We asked you, our members, how practicing yoga has helped you face challenges, change limiting beliefs, heal and grow… we received extraordinary tales of transformation. This is Beata Zubaka’s story.
Rehabilitation and re-education
I joined EkhartYoga in 2018, six months after my spinal surgery, for rehabilitation.
It wasn’t my first encounter with yoga, but it felt like a new beginning – the place where my practice would be safe and diverse, the way I could welcome yoga in my life every day – independent of my location and choice of local yoga studios.
It wasn’t my first encounter with yoga, but it felt like a new beginning.
It was the first time I could leverage the knowledge and the experience of professional yoga teachers everyday, and tailor the practice to my needs and feelings any given day. I began to explore yoga so much more deeply than just random Vinyasa Flows on YouTube. Although, it did all start with Esther’s free YouTube classes 🙂
Establishing a regular, mindful practice
I really wanted to establish a regular and mindful practice. I needed to understand the basics and be extra careful about my spine. My doctors kept telling me that regular exercise, a strong core and swimming at least twice a week would prevent future surgeries.
For a young girl, quite athletic since childhood, it felt oddly wonderful to re-discover my body – to be gentle and not over-stretch, over-pump, over-do in general. I always opted for the “alternative” options with blocks and other props suggested by the EkhartYoga teachers.
It was surprisingly challenging at times, and I learned to understand my weaknesses. I had to re-educate myself from the non-holistic approaches of previous sports training. And I also discovered the mental healing effects of meditation, fell in love with breathing exercises, and started to enjoy chanting and singing with David Lurey!
Yoga felt just so right, so pleasant, so essential.
Game changer
It’s difficult to put into words, but here’s my game changer: my practice was only so safe and diverse because EkhartYoga teachers explain how the pose should feel, which muscles should support me, other ways to do the pose, and there are loads of programs that teach the basics and focus on specific body parts.
I have finished fifteen programs with EkhartYoga, all of which have helped me reduce back pain, build strength, and establish my yoga routine. I have created thirteen playlists of exactly the classes I need at different times of my cycle, season, physical and mental state.
Here’s one of the playlists I created: Body Stretch Flow Yoga
I use search filters, tags and class descriptions to find the classes that my body needs. All of that is only possible because of the people that create EkhartYoga and the technology that supports it.
I am forever thankful! <3
~ Beata
Throughout June, we’re sharing stories of transformation from members of our EkhartYoga community leading up to a special class with Esther on International Day of Yoga 21st June. We invite you to follow along on Facebook and Instagram or via our weekly newsletter.
Register here for Esther’s free yoga class. We’ll send you the link to the class on 21st June 2022
