Why Yoga and the Benefits to Look For - 3 Tips

Hello. My name is Danielle Jokonen, and it is an honor to be here to see you guys, to share with you guys and be seen. And I wanted to talk about yoga, my passion, my purpose. And I just want to share three tips that I've gained access to along my journey. First tip is to connect to your breath. Your breath is your best friend. And what really creates yoga to be yoga is linking your breath with your movement, because it brings you into the now moment, which is present. And when you're present, you have access to awareness.

And in that awareness, you can gain spaces to heal. Heal at a physical level, soul level, emotional level, spiritual level, really. And so I invite you to really, just even right now, tune into your breath. Notice it move past the back of your nose, the space between your eyebrows, the back of your throat, even at the space around your heart, the space around your belly, when you exhale it out through the belly, the heart, back of the throat, space between the eyebrows and out the nose. Deep, nourishing, cleansing breath.

A lot of times we just breathe through our nostrils, even just breathe through our collarbones. It's a lot of stress breathing. So I invite you to really tune into your breath, even when you're, like, washing the dishes or driving your car. The second part is to be open minded. And I say yoga is a practice that you can practice, like, you get to versus you have to, right? And be open minded to the journey. It is a journey. It's going to show you some parts about you that you don't want to be integrated or want to be healed and want to be loved as well.

So enjoy it. Be open minded to the journey along the way as well, because it's gonna see some shadow parts, parts of us who we are not, like, shrinking back or playing small and the fear of failure, like, oh, I'm not gonna do that. Because what if I fail? Versus, like, I'm gonna be me and I'm gonna stand proud and confident and move forward through, you know, this job interview or whatever it is, like, standing strong and confident in who you are versus fear of not being liked or not, acceptance and stuff like that.

So enjoying the journey and allowing those shadow parts to come up so then you can integrate them, release them, and free yourself. And I like to say, stand in more love over fear. So enjoy the journey and be open minded to what comes up for you, because what comes up for you is actually what's supposed to come up for you. So enjoy it. And, yeah, be open minded, too, that it's always a space for healing, integrating then for more expansion. The third part I like to talk about is yoga is a way of being versus doing.

So it's not just a check off the box. I did my yoga today, or I meditated. It's more about your essence and who you become beyond the times you do the yoga. It becomes more a way of life. And I share this. When my daughter was born five years ago, we were in the NICU, she couldn't breathe. So really tapping again into her breath and just gave me the importance of that which I knew, but reminding myself to do that again and again and again and then opening up to the life force, which brings your heart rate and your vital organs feeling more vital and standing strong, and again, your being of what you want to have happen versus automatically reacting and standing in a place of fear.

Because even in the NICU, I could have been scared, in which at times I was, but it made me dig deep. And in those spaces of uncertainty or scary moments happening again and again and again, yeah, I am still standing for love. It's all going to be okay. And so my yoga practice expanded beyond just the classroom or you're my yoga mat. And it saved my life through that experience in the nicion. It saved my life prior to that, when I was supposed to get married, when I was in my early twenties, and I didn't know, oh, my gosh, what's happening now?

Like, who am I without this person or this life plan that I was making? Who am I now? So it gives you an opportunity to really identify who you are without x, Y and Z material things around you, because you are not defined by them. You are defined by your essence, your core. So tap into your heart through the practice, really listen to your breath, have an open mind along the journey, and really allow this practice become a way of being practiced versus a way of just. Just doing things off a checklist.

So I hope this gave you access to a little bit more nuggets about yoga. Interested to maybe take your first class or continue your yoga journey? If you're already on it, let me know what you got access to or if you have any questions. My name is Danielle Jokonen, and have a blessed, great day.