving your breath and body as one is hard work. I want my students to feel strong in their poses, to stand as warriors in their power and feel their own strength within them as they flow. Each time my students come into my class, I do my best to guide them to push past the barriers of their mind and tap into their inner strength.
Photographer: Lacey Dejour, Location: Brick Bodies Rotunda
May you feel at peace in your mind. As you may know from this post, this part of the mantra is what originally brought me to my yoga practice. To me, mental peace is the most important part of yoga. I aim to create a welcoming space that brings my students into the right here, right now. At the beginning of each class, I encourage them to let go of their day — any stress from the past or worries of the future. Let it all go. Our yoga practice teaches us that the only thing that is real is this exact moment. My goal for my students is to get them out of their heads and into their bodies as they move with their breath so that they can walk away from class with a little less weight on their shoulders.
May you feel love in your heart. I hope that each student steps out of my class with their self-love tank a little fuller. No one walks an easy path. We each have our own struggles, our own circumstances and our own areas in which we critique ourselves. The yoga studio is where many of us come to let go of the outside world. I always encourage my students to release any expectations they have for class and their practice so they can create room for love, grace and acceptance. When we are able to drop what we think our practice should like, we can approach it from a place of exploration, which ultimately allows us to relax and surrender into the space we create on our mats. I want my students to lay in savasana and to know that they are enough. I want them to soften, to release and to fill that space they created with love.
I resonate so much with this mantra each time I say it. It intertwines each intention that brings me back to my mat again and again. I want my students to walk out of class and truly feel strength, peace and love. If they are a little more flexible that’s cool, but if they feel a little more at home in their bodies, that’s magic.