Hello, my dear reader,
My name is Olga Yumasheva, and I’m an active
practitioner of yoga. When I say, ‘I practice
yoga’, I don’t just mean that I step on my mat
every day, although it’s almost always the
case. I also point to the fact that the principles
of yoga overflew from the mat into my daily
living. They have shaped and continue shaping
my understanding of situations, my reactions,
and my behavior.
Like most students, when I just started, and
the first few years I couldn’t see what yoga was
about. I treated it as a physical exercise,
blindly followed the instructions, sweated,
blushed, struggled for breath, and competed
on ‘who can do the most advanced pose.’ I was
dependent on group classes, lazy to practice
at home, and needed a push from the teacher.
I attended as many classes as possible, aiming
to progress faster, went into extremes of
having too long practice or no practice at all.
I kept on losing motivation, gave up practicing
multiple times, and tried hard to force myself
to get back on the mat. I made promises to