{"id":7102,"date":"2019-03-06T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T06:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movementformodernlife.com\/blog\/?p=7102"},"modified":"2023-05-17T09:44:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T08:44:31","slug":"kat-off-mat-moving-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movementformodernlife.com\/blog\/kat-off-mat-moving-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Kat Off The Mat | Moving Into Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s International Women’s Day<\/strong> on March 8th and the theme this year is Balance for Better<\/strong> – all about making things gender balanced!<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Lucy McCarthy & Kat Farrants<\/p><\/div>\n

Talking about balance, it seems so funny to me that <\/span>yoga is practised mostly by women<\/strong> throughout the west, but in fact, \u2018yoga\u2019 in its\u00a0modern guise was pretty much a male practice!<\/span><\/h3>\n

The modern systems of yoga were mostly dreamt up by men<\/strong>, and they were popularised in Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga, both created by men. So it does seem a little funny that men might feel like yoga is only a bendy women\u2019s pursuit!\u00a0<\/strong>Take a look at\u00a0Adam’s awesome ‘F-off to Five Male Yoga Excuses<\/strong><\/a>‘ blog!<\/p>\n

Period Exclusion – No thanks!<\/h3>\n

It used to be really common in so many yoga classes for certain postures to be instructed and the teacher would say \u2018don\u2019t do this if you are on your period\u2019<\/strong>. And with that, a quarter of the women would just be abandoned to do their own thing whilst other folks went upside down, did the breath work, or whatever it was that the women weren\u2019t meant to do.<\/p>\n

In some yoga traditions this continues. And women just go to place their legs up the wal<\/strong>l (which, by the way, is a SUPER posture! Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s a firm favourite of mine!!)<\/p>\n

But the thing that irks me about this isn\u2019t the legs up the wall – a pose that I adore for resting after a long journey or just to relax at the end of the day. It\u2019s the instruction of \u2018don\u2019t do this’<\/strong> – rather than the thought that, for certain bodies, at certain times, there are some things which are really SO beneficial to us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This applies to all bodies, male and female<\/strong>. Our bodies change, our bodies go through traumas and natural change, and that makes different yoga postures more appropriate than others on certain days.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No matter what time in your life or cycle, there is some kind of yoga for you<\/h3>\n

Women\u2019s bodies go through many hormonal changes throughout our lives, and throughout our cycle. This makes our feeling of a yoga posture, the feeling of our breath, our feeling of our own yoga very different one day to another<\/strong>, in the morning or evening, and indeed one season of our life to another.<\/p>\n

There are so many beautiful women yogis, yoginis, who have so much wisdom to offer each of us that to simply say \u2018don\u2019t do this pose\u2019<\/strong> is simply downplaying the effect that yoga can have on our bodies. It\u2019s downplaying the amount of enrichment we can gain from postures and breath work<\/strong>, and that really is so frustrating for me.<\/p>\n

This is of course especially true for pregnancy. It\u2019s so common to hear in a yoga teacher training what poses are contra-indicated for pregnancy. Clearly, it\u2019s important to know this so as not to harm a growing baby. But what often isn\u2019t given is the emotional and physical support to the mum<\/strong>. That some poses can simply feel wonderful, supportive and nourishing to a pregnant woman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also\u00a0don\u2019t believe that when women have their period (a quarter of our lives!!!) we should be told to sit it out, or told\u00a0what we can\u2019t do.<\/strong> We can be guided through\u00a0practices to nourish and\u00a0support us<\/strong>,\u00a0whatever our bodies are feeling and wherever we\u2019re at.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t yoga that says ‘sit out if you can\u2019t but says \u2018count me in so you can\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At MFML we have yoga classes if you\u2019re going through the menopause<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and if you need gentle yoga<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0or\u00a0period yoga classes<\/a><\/strong> which are perfect for when you\u2019re on your period and you need to feel better. We have classes if you\u2019re pregnant<\/a><\/strong> or recovering from a C-section<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I so believe in\u00a0supporting each of us exactly where we\u2019re at in our life cycle\u00a0– men or women, and the\u00a0beauty of practicing yoga at home<\/strong>\u00a0to MFML is that we have classes\u00a0bespoked for you.<\/p>\n

We meet you where you\u2019re at physically and emotionally, we have classes for life\u2019s challenges, because just sometimes, the road goes a little rough.\u00a0We have classes for anger<\/a><\/strong>, if that\u2019s where you\u2019re at, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t just pretend that life\u2019s OK and to carry on. We have classes for grief<\/a> <\/strong>and overwhelm<\/a><\/strong>. Because sometimes life is like that.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t yoga that says ‘sit out if you can\u2019t but says \u2018count me in so you can\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With love<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Kat and Team MFML<\/div>\n
xxx<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Read more about the benefits of practicing balance in yoga <\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
International Womens Day Collection<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
Send to Facebook<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s International Women’s Day on March 8th and the theme this year is Balance for Better – all about making things gender balanced! Talking about balance, it seems so funny to me that yoga is practised mostly by women throughout the west, but in fact, \u2018yoga\u2019 in its\u00a0modern guise was pretty much a male practice! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[79,1464,472,561,427,932,798],"class_list":["post-7102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-balance","tag-international-womens-day","tag-kat-farrants","tag-life-challenges","tag-women","tag-yoga-at-home","tag-yoga-for-everyone"],"yoast_head":"\nKat Off The Mat | Moving Into Balance - Movement for Modern Life Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movementformodernlife.com\/blog\/kat-off-mat-moving-balance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kat Off The Mat | Moving Into Balance - Movement for Modern Life Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s International Women’s Day on March 8th and the theme this year is Balance for Better – all about making things gender balanced! 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