Overcoming Body Shame Through Yoga | Briiohn Covert | YogaScussion Preview

[00:00:00] Speaker A: So if they're showing up to class and it's their first time and they're nervous or. I like to try to give people as much like autonomy as possible. And I definitely try to tell them that there's like, no right or wrong. It's just keeping your body safe. And I'll help you out if you're doing something that's harmful. But, like, this is a space of you doing what feels best for you. And I think, like, just like telling that to some brand new people, you can tell, like, sometimes they don't really believe you right away. They're like, okay, that's fine. But then they're like, am I doing the right thing throughout class? Like, did I just make a mistake? And then they'll sometimes, I mean, people have, like, people will apologize sometimes for making a mistake in class and it's like, what are you apologizing for? You just step wrong foot forward. It's not a bad thing. Yeah. So I think just like giving that concept to people and then letting it slowly sink in. Like, hopefully the person who you give those easier to grasp concepts to comes back over time and then they start to believe it that they're not being judged in this space and that there is no right or wrong, that they're just here to do something good for themselves, just like everyone else is in the room. Yeah. [00:01:24] Speaker B: I love that in your bio you wrote that about shame and body shame and how you came to yoga and you were like, why am I ashamed of my body after doing yoga for a long time? And I feel like you spoke a little bit to that in what you just said. But could you talk more about that for yourself and how. Because I think that's something that as humans in a Western society, we, we have a lot of that going on where, like, we look at Instagram or, you know, social media, and it's like we see all these, like, seemingly perfect looking people and then it's like, oh, man, I could never live up to that. Yeah. [00:02:04] Speaker A: Or I can't. I can't even touch my toes. Like people love to say before they go into a yoga class. [00:02:10] Speaker B: It's almost like every teacher, it's almost like a rite of passage to hear that comment at least once, if not several times. [00:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, but like you said, Gina, like, it really does. It comes from a culture of comparison. Like, we are not very forgiving to ourself. And also a culture of always, like, trying to shoot for progress and perfection. Like, even perfection isn't good enough. You should still be progressing after that. So for me it was like, yeah, just feeling like shamed of my body for maybe not like being something that I thought I was supposed to be based on comparison. And I mean, I'm sure there's like, there's so many articles and studies done on like the effects of social media in our society and like what we're seeing online affecting us, but it has to do with so much. Like it's just ingrained in our culture from the beginning. Like being, growing up through school and being like just like always compared to other people. And yeah, I feel like we're just. There's a lot of shame in our society because it's like, you should always be better and then even perfect isn't good enough. [00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Can you speak to how yoga kind of helped you push through that to where you're meeting yourself more in a non judgmental way? [00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it was that, like, it's such a slow process and it's so funny to look back on the memories and be like, when did it really happen? Like, when did I make the switch of like whenever I was starting out in classes and even whenever I was doing it more consistently and like the back pain was going away, there was probably some overlap of me being like, okay, what's the best way to do this? Like, how can I just be the most impressive person in the class and like be the best one in Chaturanga or something like that? Like, and comparing myself to my neighbors on either side of me or comparing myself to the teacher. And slowly through time it's like you just realize like you're wasting your energy doing that because it's pulling you out of the practice of going within yourself. You're like still reaching externally for something. So like, once you get into a yoga asana practice where it becomes meditative, where the mind is able to relax a little bit and you get that rush of like, wow, I'm really present in this moment. Like I'm just here and nothing else is wrong. Like, there's nothing else I have to fix right now. It's just me and this class moving together. It's like, oh, you don't want to go back to comparing yourself to your neighbor because you realize, oh, my neighbor's not doing that. They're just getting this nice feeling of being present during the class. Like it becomes so addictive. [00:05:42] Speaker B: Yeah.