Like many girls in high school, I was very insecure about how I looked. In an effort to get the highly coveted toned stomach and big butt, I turned to Youtube. I typed “core and booty workouts” into the search bar. Youtube presented me with a generous array of videos entitled things like “Flat Belly NOW!,” “Burn Fat Fast While Boosting Your Booty! and “10-minute Bikini Body Blasting Workout!”
Amongst those titles was a slightly less aggressive one, posted by the channel Yoga With Adrienne. Her video was simply called “Yoga for the Abdominal Wall.” I chose her video, not so much because I knew anything about Yoga, but because calling it an “abdominal wall” sounded quite scientific to me, which in my mind meant that it would yield the best results.
The video was slow paced, yet it lit my core muscles on fire. Though, to my disappointment, my stomach looked pretty much the same afterwards. Still, I left that workout with endorphins pumping and a sense of pride in myself for completing something difficult.
Since that day in high school, I have visited Adrienne’s channel periodically. Sometimes I’d do one video everyday for a month, maybe even two or three. But these streaks would always come to an end as I lost motivation. Then, when I found that motivation again, I’d return to the channel until my next lapse, and so on.
When 2021 came along, I committed myself to doing at least one yoga video every day for an entire year, and I’m proud to say that I did it!
I’m writing this article a year later, in 2022, reflecting on what this physical and emotional journey has been like for me in hopes that I can inspire someone else to reap the benefits of a daily yoga practice.
My strength, balance, flexibility, and stamina have all greatly improved since the beginning of my journey. I can do poses like upward facing dog, extended side angle, and dancer with much more ease than when I first started out. Repeating videos from Adrienne’s channel has allowed me to witness my improvement.
The message that Adrienne presents in her videos is one of self-love. Even in her sweaty practices, Adrienne reminds her viewers of why they are working out. Too often, we work out because we hate our bodies. I know that’s how I started. But we should work out because we love our bodies and want to take care of them properly.
A strong core doesn’t just look good on a magazine cover. It supports your body and protects your joints from injury. Even as I write this article, my core is engaged, allowing me to sit up straight and prevent back pain caused by slouching. Though my core is strong, it still doesn’t look like the ones I see in magazines, but I’m okay with that.
Not only has this message of self-love forced me to reevaluate my motivations, but it has also inspired me to take care of my mind and my body. On good days where my motivation was high, I’d put in all my effort to get the most out of my physical practice. But when I was feeling low, I’d modify the poses to go easier on myself, because that’s what benefitted me the most on those days.
Rolling out my yoga mat gave me a designated time to spend alone and to take care of myself through mindful movement. I cannot stress enough just how greatly this act of self care has benefitted my anxiety disorder. The one place where I never feel anxious is on my yoga mat.
I could go on forever about how much yoga has taught me, but that would cut into both of our yoga times.
So instead, I will leave you with the most important thing I’ve learned from doing yoga every day in 2021: I want nothing more than to do yoga every day in 2022.