Is Yoga For You?

 

 



This is our niece. Isn’t she a doll? I decided that I wasn’t ready for the world to see a picture of me getting my yoga on just yet. So I was thankful when I remembered I had this one of her.

When I took this picture we were camping and discussing things we liked to do. I named off yoga as being one of the things that I enjoyed and she immediately said, ”Like this? Ommmm…” and went into this pose. Who knew that a 5 year old would be in touch with her inner yogi?!?!

I enjoy doing yoga, but it means different things to different people. Some use yoga to tone and strengthen, others use it as a form of relaxation or to help with focus. There are also those that use yoga as a way to get in touch with their spiritual side. There’s a plethora of reasons that people practice yoga. The list goes on and on.

I recently watched a documentary called “Enlighten Up.” It’s about a woman that believes that yoga can transform anybody’s life. She found a subject to help test her theory, and did a documentary on it. I think it helped that he was a complete skeptic on the idea. I enjoyed seeing all the different forms of yoga and how an average guy responded to it. It was somewhat entertaining seeing him try to position himself in the various poses at first. I wasn’t entertained because he was having trouble, but because I remember what it was like when I first started.

Yoga can be frustrating to begin with, but as poses are perfected, balance and focus are gained. While I’d like to think that my poses are perfect, I’m not really looking at myself to know. Ryan is always sure to tell me if I’m not doing the pose like the instructor on the video though. He’s so helpful…..

Another thing that I found to be interesting in the documentary is that as her subject traveled the world and discussed the meaning of yoga with teachers and gurus, all of them had different answers. I think it’s safe to say that there isn’t a specific meaning at all. Yoga is about interpretation.

For me, I don’t have a specific reason that I enjoy it. The reasons that I feel I “need” to practice is when I’ve had a stressful day to release tension, but I enjoy doing yoga that has strengthening poses as well. It kills two birds with one stone that way. Not only do I feel like I’ve released “bad energy” when I’m finished, but I’ve also sweat and got my workout in. I picture the cute jeans that I’m going to wear as I feel the burn while holding the poses.

Some of you are probably saying, “Tam…forget it. I hate yoga. I tried it, and I hated it.” I’ve got a friend that thinks yoga is COMPLETELY boring. She tried taking a class and just couldn’t get into it. If you’re not about it….okay…that’s cool, but there are many different types. You may want to expand your yoga horizons and try a different kind to find the one that’s a better fit for you.

Here are a few different kinds of popular yoga that you may have heard of:

Hatha – common form of yoga; slow-paced gentle basic yoga poses.

Vinyasa - based on a series of poses called sun salutations where movement is matched to breathing.

Ashtanga – fast-paced, intense style. It’s a series of poses always performed in the same order. It’s extremely demanding physically because of the constant movement from one pose to the next.

Iyengar – is based on bodily alignment. Your body should be positioned in each pose to gain the maximum benefits of yoga.

Kundalini – concentrates on breath with the physical movement for the purpose of freeing energy in the lower body and moving it upwards. It helps with controlling breathing.

Bikram (aka Hot Yoga) – practiced in a 95 to 100 degree room for the purpose of loosening up tight muscles and to cleanse the body by sweating profusely.

The other benefit of yoga is that you can do it anywhere. Memorize a series of poses that suit your needs, and then create your own workout or relaxation/meditation time to do wherever you want. Some yoga poses are just simple stretches that could even be done at your desk at work if you’re overwhelmed and need to rejuvenate.

With the cold weather approaching this may be a way for some of you to release tension or “bad energy” and to help with cabin fever too. So, give it a try….who knows you might like it.