My first yoga experience was around the end of 2006 and my main intention was to lose weight. At that time Yoga exercise was a phenomenon in Korea as it got known as the celebrities’ favorite exercise.
The first 3 months were very tough. Nevertheless the reason I kept practicing yoga was the Savasana which was given for about 1 min after challenging poses. The moment all the stresses is gone away!
As far as I remember, I would practice yoga about 3 times a week for 3 months because I felt like my body and also mind are much lighter after yoga practice.
But after a while I quitted it.
Soon I signed up for another yoga studio and quitted again after some time. This happened over and over for around 3 years.
I think I must have practiced yoga at least 8 months in total.
And I started practicing yoga regularly in earnest in January 2018, since I moved to Singapore.
While I stayed in Norway (before I moved to Singapore) I experienced depression and anxiety over an year. I even became a person who is dispirited and has a low confidence. But since I practiced yoga and meditate regularly in the yoga classes I finally got to feel like I found an inner peace inside me and it makes me becoming more positive person. I started getting deeply into yoga and believing the power of yoga.
And finally in November 2018 I signed up for yoga TTC at Tirisula yoga to learn more about the philosophy of yoga and expand my yoga experience.
3 hours of physical yoga practice at school and 2 hours of extra practice at home made me indeed stronger physically and mentally. Of course it expanded a lot of my yoga knowledge like how yoga people should act and how they see the world.
What would be the reason that I who don’t even like Sports or any kind of exercise, like yoga and have kept practicing yoga?
First, the breathing of yoga gets me calm.
The deeper we practice yoga, the deeper our breathing is.
This breathing is deep and soft unlike other kinds of sports. There is a power to recover and purify our body. The practice with good breathing makes our head clean and our body lighter and refreshed.
Second, it increases our physical ability as these days sitting in front of the desk staring at computer or smart phone is a way of life.
Stiff shoulders, backache, numbness of legs are gone while practicing yoga because it increases flexibility and strength at the same time. Since yoga is a whole body exercise it improves not only immune system in our body but also corrects our postures in a daily life by waking up and developing all the muscle throughout our body.
Third, Achievement.
If I keep trying, someday I could manage to do certain poses that looked impossible at the first time.
This achievement becomes a big motivation to keep practicing yoga. Those who practice yoga must have the same experience to yell out a cheer saying “I did it” on the mat when they made a challenging pose that struggled to make days or months.
To me Urdhva dhanurasana (upward bow pose) it was.
It seemed that I could never make this pose when I saw it first time. My shoulders were stiff and backbend was very challenging.
Of course still I can’t make the pose perfectly but I can make an arch.
Forth, yoga shows the honesty of our body. It reminds me of Korean saying that Your efforts will never betray you!
You can improve your yoga skills as much as you practice. I mean there must be a difference of improvement speed depending on people and there must be poses that you are physically not able to do because of your body shape limit but for average people they could do most of the poses if they invest some time to their practice. Seeing my body changing as much as I practice, I get courage that there’s nothing I can’t do for other things if I do in this attitude.
For these reasons I will practice yoga for the rest of my life.
It would be even nicer if I have an opportunity to teach someone this good exercise and way of life.
I will constantly practice and learn and try to spread out this good yoga!
