How Yoga Changed My Life
Welcome to the 5th edition of personal stories written by our Staff Writers at Homework Help Global. In this personal story, our writer discusses how yoga changed her life during and after University.
“Meditating sounds like the dorkiest thing ever.”
This is what I told myself seven years and almost ten GPA points ago. It sounded like a totally lame waste of time to my over-achieving, over-committed self to sit cross-legged and “Om” my way to some mystical state of calm collectedness I couldn’t even be sure existed. I didn’t even have time to scarf down breakfast most days — who could make time to literally do nothing?!
It took my best friend almost a month to convince me to try a famous meditation-heavy yoga class with her. She’d been raving about one instructor in particular, but also explaining how meditation in general had given her a fresh outlook on her day to day. Like me, she’d been feeling overwhelmed by a schedule packed with too many courses that had overlapping deadlines, as well as a supposedly part-time serving job that had turned out to demand over 30 hours of her time weekly, but she couldn’t pay her tuition without. And, also like me, she’d been letting her health slide while she ran around trying to take care of her endless to-do lists. Yoga, apparently, had been the one thing to make a difference, so I finally agreed to try this “life-changing” class with her.
The difference between working out and wellness
I’d done yoga before, but always physically challenging hatha or flow classes that I approached as tough workouts — not opportunities to clear my head or live in the moment. The meditation-centered approach we took in this new class was totally foreign to me and, with my fast-paced schedule and over-achieving attitude, it took some getting used to. No one has a tougher time switching their brain off for an hour than those of us who’ve been taught, for our entire lives, that being perpetually busy is the true marker of success. But with time, I came to realize that meditating wasn’t just a great way to give myself a break from the stress of my daily life; tuning out the stress for an entire class actually made me more productive.
The science behind meditation
Tons of research confirms the outcomes I’d been so reluctant to believe. First of all, it enhances a number of skills that will help you become a better student, including concentration, information-retention, and the ability to multitask. When you feel calm and centered, you don’t get distracted as easily, and you exhibit a better ability to stay on-task. Meditating also makes you more creative, making for better writing, more compelling essays, and innovative problem solving.
Given all this research, my own experiences with meditation have been totally unsurprising. I started getting more positive comments on my papers; became more efficient at work; watched my grades steadily improve; and, despite accomplishing more work of higher quality, I was feeling calmer than ever.
Misperceptions keeping you from becoming your most mindful self
With so many benefits to the practice, why don’t more students (and people in general) meditate? Part of the problem has to do with the attitude I used to have: the belief that mediation is weird, or that it won’t work for you. Another issue is that, although lots of us like yoga, we tend to forget that mediation is an intrinsic and hugely important part of it. I’ve taken plenty of yoga classes that end up being glorified stretch sessions with instructors who completely fail to promote a mind-body connection. And I’ve talked with countless people who say they only do yoga for the workout — never mind all that “mumbo jumbo” about spirituality or mindfulness. These misperceptions contribute to keeping yoga and meditation separate in our minds, as though the former is good for our health, while the latter is a waste of time. In reality, yoking the two together could be the solution to the unbearable stress piling up in your life.
If, like me, you giggle and/or roll your eyes at the thought of meditating — yet you’re drowning in your self-imposed business — it’s time to reconsider your ways. Start by exploring how you can live a simpler, happier lifestyle — one that has room for health-promoting behaviours like meditation. The better you get at taking time for yourself, the more fulfilling — and productive! — your life will become.
References
The Art of Living. Yoga: Way of Life. Retrieved from: https://www.artofliving.org/yoga
Wikipedia. Om. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om#Yoga_Sutra
The Buddhist Centre. What is Meditation? Retrieved from: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/what-meditation
Seppala, E. M. (2013). 20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today. Psychology Today.
Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/feeling-it/201309/20-scientific-reasons-start-meditating-today
