Live Your Truth
For today’s woman, becoming truly empowered is as much about loving who she is as it is about achieving big goals with education and work. Society often sets definitions for us about who we should aspire to be. Far rarer are societal messages that tell us to be who we are; women are left to their own devices to give themselves such reassurance. One key way women are finding they can embrace themselves truly and sincerely is by practicing Yoga.
“Yoga has so many amazing benefits, one is learning to be comfortable with who you are,”
says Yoga Instructor Paula Van Alstine.
Van Alstine always emphasizes this key aspect of Yoga in her classes. The idea that Yoga lets you focus on yourself and lets you look at yourself from the inside out is one women find empowering, she explains, because there are so many unrealistic images society sets for women-such as being excessively thin and balancing a career and kids without ever needing help.
Women comprise almost 80 percent of all Yoga students in America, and the same is true in every country where Yoga is practiced. Yoga is one of the few popular physical activities that tells us to relax and look for the good within ourselves rather than “push” ourselves harder and harder because we’re not good enough the way we are.
When we let go of the ideal image set by society and tell ourselves we’re OK as we are, it is then that we feel empowered to grow as human beings. Yoga tells us that to truly see our real selves; we must focus on our hearts and look at ourselves from the inside out. It’s impossible to judge ourselves by what others look like, since no two people look alike.
