Hitting the mat to find my zen

Previously, I mentioned how much exercise isn't my cup of tea. I don't like sweating, I prefer breathing without labor, and I (personally) feel that there's more that can be done in a day if I don't have to set aside time to work out. Throw in back surgery and dislocating a knee (twice) and there's not much more motivation to keep you going. This summer, an ad popped up on Instagram for an app called "Daily Yoga." Remembering how much I enjoyed it in high school as I took yoga for my gym credit, I thought that it was something I could do.

The next day, I went out and bought a yoga mat (buying something holds me to it) and decided to download the app. I was surprised out how they tailored my preferences of what I wanted to work out, my difficulty level, problem areas and what my purpose for downloading the app were (losing weight, getting toned, become more in touch with myself etc.) I decided to save a few programs that had an appeal to me and most importantly, were under 30 minutes. Since that day in August, I hit the mat once and haven't looked back yet.

The ability of having the choice to pick what programs interest me are what makes doing yoga the best. I've tried to pick a variety of different programs ranging from soothing flows, sessions where poses are set to relieve stress, and ones that get a slight sweat breaking out on me. If I do a week where the sessions are a little more rigorous, I'll do another program that slows things down for me. The things I've learned I can do has shocked me every now and then and when times get tough during sessions, I just keep motivating myself. The instructors I've had have been helpful and their soothing voice helps get me through the longer pose holds. Doing abs one day, I was finding a lot of strain in my neck. The minute the instructor said, "focus the use on your abs and not your neck," I switched and my body felt totally different. It blew my mind! Sometimes the sessions that I think I'll dread, I end up really enjoying and if they tend to repeat classes later on in the program, I get excited. I've even gotten to the point where I look ahead at some of the poses I'll be doing in my session and get excited to do them. ME! Someone who has never liked exercise!

Now I can't say that this yoga journey has been all peaceful breaths and tuning the world out. I know that yoga is supposed to be the time of day where, for as long as the session is, you tune out the other thoughts of the world and you allow yourself to look inwards and focus on how your body is feeling at the current moment. On the days when I know I have a lot coming up, it's harder to tune those thoughts out and I can sometimes get distracted. Again, with the issues my body is had, I can't necessarily do all of the poses. However, I try to modify them as best I can and I know that yoga is a continous process and that will come in due time. The biggest issue is making myself sometimes "attend" the sessions. Some mornings (I get up at 6:30 some mornings to do yoga on school days, I know, I don't know who I am anymore either) I don't feel like hitting the mat. As much as I'd rather stay in bed or go play games on my phone (the days I do it in the afternoon) I know that I'll feel so much better when I do yoga. I know it's true because there hasn't been one time I've gone to the mat and been like "I feel worse than when I started."

I never thought that I would enjoy yoga as much as I would, but here I am, 4 months strong and determined to keep it up. I'm honestly proud of myself for holding myself accountable this long. I've felt the benefits on more than one occasion, both physically and mentally. After working and stretching hard, the final pose in most programs is "corpse pose" (I know, kinda morbid.) This pose is lying on your back and letting go of your focused breathing as it is supposed to help your body rest and reap the benefits. When the instructor says things like "let go of stress in your head, let go of the stress in your shoulders etc.) you would be amazed at how by listening to those instructions, your body has a positive reaction to it. If you're up for the challenge, I'd suggest everyone try yoga at least once a week with poses that suit you to help better yourself. And if you can't contort yourself into pigeon, lord of the fishes or tiger poses, corpse pose can be done lying in bed. 

Sincerely,

Midwestern Redhead