At the start of the New Year, I really wanted to work on accomplishing my fitness goals. I wanted to approach them in a way that made working out feel less like a chore and more like an activity I enjoyed doing everyday. My biggest dilemma, aside from having a relatively large sweet tooth, is that I have a hard time sticking to a fitness program before completely falling off track. So, I figured why not try a different activity? Yoga has always sparked my interest, but I never knew how to get into it, especially since I have zero flexibility. My aunt recently became a licensed yoga instructor so she’s motivated me to go ahead and give it a try.
I needed to find a yoga program that wasn’t too advanced and didn’t require a membership to a studio or gym. After doing some Googling, I stumbled upon a YouTube channel called “Yoga with Adriene”. Along with having an appealing website and a variety of different videos, Adriene had over a million subscribers on YouTube, so I figured this would be a good place to start.
I subscribed to her 30 day yoga program because I knew that having a set schedule to follow would make it easier to turn yoga into a habit. The very first week was not as challenging as I expected. While some poses were more difficult than others, I was really enjoying easing into the practice. There was a different mantra for each day and that enhanced my overall experience by helping me focus on what I was trying to accomplish.
People often think that yoga is about sitting crossed-legged and humming to yourself or trying to get your body into some weird pretzel pose. It’s certainly a lot more than that. The type of yoga I was doing was called “Hatha Yoga”, which focuses on physical yoga poses. So, most of my practice revolved around having to hold myself up, lengthening, and transitioning between poses.
As the challenge went on, the poses grew more difficult. Bringing myself into downward dog or maneuvering my leg up into a lunge really had me breaking out in a sweat. Also, my upper body strength is terrible, so holding myself up became an obstacle I had to overcome.
Since yoga is all about being connected with your body and being present in the moment, breathing plays a major role in the practice. I found myself holding my breath while transitioning through poses and it took me a while to become more mindful of it. Finally coming to a point to where I could control my breathing made it easier for me to focus while enjoying the movements.
Being aware of my body was a new experience for me and I started to really appreciate the way yoga made me feel. I actually looked forward to my practice everyday and felt guilty if I ever missed a session. Of course, life got in the way every now and then, so I wasn’t able to follow my days as consecutively as I wanted. Whenever I missed a day or more of yoga, I would notice it immediately during a session because I would feel stiff or tire too easily when trying to get into a particular pose. It made me frustrated because I felt like all the progress I made was diminished by my lack of consistency. Doing yoga everyday was obviously the key to my success.
While some days were more demanding than others, I slowly became stronger and more confident in my practice. Adriene’s quirky and calm personality is what kept me going because she was such a down to earth person. I looked forward to getting on my mat with her everyday.
Throughout this 30-day journey, I’ve come to truly enjoy yoga. It was really all about the experience and the way yoga made me feel; seeing myself improve was an added bonus. Although I’m still nowhere near flexible enough to touch my toes, I’m proud of the progress I’ve made and look forward to incorporating more of this practice into my daily life.