What is true self love and how does it relate to the practice of yoga & spirituality? 

Although these are wonderful things to do for yourself true self love and acceptance is not just taking a bath, putting your feet up or getting a massage!

Deep and wholesome self-love takes real courage. It is a meeting and embracing of all the pieces of ourselves. Not just the good shiny parts but the challenging and shamed parts that we often bury & hide.

Our yoga practice gives us the opportunity to turn inwards, to develop an intimacy with the one person we are guaranteed to spend the rest of our lives with. It allows us to quieten the noise, pressures & expectations of the outside world. These constant societal & cultural ideals place a huge amount of pressure on us to be perfect. To feel a certain way, look a certain way, parent a certain way, have a ‘perfect’ life. 

News flash… we are human and we are not perfect. We will be met with struggles, traumas, heartbreaks & many challenges both inside and out in our lives. The more we hide, shame and place our seemingly broken, vulnerable parts in the dark the more unhappy and fragmented we will feel on the inside. 

On our yoga mats & with a good teacher we are met with a safe space to get a little closer to ourselves. To meet our own vulnerabilities & tender places. Through our yoga, embodied dance & meditation practice we can be guided into the locked places in our physical & emotional bodies and begin to learn how to hold ourselves with the same love & compassion we would a child. 

This is true self love! To realize the preciousness of our own being & to come into relationship with ourselves as the primary relationship of our life.

As the amazing researcher Brene Brown puts it:

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

It is from the development of this compassionate and loving inner relationship that true connection & intimacy can be achieved with others. The extent we are able to meet our own imperfections directly relates to the extent we are able to meet others in their flaws & humanness.

These beautiful words by Marc Hack sum it up for me:

“To believe that you must hide all the parts of you that are broken, out of fear that someone else is incapable of loving what is less than perfect, is to believe that sunlight is incapable of entering a broken window and illuminating a dark room.” 

Me, your mat and the Sacred Flow offerings are here for you any time. We welcome you in all your glorious imperfection. Holding you in whatever is there to be met and felt, helping you on the journey of falling back in love with YOU.

Love Alex 

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