Core Strength, Discomfort & Growth

I’m going to be totally honest, I always used to think that your core was just your abs so learning that your core actually includes your abdominals, obliques, back, pelvic floor, spine, glutes and diaphragm was news to me. It makes sense that having a strong core will improve your everyday life and movements from breathing better to, helping you to stand taller, straighter and stronger as well as strengthening any other physical activity that you do such as yoga, running, weight lifting or walking plus an added boost to your confidence!

While it would be easy to blame having a baby for my previous lack of core strength it actually goes way back before pregnancy. I always neglected my core, after my work outs I skipped abs because it hurt and it felt uncomfortable, it was my weakness and instead of working on it I choose to ignore it and focused on areas I found easier!

Within the first 6 months of practicing Yoga I noticed a considerable improvement to my posture, balance and stability but as my practice developed

over time and I started trying more challenging asana

poses and transitions that require a lot of core strength I really became aware of the weakness in my core. This time instead of running away from it and ignoring it, I saw it as an opportunity for growth and chose to lean into it and work on it.

Over the last few months, I’ve been working on my core for just ten minutes a day between 4-7 times a week as well incorporating more poses to build core strength into my daily practice (Like the ones I've shared on my Instagram). I've found it challenging, even now I still find it uncomfortable but the difference in my strength is amazing making it easier to hold those poses that require a strong core plus its introduced me to other workouts that I hadn’t tried before like Barre and Pilates which actually compliment my yoga practice so well and they’re fun!

Sometimes when we lean into the things that make us feel uncomfortable instead of running away from them, we experience the greatest growth and sometimes the thing your avoiding at all costs can turn out to be the thing that you need the most. Yoga teaches us to lean into discomfort. Have you ever tried a Frog Pose or Toe Squat in your yoga practice? If you’ve been to any of my classes, you definitely will have. I love those poses because they teach us to sit with sometimes quite intense discomfort and you learn to breathe through it without reacting, instead of releasing the pose the second it starts to get hard you sit and experience all it has to offer, focused on nothing but your breath. It’s in those moments that you learn to become less reactive while building your resilience to stress and this will reflect in your life both on and off your mat.

Remember growth happens when you step out of your comfort zone, but it doesn’t happen overnight, you might go for periods of time without seeing any ‘results’ whether it’s in your own personal growth, yoga practice, core workouts, business or anything else that you’re working on at the moment. There will be times where you might feel like giving up but remember that consistency is key and not all progress is visible as long as you continue to keep showing up for yourself and working towards your goals every single day you will get to where you want to be!

Thanks for reading, hope you have an amazing day!

Love Renée