My Yoga Journey to a Healthier Mind
Am I a true yogini now? Not even close.
Why do people exercise? Perhaps to be in good shape to boost our self-confidence or simply for a healthy lifestyle?
When I was a teenager, I exercised to ensure I didn’t gain weight. Sweating was all I needed to maintain a good body. Sounds shallow, doesn’t it? I didn’t really understand the real reason why we had to exercise other than staying slim or being perceived as healthy individuals. I was a fan of jogging and I used to go to the gym before going to work until the pandemic happened. I was literally stuck at home and the gym was closed.
The Beginning of My Yoga Journey
When covid-19 struck, I had no choice but to find a workout that I could do at home. I’d been to yoga classes and I kinda liked it so I started doing it regularly.
At first, I felt challenged by the difficult poses. I wanted to be more flexible, I wanted to be able to do split, crow pose, headstand, etc. It kinda gave me this satisfying feeling when I managed to do the poses. The more I did yoga, the more I was intrigued about getting to know the spiritual part of it. I started to learn how to meditate to combine it with my yoga practice. I didn’t really know if I did it correctly, even so learning to sit still while closing my eyes was probably the first step for me to begin with.
Many people often say that yoga helps you find the balance between your mind, body, and soul. It also teaches you to be mindful. Although I practiced regularly, I still didn’t get how the hell it was supposed to help find the balance.
Even though I had no idea how it benefited my mind, I began to notice the difference bit by bit. Somehow I felt a slight change in how I dealt with negative thoughts during bad days. When something annoyed me, that didn’t really trigger me to be angry, rather, I just took a few deep breaths and asked myself to stay calm. Whether it was because of the meditation or yoga practice, either way, it worked.
Since the pandemic started, I had to work from home and it was a pretty difficult situation to deal with as I felt isolated and somehow affected my mental well-being. So I was thankful I got introduced to yoga and meditation during these unprecedented times. Not only it helped my mind, but I also became physically healthier.
I used to get sick at least once a month, either catching a cold or headache. I’m not trying to exaggerate nor do I want to jinx it, but it’s been more than a year, I haven’t fallen ill. I guess the pandemic kind of pushed me to live a healthy lifestyle and practicing yoga has contributed a lot to it.
Yoga Teacher Training
I decided to pursue my practice to the next level by joining the yoga teacher training. I wasn’t actually planning on teaching but I wanted to learn deeper about yoga. To me, there’s something fascinating about its philosophy.
I did the training for 3 weeks in Bali and I think the whole experience was super intense yet absolutely incredible. It really challenged you physically and mentally.
There are so many things I’ve learned apart from the asanas. When the training began, I was this person with a high ego that wanted to just show off how a great yogi I was — I could do quite a lot of hard poses and was pretty flexible. It did give me a certain satisfaction to see how my body transformed, but believe me, that’s not what yoga is all about no matter how strong or flexible your body is.
One of my teachers told me that when you’re in a yoga class, you have to learn to appreciate whoever is leading the class. You might do things differently but when you are the attendee, you need to lower your ego and show some respect by simply following the instructions. This definitely changed my mindset and it somehow enlightened me to stay humble and always be kind.
Yoga taught me how to be mindful by focusing on my breath while doing different poses. I had known nothing about Pranayama until I joined the training which I feel it’s a crucial part of doing yoga.
Although I have completed my 200hr YTT, that was pretty much the basic foundation I needed to know about yoga. I still have a lot to learn and that requires constant dedication to keep practicing.
Nurture My Spirituality
I’d never been a spiritual person until my 3 weeks of intense yoga training. I discovered how every one of us is capable of releasing or attracting energies depending on our state of mind. Whenever I was in a bad mood, I could feel that all the negativity keeps coming, like I was attracting all the bad energies.
Hence, I began to understand how to instantly change my state of mind so that my mood would become lighter. I tend to ignore things that I know will affect me emotionally. Even if I have to deal with it, I will close my eyes and take a few deep breaths afterward. Therefore, meditation has been a key method that helps me to understand the source of my emotional state.
Of course, there are times where I can’t seem to meditate and hard to focus. This is when yoga is a better option when I can’t sit still. You can actually meditate by doing something else such as walking, running, cleaning, or even painting. Find whatever works for you to let you stay in the present.
There is no one solution that works for everyone when it comes to mental health. Not everyone enjoys yoga and meditation so you need to explore what other options that you can try to enhance your well-being. Your physical and mental health should be your top priority in order to live a fulfilling life.
