Most of us think we cannot do yoga and we use excuses like “I’m not flexible,” ”I’m too fat,” or “I can’t relax like that.” Whatever your excuse is, you are lying to yourself.
I used to refuse to do yoga because I had a hard letting myself relax. I always needed to be doing something. At the time, I didn’t even like sleeping too long. I also have anxiety at times of stress and had a hard time focusing on both the micro and macro. There came a point where I needed something healthy to gather my mind, take a step back and set my goals straight. I don’t remember what my influences were at the time, but I decided to try yoga.
Yoga is a slow process to building strength and becoming fit, but it is instant relief for your mind. You start with focusing your mind on your body. Developing an awareness of what all parts of your body are doing at the same time. They call this “full body awareness.” Once you learn to relax, you start to learn how to meditate. This starts with a really small amount of time (abouttwo to five minutes) and work your way to longer amounts of time (about three hours). You don’t ever have to meditate for three hours, it is up to you and your body how far your yoga experience goes. Everybody is different and everybody’s mind will see different things during these moments.
When you do yoga often, you quickly start to notice your body changing. You become more and more flexible with time. You become stronger than you thought yoga could ever make you. When you’re doing it right, you notice you gain ability to relax. You may even notice you have more energy! You don’t feel the need for sleep of caffeine as often. Your energy may lead to more exercise like lifting, running or swimming. You become more aware of your health and start to make better eating decisions (I’ve always been weakened by ice cream though). Overall, you become healthy.
I’ve found that it is best to do yoga as often as possible. I hope to live leisurely enough one day to be able to do yoga one to two times a day! Yoga in the morning stimulates energy and happiness for the day. I’ve never had a bad day that started with yoga. Yoga before bed can be light and relaxing. It’ll assist a fulfilling sleep. Yoga when you’re feeling tense can be very relaxing. Yoga aids those activities that can seem so hard some days.
OH! And don’t even say you don’t have time for yoga, because you’re lying to yourself again. Short yoga sessions of as little as five minutes add to all the benefits mentioned. I’ve had those long days where I’ve had to get up at 6 a.m. in the morning to get to work, finish up a presentation, go to the meeting that is always out of town and before I know it, I’m returning home at 11 p.m. at night searching for my bed. On days like this, it is possible to find ten minutes for yoga. Even if it is only just sitting in a chair, stretching your side body and neck and taking deep breathes of sanity.
Starting yoga using videos is not shameful. Yoga can be very difficult especially when you don’t have any experience. Videos and classes are good resources and guides to your journey. I personally subscribe to YogawithAdriene on YouTube. She has videos ranging from beginners to harder workouts and 30 day challenges that can be motivating for consistency. Do your research and find what will work best for you. "Find what feels good."
The benefits of yoga outweigh all of our excuses, hands down. I can tell you this from experience.
