My passion for yoga did not start out as a passion at all. In fact, when I was younger and went to camp, my yoga teacher would always have her hair tied back so tightly into a bun I thought she was literally trying to pull it out; she was mean, she always yelled, and she took herself too seriously, hence, I used to think yoga was only fit for mean, uptight people. Little did I realize that one bad experience was no reflection on the actual beauty of yoga. Yes, it seemed to me for so long that yoga was not something you could have fun with at all. Serious all the time. I was also under the wrongful impression that in order to do yoga, you had to be flexible, and seeing that I am the least flexible person I know, I was often frustrated when I couldn’t do poses the “correct” way. However, no matter how far I tried to run from it, yoga just kept coming to pull me back onto the mat for another painful down dog. (I still have a love/hate relationship with this pose) As an athlete for basically as long as I could remember, I’ve always been active. I hardly ever had an “off” season, as I played two sports, and playing those sports generally meant doing some form of exercise/practice all four seasons to stay in shape. Needless to say, I’m used to being restless. So when senior year came and I made the decision to stop playing both my sports, I took the off time to my full advantage. Time passed. And passed. And I became so engulfed in my own laziness that I had begun to lose sight of the beauty of self-motivation. I needed to get active again.
There is no “right” way to do yoga. The beauty of practicing yoga is that almost everything is a guideline. There are different forms and different poses that are supposed to help you connect to whatever emotions you are feeling, but when you’re on the mat, that’s your time to break free and find what feels good to you. You can do it whenever. I’ve found that I enjoy going out to actual yoga classes because there’s a lot you can learn from teachers and even the other people in your class. However, at home practice can keep things more manageable. If you don’t have the time, money, or energy to get yourself to a yoga class, at home yoga can be just as challenging and enjoyable, plus, you get the luxury of doing it literally whenever you want. It’s kept my strength up. You don’t think yoga is a workout? You would be wrong; even if you're doing a medication practice with little physical movement, you are engaging your heart, your mind, and even your core. It’s fun. I love yoga because I’m always improving another aspect of myself. There are practices to calm down, you energize, to wake you up, to clear your head, anything you need, there is a way to do it, and enjoy it, AND have fun.
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