My Yoga Journey

What is yoga? To me yoga is a way to release and let go of everything in my life. In the yoga sutras it lays out 8 limbs of yoga which lead to the release which is a state of yoga. This state is defined in the sutras in chapter 1 verse 3 "then the seer abides itself, resting in its own true nature, which is called self realization." (Yoga sutras 1.3). This is also known as enlightenment where the mind is almost completely still and no longer have any remaining thoughts. Yoga is when you become the master of your thoughts and they no longer control you. I think this plays a role in every day life as well. People go through tough times in their life and it can be hard to get a handle on it and stop thinking about it constantly. Yoga helps with that I've found. Yoga can be a way out and save people. This is why it is so addictive. It has healing powers that people are just drawn to.

If you ask me yoga is 100% a lifestyle and culture. I actually think it can be even cult like in certain types of yoga. We watched a lot of videos in class about how yoga changed from what it used to be which was a male dominated practice to how in the west it is now more female dominated with added sex appeal. Today, all yoga propaganda is, is videos of hot women wearing Lulu Lemon. That is not what yoga used to be so why did it change? I don't really know the answer to that, but I agree. In my own life I have seen how yoga can be taken as more of a "chick thing." When I talk to my guy friends about taking a class with me they tend to laugh in my face and try to touch their toes. I try to tell them how many athletes do yoga and how great it can be for them especially when it comes to stretching. I think that mor men should try to do yoga because of the many benefits it has. I was pretty against it at first to, but I may regret saying this but I think I might be turning i

My next yoga class I decided to try a gentle yoga class again at Root Yoga located in Manalapan, NJ. I have a friend who regularly practices yoga and she talks nonstop about this type of yoga so I thought why not! When I walked in to the classroom, I really liked how the teacher had such calming music playing. I could have taken a nap right then and there! I like when the teacher has this type of music playing because it puts me in the proper head space and I believe it relaxes my body and makes me more flexible; which I desperately need. During this class we worked on poses such as downward dog, cobra and seal. I liked these poses because it pushed me just enough without going over the edge. I am still very new at this so I do not want to push myself too hard and get discouraged. One thing I really liked about this class was the breathing. To get started we did these breathing exersize that calmed me down. We started by taking big deep breathes and counting down from 10 and releasing