Yoga for Empowerment
What is it to be empowered?
Empowerment is both a process and a state. It bestows autonomy unto the individual to define and represent, clearly and with assurance, their own values, needs and position in life.
It is the confidence to self-determine and be in control of one’s own journey.
Many people are living from a place of disempowerment. Our societal framework does not encourage empowered individuals as this threatens the status quo and the distribution of power. Underrepresented groups and minority communities feel this the most profoundly.
Just looking at our education system and media coverage evidences that citizens are not taught to be empowered, and demonstrates the vast disparities which underpin any efforts to try. Children are not taught to think for themselves. Ethnic diversity has a huge impact on educational attainment. Women are portrayed as passive and subversive.
We are not taught to be empowered, but we can learn it ourselves. Yoga is an invaluable tool in this transformative, and deeply empowering, process.
Why Yoga?
Yoga is many things to many people. The idea that yoga can solve the same problems for you as they can for me is unrealistic. However, in every way you look at it, yoga is an empowering practice. It builds strength and confidence in body and mind, which in turn affects our self-esteem, self-worth and self-assurance. It teaches us to tune in with our bodies and listen to our intuition, giving us the control to make considered life choices that serve a deeper purpose and realise our vital potential.
Yoga is innately personal and unique to the individual, both anatomically and experientially. No one posture will look or feel the same to another person.
This is the magic of yoga.
And this, in its very essence, is a reason yoga is empowering. It tells a story no one else has written and opens doors of understanding specifically tailored to our own, personal, lived experience. Doors that others can relate to, but never intrinsically walk through.
We all have a different path, but no one path is any more or less important. Yoga leads us, often unexpectantly, towards the creation of our own narrative. The one that WE choose. If there is any one yoga practitioner who has not found yoga to reveal far more than they ever signed up for, I have yet to meet them. ‘Yoga is a journey of the self, through the self, to the self’ ~ The Bhagavad Gita.
Here are five more examples of how yoga is helpful in empowering you to walk your journey with pride and purpose:
1. Energy Creates Energy
On a physical level, yoga asana practice builds energy in the body through movement. A dynamic practice increases the heart rate and invigorates the blood flow, sending energy moving around the body. On a psychological level, yoga raises positive energy through mindful techniques such as affirmation, breathwork and visualisation.
The saying energy creates energy has always stuck with me - and it makes sense. When we are sitting all day and lacking movement, due to our jobs or life circumstances, our energy sinks and we can become sluggish. The drive to get up and move reduces. The body becomes static and the mind follows suit. This impacts our vital energy, which in turn reduces the motivation to raise our energy. This is the self-perpetuating cycle of low energy.
Movement and activity raise our energy which steers our mindset towards motivation, productivity and positivity. The more we generate energy, the more we feel energised to achieve our goals, both on and off the yoga mat. The more our energy increases, the more we embrace the world and welcome challenges, proving to ourselves that we are capable and that we can succeed. This is empowering and reproduces energy resource in the body and mind. This is the self-perpetuating cycle of high energy.
Studies have shown that feeling capable and more inclined to take risks and judge challenges can be associated with available energy resources. I certainly recognise that when I am feeling tired, run down or hungover (!), I am much less inclined to jump into a cold sea or walk close to a cliff edge. My self-confidence and trust in my own ability to withstand cold or survive nerve-racking situations is reduced.
Of course, every thesis has its antithesis. We must nurture both dualities of being and make time for both the rest and the hustle. Periods of cooling, passive, stillness allow a continuous energy reserve to be maintained on an ongoing basis rather than constant high energy that can result in burn out. Yoga teaches us to honour these dualities - the yin and the yang - and thus to gain empowerment through a deeper understanding and respect of ourselves.
2. Mindfulness and Challenging Negative Thoughts
Breathwork and meditation help focus the mind, alleviating mental busyness and negative thought patterns. Negative thoughts can be overwhelming and deeply limiting, creating a self-realising view of the self and our place in the world. Learning to notice these thoughts as not ‘us’, not reflecting what is real, but instead as an ongoing story that we have been conditioned and engrained to perpetuate, is liberating. Removing ourselves from attachment to these thoughts is empowering, as we realise we have the power to change our own reality and the way we interact with, firstly ourselves, then the rest of the world.
It is useful to think of thoughts like clouds moving across a blue sky. Whilst the clouds come and go, the blue sky always remains; clear, pure and infinite. One study suggests how yoga practice is as beneficial as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy on improving stress management.
3. From dependence to independence
Yoga is a non-competitive practice in its innermost nature. It encourages a practitioner to direct the attention from the external (i.e. what are people thinking about me, how can I gain approval, how can I be as good as that person), to the internal (i.e. what do I think about me, where do I see my strengths and how can I be the best version of me). This inward attention and exploration is empowering, it moves the emphasis from dependence to independence.
4. Physical and Mental Strength
Posture, poise and strength in the body help improve mood and encourage a positive self-view. Several studies show that adopting an upright, open position as opposed to a slouched, closed position is beneficial for self-confidence and personal empowerment.
In yoga we work closely with posture, tadasana is a strong power pose. We strengthen, tone and move dynamically through all planes of direction. On a physical level this, quite literally, loosens tension and ‘stuck’ fascia which opens the body up. We build strength in the body which allows us to achieve things we weren’t able to do before - or at least weren’t aware we could do. This highlights limiting beliefs about the self and also works on our fear boundaries - challenging our bodies and minds beyond what we thought we were capable of.
5. Dualities and Releasing Labels
Yoga helps let go of labels. As an example, take an individual who sees themselves as ‘an active person’. Where this label is deeply entrenched, this can mean that a person cannot be seen to rest as this would negate their understanding of their core identity. Once this identity is threatened, their whole world can unravel. Another person might see themselves as a lazy person (maybe they have learnt this during childhood from an overly-expectant parent), this delineates how they respond to challenges or even invitations to activities or social events. Yoga demonstrates how we all have dualities within us - we are not one thing or another - we are ever oscillating vibrational beings. And we need to nurture both sides, even the sides that feel foreign or ‘unnatural’ to us. It allows us to let go of dogmatic, limiting views, and invite wholeness in. Letting go of labels and bound self-beliefs can be incredibly empowering and liberating.
You Have a Choice
Yoga is whatever you need it to be. There are no rules. Ultimately we all have a choice, this is what it boils down to.
Harness the power to choose what serves your own soul purpose and follow through with this no matter what.
Write your own story.
Build and harness positive energy.
Think positively.
Choose independence over passive dependency.
Develop physical and mental strength.
Create boundaries that define who you are, instead of what you are taught you should be.
Yoga teaches us to look inside, helping us understand what is important and where we want to direct our energy. It helps us find confidence so we can make empowered decisions that benefit ourselves, and as a result, our loved ones and our environment.
It is a journey. It is your journey.
If you would like to receive a free yogi toolkit to assist you on that incredible journey, just click here. Inside you receive four yoga session of different lengths, a meditation on self love, journal exercises and a short talk by yours truly on why this stuff is important!
Enjoy and thanks for reading 🤍
