Rise & shine, yoga fam ☀️

And meet your new morning yoga routine to build strength, feel flexible and start your day feeling alive and motivated!

Today’s class is truly special to me and has a threefold purpose ➡️ cultivating a morning yoga routine, showing up to meet your body, mind & soul where you are AND choosing to see obstacles as opportunities as we begin a brand new day.

Personally for me, this class itself was a HUGE obstacle for me. This is my first time filming and teaching a class since giving birth to Scarlett and learning to live in a body that feels completely foreign – an unfamiliar territory, disconnected from muscles that are rebuilding and weaker than the body I had before. 

Related: Reconnect to your body with a guided body scan meditation!

I built getting onto my mat in front of the cameras into a monster of a task, this massive to do hanging over my head and something to push off again & again.

Anyone else relating to this? Procrastinating and building a task ahead of you into Everest? Into an obstacle that becomes so large there is no way to scale it? Falling into a repetitive trap of thinking “why me?”, “why this experience?”?

How did I embrace the imperfect action that I am so passionate about teaching and living in my life? How did I show up on the mat today imperfectly?

I dug into my yoga toolkit and called on Ganesha or Lord Ganpati and his teachings.

If you’re unfamiliar with Ganesha, let’s take a moment to meet this elephant headed deity, learn about his myth, what he represents, and why his lessons are relevant to us and the new year. 

Please note, these teachings come directly from my Yoga Psyche Soul 300 HR YTT with Ashley Turner (a training I highly recommend and continue to return to for guidance!). 

So who is Ganesha? 

Ganesha is a highly revered and celebrated elephant 🐘 headed deity who is the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. He’s considered to be the “Remover of Obstacles”, the “Great Balancer”, and the “Lord of Beginnings”. 

Ganesha has these qualities ➡️

• Wise, strong and steady 
• Generous and jolly attitude 
• Loving, supportive, and comforting 
• Hunger for knowledge, appetite for truth
• Connected to the root chakra & grounding 

My teacher Ashley shares that the title “Remover of Obstacles” is a bit of a mistake. We don’t call upon Ganesha to simply sweep away our challenges and dilemmas. Rather, we ask that he provides a new perspective to see our obstacles as opportunities or the portal where transformation is waiting. 

Ashley says, “We recognize that the obstacle itself is the actual destination, our rite of passage, a threshold or alchemical vas which has arisen to transform our psyche and soul.” 

I find this teaching SO REFRESHING because just like our yoga practice, it’s never about the final destination. It’s how we handle the ongoing journey of life that really shapes us into who we are and who we’re becoming. 

Instead of drowning in the “why me” victim mentality, we can begin to see our greatest challenges as opportunities and choose to think & feel differently. 

That’s one aspect of Ganesha, let’s cover the other two. 

He’s also called the “Great Balancer” because his charioteer is a tiny mouse that requires skill, discipline, patience and attention to ride on effectively. This reminds us again to see our obstacles as opportunities and to put more attention on our goals, dreams and visions and the path to reaching them. 

Finally, Ganesha is also called the “Lord of Beginnings” for his association to the root chakra which represents strength, structure, stability or grounding. With each morning, we begin anew & want these root chakra qualities online, present and here!

Related: Click here to cleanse & connect to your root chakra!

Are you seeing why this yoga class is so special and aligning for a new daily routine? 

Lastly, let’s cover Ganesha’s myth (get cozy for a story!). 

Ganesha was born into a noble family with Lord Shiva as a father, Goddess Parvati as a mother, and Skanda (Skandasana) as a brother. 

Skanda, a cock-y peacock, felt he was superior to Gaesha and deserved more praise and attention from his parents. Parvati, onto this sibling rivalry, devised a plan to see which son was more wise, talented, and deserving of their praise. She tasked them to circumnavigate the universe three times and whoever could do it the fastest – would win their forever favor! 

Skanda knew he would win this, because come on, his brother was an elephant! 

As they approached the starting line, Ganesha had an all-knowing wise ✨ twinkle ✨ in his eye that Skanda noted but didn’t take seriously. As the race began, Skanda easily completed one whole round without Ganesha ever moving… so he kept going! 

Meanwhile, Ganesha steadily circled his parents three times signaling to them that they were his universe (how clever!). When Skanda returned, he declared victory, but Ganesha had already won the race, winning his parent’s forever favor! 

This myth symbolizes and reminds us that we can outwit and outsmart our challenges if we choose to see our obstacles as alchemical opportunities. 

As we unroll our mats & say hello to a brand new sunrise, may we all approach our obstacles, goals, dreams and visions with this wise, clever, optimistic and steady mindset. 

Remember yoga fam, we are capable of doing hard things just like Glennon Doyle says, and incorporating Ganesha into your yoga practice is a powerful way to do this. 

I’ll meet ya there, ready to see obstacles as opportunities and move ahead imperfectly!

Allie, xx 

PS – Ganesha’s teachings are part of our ongoing monthly rituals inside the BMS Studio community. We practice the chant & the mudra on the first of each month as a way to remove obstacles, balance our goals/dreams, and bless new beginnings. 

The studio doors open again, we hope you’ll join us there.