Why do I want to do this YTT?
That was my teacher’s first question to me and the 9 others in the room. I thought about it, rolled my eyes to the corner for a few seconds and pondered. A lot of different reasons flashed through my mind, it was like a slideshow with a white background, then cloud bubbles flashing in, “I want to be more flexible”,”I want to do more Yoga”,”I want to be able to conquer all the inversion poses that I see people doing”. And to be honest, right now, I can’t remember what I told him on the 11th of January.
Being in this course for about 6 weeks now (4 more to go) has taught me that Yoga is more than all of that. Perhaps its true that my drive towards Yoga was about the handstands, fallen angel poses that makes people go ‘woah’, but even the simplest act of breathing properly is what constitutes Yoga. Prāṇāyāma is the practice of breath control in yoga. Daily prāṇāyāma trains the lungs and improves the capacity of respiratory system immensely and its precisely the little and simplest things in life that we overlook. Also explains the reasons why I cramp so often when I’m in the pose, or the tensed up feeling I always experience because I hold everything in and forget to breathe.
As we live in a fast paced environment and rush to do 101 things everyday all the time, always remember to breathe. Taking a breath break can help you reset the button, release tension, calm yourself down and relieve stress and anxiety. So before you do anything in a rush, before clicking that ‘submit’ button, just stop. Stop, think and breathe. Trust me, it will different.