My Journey With Yoga

 

Sports and athletics do not have to be the only way that a person can stay active and healthy in their lives. Throughout my childhood, I grew up trying different sports in my community to help me stay involved and active. I tried every sport possible but ended up sticking with competitive cheerleading. As I got older, I realized that I would like to have another activity that I could rely on when cheerleading was no longer available to me, as well as an activity that could help me feel less stressed. This is when I found yoga. 

 

I started at a yoga studio near my house called Yoga Flow during my freshman year of high school. I had cheerleading almost every day from May until February, so my time was extremely limited. During this time, I also was feeling extremely stressed trying to juggle school and sports. Cheerleading is also an extremely body challenging sport because you are lifting girls during stunting and tumbling on dead mats. This left my body to be in a constant state of pain. I found out that a few girls on my cheerleading team went to yoga after practice or on the weekends to relieve this stress, on both the mind and body, that most student athletes endure. One girl on my team ended up becoming an instructor so I decided to go to give it a chance. Little did I know this one step would leave me to find a new passion. Here are a few ways I have found yoga to help me: 

 

 

Physically: 

Ever since I started yoga in my freshman year, it truly made me a better athlete and person in general. I mostly spend my time in the yoga studio doing hot yoga. This is a form of yoga that is done in temperatures usually reaching 95-100 degrees with high humidity. During this time, yogis sweat a lot and are made to feel like they are in India, where yoga originated. Personally, I enjoy the heat because it helps to loosen my muscles and make me work harder. Yoga has improved my flexibility and made me a much stronger person. Although adding heat to this activity is challenging, it intensifies the workout, which I enjoy. The more I went to yoga, the more I saw myself improve. I could hold poses longer and even do some more advanced modifications. In cheerleading I felt I could lift more weight and allowed me to build up my endurance in general. My body was very toned and looked my best. Also, the constant back pain I would get from cheerleading seemed to not be as intense since I would stretch out these strains I was feeling during yoga.  

 

 

Mentally: 

With Yoga, I felt like I had a place to go to clear my mind and be in my own zone. You cannot talk during the 75-minute session and truly must focus on your breathing to be able to do the poses. Deep breathing exercises like this help to clear the mind. Yoga is truly a two for one activity because you get to have the opportunity to keep your body in shape as well as your mind. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Yoga encourages you to find that balance because it is a place that emphasizes your health. I can say that I am a better person because of yoga mentally and physically. Attempting to do sports, school, and maintaining a social life is extremely difficult and can add a lot of stress to a person. I always tried to keep myself busy, but sometimes this would cause me to feel overwhelmed and stressed out. So, when I was at yoga, I was forced to take a step back and relax. There is no time in yoga to think about outside issues since you must focus on holding poses and breathing. During my sessions, I am completely at peace and when I leave the studio, I tend to bring that sense of serenity with me for the rest of the day or night.  

 

Community: 

Yoga allowed me to find a great group of people and friends. As I became a more prominent member in the studio, I started to recognize the people who would go to the same classes as me and find instructors who I enjoyed. It was also great that a lot of my very closest friends would participate in yoga as well. We could bond over a shared passion. Moreover, the studio became a second home, and I knew that when I went there, I was improving myself and giving myself a beneficial opportunity. Attending classes became a habit and I loved that there was always something to lean onto, yoga. No matter what was going on outside of the studio, yoga would always be there. It was a great consistency in my life that I really needed.  

 

Overall, yoga is a great passion in my life, and I am blessed to have found it. I can see myself going to yoga for as long as I can and continuing to improve myself. I believe it is important to find something you genuinely love and stick with it.  

Picture Source: https://www.history.com/news/yoga-vivekananda-america