Yoga is a discipline that connects the body, breath, and mind, using physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation to improve overall health. This practice has been growing, and generating a significant number of followers who have verified its benefits first-hand, making it a lifestyle for many, and arousing curiosity in others. An example is Marianna García who tells us about her experience with this ancient discipline.

Why yoga as a lifestyle? - Yoga is movement, it is union, it is body and mind, a lifestyle, because when you are in difficult moments, of change, or a challenge, because many of the postures are not so easy, and it is like life, moving forward , grow up. It has to do with dedication, time, commitment, and then it is a lifestyle why yoga is present, in everything we do as we move and breathe, it is the same we do to live, we need to move forward, which would mean moving, keep yourself in a balance, and the balance is physical and mental.

How does yoga come to you? - I was a young mother, almost 20 years old, and by chance of heaven's grace I didn't have to work. I was a child in kindergarten and the only thing I knew was that I wanted to dedicate myself to my children 100%, so when the youngest was 4 years old, I asked myself, what am I going to do? I spent many years living with anxiety, it was horrible, because I said, what am I going to do? I knew I couldn't make cakes or cookies because I'm terrible at that, but I wanted a job in which I could decide and organize my times, and that it was also something to socialize, to be in contact with people, not to be behind a desk; and one day I saw a girl from Japan called Wai Lana, who did yoga on the beach, she was my inspiration. It took me 3 years to decide what to do and today I am more than grateful for my decision.

How many years have you been practicing yoga? - It all started in 2003, I was going to yoga classes in a culture house, the classes were given by a large woman, the truth is that she was very attentive and friendly. He gave us challenging poses, but without either slapping or poses that you couldn't do, of course it required a kind of challenge. Then it formally arrived in 2005, my preparation lasted 3 years, I am a certified teacher by the Luna Nanda Yoga Group and Yoga Lines. I studied anatomy, philosophy, meditation, and even there I learned the subject of breathing; We do not know how to breathe, we all do it, but that does not mean that we do it well.

How has your life changed by practicing this discipline? - Throughout. The truth is that I was a girl who lived in a very aggressive environment, I was a very quarrelsome girl, I was always on the defensive, and practicing yoga helped me a lot to find a point of balance, of calm and well-being, of movements, yes, but turn of mental silence. I say that if you tame beasts, if the balance that is physical, and at the same time mental, gives you well-being, it is a great life tool, because you also work with the muscles, with the skeleton, with the internal organs, with the mind. , with the nervous system, it has changed my life in an impressive way. At the end of each class, I can tell you that there is always a pleasant feeling, in addition to an intention of why do yoga, when you practice it and have a routine, I mean a movement not how monotony yoga can touch a heart and can make you that sensitivity, that fear, or that anxiety, transcends.

What advice would you give to who wants to practice yoga? 1) That regardless of how old you are, that you have no expectations, that you have no judgments and no preconceptions, zero beliefs and zero paradigms of yoga, yoga is movement, it is for everyone, regardless of age or age. condition you are in, people in a wheelchair, in bed in hospital, at work or at school can practice yoga. I share that last year I was in the hospital in a month for a different situation, yoga can be practiced at any time, at a wake, at the dentist, when a study is done, so I would recommend it to everyone who wants to feel well, with a better quality of life, with greater physical strength and greater mental clarity. The final message I want to share with you is that we are currently filling yoga with a great combination of techniques. At the business level, we are all eager to feel good and at peace, for some reason, this reason for pandemic, news and diseases, or whatever they want to call it, he left us a lesson to turn to look inward and realize that life is not only it is running trying to achieve something, it is advancing as a person in a compassionate and kind way. So my final message would be, follow your instinct, follow your heart, the movement that accompanies you, without harming anyone, in which one can feel calm, stable or full. Sure, it sounds very easy, but for this you have to work and you have to start doing it.