This we spoke to Ella McKnight, the Yoga instructor turned Instagrammer. We spoke all things mental health, how yoga has impacted her life and bringing out her own yoga guide.
Yoga is an ancient form of exercise that focuses on strength, flexibility and breathing to boost physical and mental wellbeing. The main components of yoga are posture and breathing.
The practice of yoga originated in India around 5,000 years ago and has been adapted in other countries in a variety of ways. We asked Ella about how she got into doing yoga: "Around 5 years ago I left university during my first year. I then went into a spiral of anxiety and depression.
"My mum suggested to me that we try yoga together and I have been hooked ever since. I have been practicing yoga for 5 years but I passed my yoga teacher training last year.
"YTT (yoga teacher training) costs a lot to do in general and if you work full time combined with that, it's hard to drop everything and ship yourself off to India for a month. I would love to do that in the future but at the time It wasn’t for me.
"I wanted to be creative, so yoga was never on my radar really. But yoga is so creative, In the movements you can make, in the feelings you can feel and also in the promotional things you can make for you business.
"’Ive always been an over-thinker and I think when you're put in a situation where your anxiety can bring itself to the forefront, its very hard to escape. Anxiety is like an addiction because even though we work so so hard to relax and work on ourselves, the anxiety still creeps back in every now and then.
"The battle for me is less now because yoga has taught me tools to combat them but still creeps in every now and then. The root of my anxiety stems from “not feeling good enough” so you can imagine leaving university proved my anxiety “correct”.
"So becoming a yoga teacher, helping people and doing something has helped keep that “I am not good enough” away. Because if I wasn’t good enough how could I achieve these things? Anxiety proven incorrect.
"My anxiety now from a deep rooted mental issue has now shifted to more of the physical symptoms when I am stressed (usually if I haven’t moved, slept or drank enough water etc) which for me is much easier to handle and quickly reduce the feeling of because yoga has taught me how."
The list of benefits that yoga brings is endless, but we wanted to ask Ella how practicing yoga has helped her on her own self love journey: "Physically, you become stronger and more flexible which in todays society is what everyone looks for visually. But self love comes from within. Yoga has taught me that we are all different, we should embrace our uniqueness because there is only 1 version of you.
"I have never not loved myself on the outside because I look different to others but for me my self love on the inside is still taking its journey to love and grow. I am very very self critical, in some ways it works in my favour.
But in other situations it’s a hinderance. Self love is a journey, with no end goal and we have to ride the ebs and flows!"
"Yoga helps me to feel calm and content. I am the kind of person that needs to be on the move or my mental illness can kind of creep up on me again. It keeps me in positive spirits when life can get naturally stressful. Yoga has been a massive benefit in letting me know that its ok to have bad/hard periods in your life. They show you how much you can grow and change."
Ella has also started her own brand of yoga wellness tips, called The Yoga Habit (@theyogahabit on Instagram), we asked her to explain a bit about this: "The Yoga Habit concept is around helping people to make yoga a positive habit in their lives. I personally feel like yoga should be part of a school curriculum and break the weird barriers set around practicing yoga.
"People tend to think yoga is for “hippies” and involves lots of chanting etc. But for me its totally the opposite, its for everyone to get moving and find a moment in time to actually feel their feelings and relax and make yoga that habit, the more the better!
"The yoga habit has 2 branches, the yoga guide (which can be downloaded or a hard copy via my website) or an online video subscription where you receive 4 yoga flows per month (of various lengths) all under a different theme for the month. For example, August has been about balance. Not only in the movement in the yoga flows but also in the meditation element of the video subscription where we think about finding our own balance in life’s challenges.
"We also have an amazing community on Facebook where people are free to share their journeys if they want to and connect with like minded people. It’s a private page for those who are on their yoga habit journey and we have all made some life long friendships.
Ella's top advice for anyone wanting to start their yoga journey but feeling uncertain, is to go with a friend/guardian/family member you feel comfortable with. Do some research on a teacher you think you are going to really connect with potentially. Read about their journey. Also the yoga community is a very welcoming and non judgemental one. Its so normal to feel nervous taking a jump into something new, but yogi’s are some of the kindest people on earth I think!
Thank you so much to Ella for taking the time to speak to us and share her yoga journey, be sure to check out her instagram @_namastella.
And thank you all for reading this post. We can't believe we are nearly at 600 followers on our Instagram!! If you're not following us you can do so here: https://www.instagram.com/thelnfluencer/.
Lots of love,
Beth & Liz Xx
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