On and Off Your Mat Yoga Podcast

Have you ever been told, It'll be fine, just be yourself, and wondered what that really meant or even looked like anymore? Feeling, as if you lost sight of who you were at some point and you became disconnected from that person.

For today’s episode, it’s just me, I’m taking the spotlight again and we’ll talk about this. You can check my other solo episodes: #87: 5 reasons why you procrastinate, #77: Setting Goals and Moving Forward, #73: Yoga, Chronic Pain, and Mental Health.

There’s a section on my website, where you can tell me what you struggle with, what you need support with or help around. I’ve decided to use that as the inspiration to create my solo episode and other content. Since the last episode, I’ve received a few requests, including the one inspiring today’s episode. The listener said they struggled with being themselves, and I thought this was a very important challenge to address. Since it’s something I have dealt with, I feel like I could easily talk from experience. Another challenge I addressed recently was stepping on the mat regularly when we practice alone. I wrote a blog post about this called “How do I stay motivated to show up on the mat when I practice alone or with a video?” which was the person’s question.

1- Much of our stress, angst, and frustration is caused by being disconnected from who we are, or out of alignment with you we are, what we need or want. In contrast, being true to yourself is one the most direct way to find more happiness, fulfillment and to experience more success in your lives.

2- We lose ourselves from a reaction to something traumatic or gradually in childhood, due to our desire to fit in, please, and be loved by family members, authority figures, and in our education system.

3- Being more ourselves is a 3 step process: Get to know yourself better, embrace yourself and show up as yourself.

4- For you to be yourself, you have to be aware of who that is. Once you know who you are, if you’re deeply ashamed of it, that’s not gonna help. You need to embrace, accept and love that person. Then, every time you do something for yourself, that you enjoy or that you need, you reinforce your connection with yourself; you solidify that relationship.

5- Use meditation, reflection, and journaling to start your self-knowledge journey. Find a worksheet here.

• What it means to lose ourselves
• Consequences it can have in your life
• Why and how it happens
• How to reconnect to ourselves: the 3 steps
• Tools to get to know yourself better
• Challenges you might face with self-discovery
• Tools to embrace, accept and love yourself
• Tools to start showing up as yourself
• The importance of putting yourself first

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast anywhere you listen. Find out how here.

We just transitioned our Premium Membership to this new platform: www.withribbon.com/u/erikabelanger. As a member, you can get a ton of exclusive audio and video content. We added a new library of almost 200 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership. Finally, you can sign up for any live-stream class I offer! Everything yoga-class-related is now in the same place! If you’re new to With Ribbon, here’s a walkthrough video I recorded to help you find your way around.

Know that as you become a Premium Member, your contribution ripples to thousands of people every week, allowing me to offer accessible quality free content to a wide community of yogis. This podcast is one of the a way I contribute to the community, and this membership is a way you can too. It allows you to share everything yoga offers with the world by supporting me in the creation and production of this podcast while I choose to keep it ad-free. 

I’ll be leading an Eco-Luxury Yoga Retreat in Mexico, in November 2021. I heard you, you’ve been craving to immerse yourself in yoga, nature, and community again so you can feel renewed and re-enliven. Many of us are suffering from zoom fatigue. So I’m offering you to hit the beach and the reset button so you can let go of this last year. You’ll find all the info for that retreat at erikabelanger.com/yoga-retreat-mexico.

In parallel, I have launched a Go-Fund-Me campaign. I know yoga retreats are an investment and I know how hard the last year has been. Yoga retreats were in my personal growth, so I wanted to give back. I’m raising money while investing alongside the community to make the experience of a yoga retreat available to students who wouldn’t be able to participate otherwise. If you’re able to donate anything you could transform someone’s life. And if you’re in need you can apply for the scholarship. And either way, I’d love for you to share it with the people you love and on social media. That’s a simple way you can directly impact others’ lives in a positive way. Find the Go-Fund-Me Campaign here.

Erika is a yoga teacher, the host, and producer of On & Off Your Mat Podcast, and a transformational life coach. Being a teacher is part of who she is, and she uses yoga, podcasting, and life coaching as different entry points all aiming to help her students and clients build a happier, healthier, and more peaceful life.

Her radiant spirit and engaging sense of humor create light-hearted practices focused on awareness, intentional movement, and self-care. She empowers her students and clients to awaken to themselves, become embodied, and build the life of their dreams.

Website : www.erikabelanger.com

IG :@erika.belanger & @onandoffyourmatpodcast

Coming up: Finally Beat Procrastination, How to gain control back over your life, and harness your fullest potential Waitlist Sign Up!

Tell me what you struggle with, go on, tell me, I’ll create content just for you!

Find this episode's worksheet here.