Portrait of a Yogini: Nancy R., a happy and philosophical client

Here is the portrait of a happy and philosophical yogini, a Tayronalife.com customer. I met Nancy through email exchanges. The first were requests for advice, then requests concerning her delivery and finally the latter sent this photo where she was very happy and proud to discover her new yoga mat ordered on the site. And there, I was dazzled by her radiance.

I asked him to share with us his enthusiasm, his advice and his practice through a few personal questions about his yoga practice that I share with you today.

And in all humility and sincerity, she lent herself to the game of the Proust questionnaire. The result is full of wisdom, freshness and clairvoyance. I hope that this initiative will begin a long series of portraits of satisfied and philosophical tayronalife.com customers.

How did you get into taking care of yourself?

Two very basic pieces of advice were given to me a few years ago and it literally changed my life:

1. “It is not by running away and going to the other side of the world that you will feel better. The problem will continue to follow you anywhere if you do not solve it within yourself.”
2. “Don't care what other people think of you.”

The first one is more than true : a little less than 10 years ago I felt depressed, lost, I wanted to move far from the city where I lived. I followed a psychoanalysis to better understand myself and this advice is one of the best that my shrink gave me, even if it took me a few more years to really understand it...

The idea is that only by putting fertilizer in your little inner garden can you achieve happiness and eradicate problems. Happiness depends only on us.

To explain my thinking: I have been experimenting for a few years with finding the positive in every situation I experience, in every moment of happiness but also in every problem I encounter. At first, I felt like I was behaving like a Care Bear, but little by little I felt deeply happy and fulfilled. It didn't come from anyone but myself and it had a pretty powerful effect. The happier you are, the more happiness you share and the happier it makes others.

The problems we encounter can be approached in two ways: either by seeing only the negative of the situation and therefore creating stress for ourselves. Or by taking a deep breath and doing a little visualization work: list what is positive in your life, but also try to approach your problem by visualizing it in what it will produce positively once it is resolved. Every experience sooner or later serves as a lesson for us to grow, so we might as well welcome your problem in this way. Stay calm, take a deep breath and force yourself to be a little patient. Every problem eventually finds its solution!

Finally, the 2nd piece of advice is simply not to attach importance to what others may say about us. Criticism is always good to take as long as it is constructive. Except that most of the time we find ourselves faced with judgments based on preconceptions. We rarely spend more than a few minutes or hours with others. In this short period of time, it is difficult in the end to really know who the person in front of us is, their beliefs, what they think, what they have experienced or other. It is therefore very easy to fall into the trap of a judgment based solely on a few words that this person will have told us or simply their appearance.

This advice allowed me to detach myself and feel more at peace with others. Of course, you have to stay open to others, but you also have to know who you are and what you want. The main thing is to feel in tune with yourself and respect yourself. From there, you take care of yourself.

What practice for your well-being?

Physical activities in general (dance, swimming, yoga, crossfit) are the basis of my well-being. Moving, reconnecting with your body and giving free rein to our movements brings me a deep well-being.

And in yoga I found a whole: a practice that is both physical but also respiratory and meditative. When I started a few years ago, I didn't think I would become so addicted and discover such a rich practice! At first, I only saw the asanas, but little by little I became aware of the power of pranayamas and chanting (mantras). Now, when I'm stressed, I breathe, I focus on my feelings ("I feel stressed, can I feel it somewhere in my body?" Try it, it's magic!) and if necessary, I practice a few postures.

What is the ritual of your practice?

Hydrate and practice slowly! I like to start a session without being thirsty. It gives me the impression of being able to go further in my flexibility but it also offers me a feeling of detox. I also like to take the time I need for my sessions, I never have the time next to me when I practice because I listen above all to the sensations of my body and my mind: do I still feel tension in this posture? Do I feel completely relaxed? Do I enjoy it? The sessions can last 5 minutes or several hours!

What do you get out of it?

I simply feel better about myself. I come out of each session much more relaxed and happy than usual. It's a ray of sunshine and a real break in my days.

What do you carry in your yoga bag?

I don't travel much but I think what I couldn't do without are some essential oils! Lavender is the most important to me: soothing, healing, keeps away critters and its smell is a little Proust madeleine for me, it reminds me of walks with my grandmother when I was a child, we often went to pick lavender!

What is your favorite object/accessory?

I have a fairly minimalist lifestyle and regularly give away what I have to charities. So I couldn't choose a favorite object because I don't think I have one, at least nothing comes to mind.

What would be your advice for Tayrona Yoginis?

Be curious! Meet people, try several forms of yoga but also several forms of activities, sports or cultural. It is only by opening yourself to the different universes that exist that you can enrich your practice. Yoga is not just a series of postures to relax but rather an opening and a perpetual learning. It is something very subtle and difficult to explain but which is done by listening, by experimenting for yourself.

Where/how do you practice?

I mainly practice at home. I moved a lot, so it was difficult to invest myself properly in a course. I still took a few courses in dotted lines with several teachers in order to have a correct foundation.

Then recently I met a Vinyasa yoga teacher (the yoga I like to practice the most) about thirty kilometers from my home. I really like her personality and I started with her in September at the rate of once a week for the moment, hoping to gradually be able to see her more often.

I am also curious to try a course or a retreat. And who knows, maybe meet my “yogi master”! It would be a dream to experience that, like in the movies!

In the meantime, I practice daily at home: sometimes 5 minutes in the morning simply doing a sun salutation in my bathroom to wake me up and reconnect with my sensations and come out of sleep. Sometimes, by doing a big, more traditional session. Sometimes, just meditating in the evening to calm myself down. And sometimes all of this in the same day. Each day is different and is never scheduled. Yoga comes by itself according to what I need.

I also use the Instagram network a lot. I recently discovered a “trend”: challenges launched either by yoga teachers or by brands offering products for yogis. Each day a new posture to work on is proposed, you can take pictures of yourself and freely exchange with the community that participates. It is these challenges that have pushed me to deepen my practice of asanas recently.

What is your mantra/favourite phrase?

“If you don’t do it, no one will do it for you” but also “time will tell” . These two thoughts have been pushing me for years to do sports, to dare to go where I want to go, to overcome my shyness.