My Yoga Journey
with Freya Anastasia Williams

Published 26 April 2020

Freya Anastasia Williams is a yoga teacher based in Cheshire, United Kingdom. In this interview, she shares her yoga journey and motivation for practicing yoga. 

What does yoga mean to you?

Yoga to me is the unification of the mind, body and soul into one beautiful practice, practiced not only on the mat, but in everyday life. This involves realising you are not the body or the mind; you are, beyond this, a higher power.

No judgment of the self or others, and no ego is involved in yoga. For yoga to truly be impactful, you must work on the eight different limbs of which yoga is comprised, not just the asanas (physical postures) of yoga alone.

​To practice yoga is to live in the present moment, staying grateful and grounded through your practice. Yoga is your own personalised journey to ultimate awareness and enlightenment. 

​When did you first start practicing yoga and why?

My yoga journey started five years ago when I was 15 years old. My mum suggested I try a yoga class to aid my recovery from anxiety and an eating disorder. It took me a while to drop the ego and judgements towards myself during my practice and notice the benefits the practice had on me. At first, I found any slow paced classes frustrating and it was considerably challenging for me to meditate as an anxious and active individual; however, after classes, I found myself feeling a lot calmer and was determined to continue with the practice to build on both mental and physical strengths. I am grateful for the knowledge I learnt from my incredible teachers when I needed it most and, after consistent practice, I became enamoured by the practice and started integrating yoga into my life off the mat.​

Were you ever resistant to learn yoga? 

I was never resistant to learning the physical practice of yoga. I loved movement and was already relatively flexible from dancing. so was not a complete beginner of yoga when I started. However, my eating disorder had led my body to become weak and I came to yoga lacking strength. My goals were to improve my mental and physical strength.
​
Originally, I was particularly hesitant towards any form of meditation or chanting incorporated into the class and almost always avoided these practices. I found it hard to sit still and clear my mind from all the noise and felt too shy to chant mantras along with the class. It took me some time to overcome these fears that I had created in my head and now I am super grateful for the peace and fulfilment meditating and chanting exercises bring to me :)

​To practice yoga is to live in the present moment, staying grateful and grounded through your practice. Yoga is your own personalised journey to ultimate awareness and enlightenment. ​- Freya Williams

How has yoga impacted your life?

Yoga has been life changing for me. It helped me in a time of self-loathing and hopelessness. I have gained astonishing amounts of both flexibility and strength, which I once believed was impossible! I practice yoga everyday in some form or another due to the pleasure it brings me. I have been teaching yoga for 18 months and have never been happier to help and share my experience with my students. I find I am considerably more understanding, confident, calm and compassionate than I once was and managed to overcome the anxiety and eating disorder through this incredible lifestyle. I have become more mindful and have never been happier or healthier.

Why should someone practice yoga? ​

From my own experiences and research, I believe there are many reasons to practice yoga, including:

​1. Greater flexibility 
2. Greater physical & mental strength
3. Greater focus and balance 
​4. Strengthens muscles & internal organs 
5. Improved digestion 
6. Healthier mindset & living 
​​7. Greater immunity 
8. Clearer thoughts
9. Reduced negative thoughts
10. Reduced anxiety 
11. Injury protection 
12. Improved athletic performance 

Everyone is on his or her own unique and personalised yoga journey, during which there may be ups and downs. Embracing this process will allow you to grow and experience many benefits.

What are your favourite asanas and why?

This question is hard for me!!

I love many and all forms of asanas and think it’s important to practice a variety to be balanced and gain the benefits of the overall practice.

I have always been a massive lover of inversions especially when back-bending is involved! I have a lot of fun practicing with back bending inversions including scorpion (Vrischikasana) and wheel pose (Chakrasana). Inversions help me to see things from different perspectives (literally!) and help me to focus deeply.

Over the past two years I have come to significantly enjoy the serenity hip openers bring me such as lotus (Padmasana), pigeon pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana) and fire log pose (Agnistambhasana). I was once super tight in my hips and suffered lots of discomfort in any poses focussing on opening the hips. I was not ready for lotus for at least 3 years into my practice —​ a key lesson of patience paying off for me! I now love mediating, traditionally while sitting in lotus.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

In January 2017, I broke my elbow and wore an arm cast for 6 weeks. At that time, I was practicing asanas approximately two hours per day. At first, I was very anxious that this would set me back in my physical practice; however, instead of being upset about the poses I couldn’t preform, I decided to use the time to work on other parts of my practice, both physical and mental, that I often neglected. This experience taught me to both listen and be patient with my body; to take my practice slow and steady. I became more resilient after this injury and made a quick recovery from practicing self-strengthening techniques once the cast was taken off.

Freya's yoga journey teaches us that yoga can be a natural and non-invasive remedy for anxiety and eating disorders. In addition, Freya is living proof that the psychological and spiritual benefits of mantra yoga, chanting and meditation can be discovered even at a very young age. Namaste! 

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