I’m scrolling my way through Insta one day and I see my friend Jacquie with her engaging smile, living her best life and teaching yoga. My plus size, fun size (how we say short) sister from another mother, and someone that looked like me teaching YOGA, it was not just any yoga but adaptive yoga.
Wha, what ? Adaptive yoga?
You mean to tell me there are different ways to get into a pose, in ways MY BODY can move. How did it take 40 years and Instagram to show me that my body is a YOGA Body. It’s not all about size, but adapting poses for injuries and physical limitations. It’s about learning to listen to your body and communicating with the teacher to find the right version of a pose.
Over the years I have never felt really comfortable in gyms because let’s face it, gyms can be overwhelming to people who don’t know how to use all the equipment. I never saw anyone “like me” or that was “my size”. In the past I would push myself too hard trying to “fit in” then would end up injured and mentally defeated.
“If the poses aren’t accessible by everyone in the room, then is it yoga? It’s not about forcing the body into the shape of the pose, but finding a way for the pose to fit the body.” Jacquie Sunny Barbee
Once I dug a little deeper into social media, I found tons of women in all shapes and sizes who were healthy and body positive. Oh how I wish I had body-positive fitness influencers in my life when I was younger. To know that big girls can move too. You can be bigger than a 6 and be healthy. That you don’t have to run a marathon as long as you move and listen to your body. We can hate on social media, but if it had not been for Instagram, I wouldn’t have known that there were big girls saying it’s ok to be thick, as long as you love the body you’re in.
My goal is not handstands and back bends and frog poses. But to quiet my mind, stretch, strengthen and to listen to my body.
If you want to follow Jacquie Sunny Barbee, click here .
Also Check out some more body positive post like Love Yourself -WE Have to Do Better and Every Body is a Beach Body.
