Mental Health

There has always been yoga.

I encountered yoga as an exercise in the 1970s. I was seven or eight and the television show “Yoga with Kareen” was occasionally playing on the screen. I remember doing a shoulder stand and bicycling my legs. I remember being curious about the leotard.

I don’t know that I’d call myself a fanatic, and I definitely wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I’ve maintained some form of yoga practice for more than four decades now, and I love much about my time on the mat.

There are philosophical practices associated with yoga that one can pursue, but they’ve never interested me. I’m strictly about meditative stretching.

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There are measurable health benefits associated with the practice of yoga. In addition to improving mobility and flexibility, regular practice can lower the blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease, and help people out with their digestive processes – vital for many of us in this day of processed food consumption.

And since it’s extremely cost-effective – you require no special clothing or equipment – it’s an ideal way to improve your health and activity level.

I like that yoga slows my thinking down. I have a busy brain, and it has always been thus, but yoga focuses on slow and sustained breathing. Slow the breath, slow the thoughts. It’s a simple solution, but it works for me.

As everyone who has taken a yoga class can attest, the Shavasana rest at the end is bliss. We all want more time with empty minds, it seems.

Don’t get cold.

I don’t like hot yoga – it feels too much like torture: 100F/37C is the temperature that sees me seeking air conditioning, not exercise. I also steer clear of Bikram due to its association with cultishness. I’m susceptible to cults, so I stay distant. I can absolutely be sold.

I played around with Kundalini yoga for a couple of years in my thirties. It focuses on core and fast breathing in addition to poses and is supposed to be especially spiritual. I didn’t find that to be the case, and I came to dislike the feelings of near hyper-ventilation. It can also include chanting and singing, and that never felt authentic to me. I’m not that girl.

Most associate yoga with slow movements and posing, and this is found in the Hatha and Iyengar schools with their focus on precision and holding poses, and in Vinyasa yoga which connects poses in movement flows coordinated with the breath (sometimes referred to as the prana or life force).

A combination of Hatha, Iyengar, and Vinyasa most accurately reflects my particular practice, though I’ll throw in a Yin yoga session a couple of times a month to mix things up.

In Yin yoga, one holds the poses for an extended period – two to five minutes for each pose is not unusual. Poses that are easy to hold and that encourage flexibility and range of motion are selected, though I do like a prolonged tree pose. Keep a support nearby, however, in case you stumble. Which is fine – trees sway.

Holding balance poses is good for muscle and ligament strength, and the required focus calms me even as the wobbling frustrates – yoga is also good for learning to let go of the ego.

Do you practice yoga?
Do you enjoy it?
What’s your favourite pose?

It’s better to think about pushing your inner thigh into your foot.
And never press on the knee.

25 thoughts on “There has always been yoga.”

  2. I grew up in India and ladies never did yoga and I never did! Some poses like shashtanga namaskara and bhujanga aasana were not for ladies! So it was convineant for me to skip it😄! I am not a physical person. But the past one and half years I have joined a yoga class and atleast once a week I attend it! My grandma knew all about chakras and meditation but she never did physical yoga! I don’t know what she will commet on me doing these stretching 🙆‍♀️! 🤔

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  3. I started doing yoga in June after hurting my back. It helped my back and I fell in love with it along the way. I now practice yoga twice a day, in the morning and at night.

    I have no desire to try either hot yoga or Kundalini yoga. Sounds like we are on the same page.🤣

    My favorite pose is child’s pose.

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  7. In the beginning, I used to hate yoga – I did it simply to stretch and it felt forced so I quit. But in the last year I started it up again because 1) I wanted to give it another shot, 2) I was going through a hard time where I needed to be calm and 3) I wanted to build my strength without using weights all the time.

    I now LOVE yoga. I do it 3-4x per week and I am amazed at the progress I have made with the different poses. I’m not perfect but my growth with yoga has been a journey I am so proud of. My favourite poses are: warrior 3, crow, and lizard. Yoga has become a part of my lifestyle and I wouldn’t have it any other way. :)

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    1. I’m glad you’ve found something you’re passionate about. I hope your hard times are in the rearview mirror.

      I enjoy the warrior poses too; props on the crow. I tend to avoid it – it’s hard.

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  8. I used to attend a yoga class with my mother-in-law in Iran, but I found the exercises weren’t as effective as those in my home country. After deciding to quit the class, I now enjoy practicing yoga at home with YouTube to address the strains from my job, which involves prolonged sitting.

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  11. Love what you said about stumbling in tree pose. I’d never thought of it as trees swaying. It’s a calming visualization and I’ll try to think about it the next time I wobble in a pose.

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