Yoga as Your Own Practice: Trusting Your Body, Ignoring the Comparison Trap
Social media is flooded with yoga selfies, advanced poses and endless videos of seemingly effortless movement, it's easy to forget the core of yoga: it is your own practice. Not your neighbours, not the instructor’s, not the influencer’s on Instagram. Just yours.
Yoga was never meant to be a competitive sport or a performance for others. It’s a deeply personal journey, an invitation to turn inward, to reconnect with your breath, your body and your spirit.
One of the biggest obstacles in modern yoga is the temptation to compare. Your practice and your body. You might glance around the studio and notice someone folding forward with incredible ease while you’re still working to touch your toes. It’s natural to notice differences, but what happens next is key. Do you judge yourself? Push harder? Feel less than?
Comparison is the thief of presence. It pulls you out of your experience and into someone else's. But here’s the truth: every body is different. Bones are shaped differently. Muscles develop uniquely. Life experiences, injuries, habits, all of these shape how we show up on the mat.
When you compare, you not only lose sight of your own progress, but you may also push past your limits in pursuit of something that may not even be right for your body.
At its heart, yoga is about awareness. It's learning to move in partnership with your breath and in conversation with your body, not in opposition to it. When you practice intuitively, you begin to notice the subtle signals your body gives you: where there's tension, where there's ease, where you need to soften or support.
This might mean staying in Child’s pose while the rest of the class flows through vinyasas. It might mean taking a variation of a pose that feels more accessible to you. It might mean moving more slowly, or even skipping a pose altogether.
When you honour your inner voice, you begin to develop self-trust. That trust is the foundation of a sustainable, lifelong yoga practice.
What do I mean by your inner voice?
The inner voice in yoga isn’t always loud. It whispers rather than shouts. It's your intuition, your gut, the quiet nudge to ease off in a deep backbend. It's the gentle encouragement to stay one breath longer in stillness. It's the voice that says, “This is enough.”
Tuning into this voice takes practice. It requires stillness, patience and a willingness to let go of external expectations. With time, you will find that your mat becomes a space where you can simply be, no judgment, no striving, just honest presence.
Progress in yoga isn’t about mastering handstands or touching your toes. It’s about cultivating awareness, building consistency and deepening your connection to yourself. It’s feeling more at home in your body. It’s learning to breathe through discomfort, both physical and emotional. It’s about softening into acceptance while still staying open to growth.
Some of the most profound transformations in yoga happen invisibly: the way your breath calms your nervous system, the way your posture shifts subtly, the way your inner dialogue becomes kinder.
Yoga is not a race. It's not about achieving more, doing better, or keeping up. It’s about showing up, as you are, with what you have, and meeting yourself there. When you stop comparing and start listening, yoga becomes what it was always meant to be: a practice of presence, of self-love and of deep, intuitive wisdom.
So next time you step on your mat, close your eyes. Breathe. Feel your feet on the ground. Ask your body: What do you need today? Then listen. That is yoga. That is your practice and that is more than enough.