You might think yoga’s a sport for people with a flexible body or someone who has a lot of free time to spare. But that’s not quite the case because I’m neither of these things!
Unlike most people who might’ve started working on their new year’s resolutions on the first day of the year, I began a month late. But instead of giving myself the excuse to try again next year, I told myself that it’s never too late to start. So I installed the yoga app (Down Dog) and began my at-home yoga session.
Difficulties I faced and Tips to overcome
I started small. Really small. Setting the difficulty to Beginner 1 and the duration to 5 minutes (with two additional minutes for Savasana), I surprisingly enjoyed it. So I kept the pace for a few days before taking it up a notch. Moving up the ladder from Beginner to Intermediate and 5 minutes to 10, yoga became more complex and less fun.
At one point, I wanted to stop because the streak wasn’t easy to keep. I would procrastinate until it was the last thing I had to do before bed. In some sense, it felt like I was fighting a deadline to finish my yoga session. Sometimes, I wasn’t even fully immersed. I just did it because I had to. That’s when I remembered why I started practicing yoga.
My Purpose behind practicing yoga
The biggest reason was that I wanted to manage my emotions better. I want to keep calm during stressful times or when I’m anxious. And like meditation, yoga had the same effect in training my mind to calm down. Except in yoga, you’re constantly moving your body, so it’s a little easier to focus than just sitting down for a meditation session. That’s why I wanted to start with yoga.
With my purpose in mind, I figured that meditation could also help. So I started switching between Yoga and Meditation (for my rest days). I also tried different modes in yoga, such as Restorative, Hatha, and Yin. Adding these variations helped me gain my interest back.
My Yoga/Meditation Results
Unfortunately, I still can’t reach the floor. But I’m definitely getting better at the down dog pose in terms of flexibility. Also, I find it easier to breathe while stretching now. When I first started, I could barely hold my breath let alone breathe in more oxygen. It’s these small improvements that remind me that I’m making progress.
