My journey with yoga

The reason for practicing yoga was because I was feeling really stressed. Then I came across a deal on Groupon and so I thought to myself: “Why not give it a try?” I signed up for 5 sessions of Groupon yoga deal and that is it….My journey of yoga learning experience begins.

It started out with once a week practice over the weekend with wall rope yoga about one year ago. It is a very good class for beginners like myself. It is fun and the ropes are very useful to me in the various stretching poses. Week by week, I improved and grew more interested to know more about yoga.

We are asked in our first class: What is Yoga? Our answer is: Union of Body, Mind and Soul. So what is it actually?

I think it is science that deals with body, breath, mind, soul, and ultimately, the universe itself. It is about self-discovery, building strength and creating positive energy. It is a life long journey of learning and trying and attaining new heights.

The first benefit from the asanas practices is the improvement of my posture. I used to slouch a lot and cant seem to kick the bad habit since I am always doing it while sitting in front of the computer daily. Right now, I have friends commented that I look better and taller! All thanks to the frequent practice of chest opening and back bending postures. By lifting the heart and moving the shoulders back, it decreases back pain and shoulder tightness. Best of all, it lifts up my spirits! Opening of the chest symbolizes opening the heart, growing in compassion and connection to the others and thus decrease depression.

The philosophy of yoga relates so much to our daily lives. The way we think, the way we talk and the way we are going to live our lives. Many theories intrigue me to think and influence me to perceive and relate things in a different light.

There is so much more to just doing asanas to have a good work out. There is a lot of thought that is put into the planning of a lesson plan. It is either working towards a specific objective (eg. Working on hip opening, chest opening) or getting students into the active state (which can be done in early part of the day) or into a calm state (which can be done towards the end of the day). Lesson plans are carefully designed in order to fit the different needs of the students and of course in order to modify it when necessary when faced with different students with specific medical conditions.

We eat and live with our body daily. So knowing our body is important to know how breathing, eating and the various asanas make us feel. By learning about body anatomy, we will be able to know how and why our body function in a certain way. By doing yoga, it can help to ease certain problems that we are facing in our daily life.

In summary, I am glad that I have made a choice to begin my journey of yoga. It has taught me various aspects of life and I grew to like it. I am practicing now not because I feel stress but because I like to do it. It is science and a way of life where I will continue to explore. You will never know until you experience it and everyday’s experience is new! Never stop learning and never stop exploring!

By Hazel Kok

200Hr TTC (Jan to May 2014, Weekend batch)