Yoga, meditation, and all things mindfulness have gained a reputation for being exclusive and hard to reach. If you can’t stand on your hands or you don’t know the name of every single yoga pose ever created, you’re not welcome. But the beautiful thing about yoga and similar practices is their ability to be personalized to any soul.
Take away the fancy words and yoga means gaining flexibility, allowing new movement of your body, focusing on your breath and your thoughts. If you pull up any yoga tutorial video on YouTube, the first thing you will hear is, “take a few seconds to focus on your breathing, and bring your attention to this moment right now.” Or something of the sort.
Yoga can be more than an hour-long class or a Lululemon activewear set…not that a set won’t make for a comfy session. The best way to get into yoga is to start at the most basic level, with the thoughts and movements that will serve you best. Here are a few scenarios:
For the busy college student who has never done yoga before:
Close your laptop, put on some stretchy clothes, and sit down on the little rug you got from Target your freshman year. Put some headphones on or find a quiet time during the day when there will be few outside distractions. Play music that makes you feel comfortable, cross your legs or find another good position, and take some deep breaths. Focus deeply on your breath as it fills up your body, moving from your chest to your head, down to your toes, and back again to your chest. The goal is not to block out everything around you or every little thought that pops into your head. Rather, it is to get to a point of control over your mind and body and, hopefully, gain a sense of calm.
For the person who has tried yoga a few times but is not flexible:
This time, a laptop might be helpful. Pull up YouTube and sit down on a rug, towel, yoga mat, or whatever is readily available. Decide what you want the focus of today’s practice to be. Maybe a relief of stress or anxiety, a stretching routine, daydreaming session, etc. Any type of yoga instruction is available on YouTube, so pick the one that sounds best to you. Don’t focus on being perfect, but instead on each part of the practice and what you can get out of those 5, 10, 15 minutes. The key to this kind of yoga is consistency because comfort within a yoga pose will help to max out the activity’s benefits.
And the rest is whatever you make of it. Whether you find peace with a few mindful breaths throughout your day or you develop a strong desire to evolve your skills, yoga is reliant on a person’s use of it. It functions how you wish it to and can be used as a tool for great personal growth and individual contentment.
Namaste!