A few months ago, my friend sent me a text one Sunday morning and asked if I wanted to join her for a yoga class. I replied: “Yoga? Are you serious?” She then told me how she had been attending classes every weekend and how it helps set her mind at ease before the new week of work begins and how her stress has decreased significantly since she started. I was so confused. How could stretching for 45 minutes be that significant of an experience. I shrugged away from her offer and continued on with my notion of yoga being completely pointless.
Being an avid spin class attendee for the past three years or so, I craved intense cardio. After every workout I would wipe the sweat off of my face and feel proud of the upbeat party on a bike I had just accomplished. Every pedal-stroke and climb I would take on with enthusiasm and grit. Riding the spin bike to the beat of the music truly allowed me to escape any of my problems and focus on the choreography, the fun disco lights or the blasting hip hop music. For me, spin was all I needed.
If we take a look down memory lane and observe the types of exercise and endorphin-giving activities I have been involved in–they all were fast, heart-rate climbing and were in no way relaxing. When I was in high school, I was on the swim team and looked forward to every sprint and dive. I loved feeling breathless after practice when taking off my googles because it made feel like I really accomplished something. “If I work really really hard, that will eventually pay off,” I thought to myself. I’ve always thought you can’t just cruise through life and receive rewards when taking the easy path. Your journey needs to be rough and treacherous for happiness at the end of the finish line. That’s how I lived my life–constantly pushing through hurdles in exchange for continuous progress. I saw yoga as being one of the main highways on the easy path. There was not a fight for breath or any sort of a difficult journey in yoga–at least that’s the idea I stood by.
I had encapsulated yoga as solely this stereotype where stay-at-home moms go to stretch and talk about mundane drama with their friends. I mean can’t you see Amy Poehler’s character from Mean Girls packing up her yoga mat and flips while wearing her pink Juicy Couture sweat-set as she tells everyone “I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom?” To me, people who enjoyed yoga never wanted to challenge themselves, or maybe they didn’t even know what a challenge was in the first place. I never saw it as a workout and believe me—I never saw it as something that could potentially ‘change your life’. Well, that was until I actually attended a class myself.
My very first yoga class. Wow, it’s really strange seeing that in words. I didn’t even know where to take my first class–a gym, a studio, over a YouTube video? Luckily, being a freshman in college, I am attacked with flyers and activities every second of every day. And one day when I was walking on a crisp Monday morning, I saw a flyer for a yoga class held on one of my campus’ many lush lawns. And even luckier, the class was taking place right at golden hour on a slightly breezy Tuesday evening in Orange County, California.
I do not want to sound at all cheesy, but this class really did change my perspective on yoga. Yes, it was a lot of stretching—but this stretching allowed me to put my body in poses I didn’t know I was capable of doing and really let me see what strength and confidence was inside of me. After each inhale and exhale I began to see a new version of myself–someone free from any insecurities and filled with joy and peace. But, I am a person who constantly tries to remember my to-do list and I would catch myself falling into the habits of “what am I going to have for dinner tonight?” or “Is The Bachelor on tonight or tomorrow?” when I should have been focusing on the yoga class. It wasn’t until we transitioned into the Warrior pose where I began to see the purpose of this. I began to feel the focus, the passion in every movement, the beauty of this practice. It was a rocky start, but that revelation was finally coming into fruition.
Have you ever seen a newly-born deer try and take it first wobbly steps? That was exactly me in the beginning of the class attempting to maintain my balance. Although I was unsteady on my poses and not perfect on maintaining complete focus, I remembered that I tried my best and that really my best is the greatest gift. I connected with my breath and absorbed the nature around me, and for actually a few moments my stress evaporated away from me and was suddenly gone. As I packed up my belongings and started to make my way back to my dorm, I almost completely stopped in my tracks: Did I actually just enjoy something I have been making fun of my entire life?
Later on, I began to wonder if people had similar opinions on yoga and then realized how beneficial it can be after trying it out. How has yoga affected people? Were there people out there who shared the same positive experience I had, or did a yoga class confirm their notion of it being nonessential in life? These questions flooded my mind and I wanted to dive deep into the world of yoga so that I could not only find answers to these inquiries, but also develop my beginner-level understanding of the practice.
I started my deep dive into the world of yoga by doing what I do on a daily basis: scrolling through social media. I started following accounts like Alo Yoga and Yoga Journal and I began to see how there are so many yoga blogs. I was scrolling through hundreds of bloggers who talked about mindfulness, meditation and the passion they had for yoga practice. I realized how diverse this community was and I felt welcomed to join by simply looking at their posts and seeing strong women showcase the beauty and significance of this practice.
After several hours of getting inspiration and getting my feet wet with a glimpse of the yoga community, I began to do some research by reading articles so that I could begin to answer one of my main questions: why people like or don’t like yoga. First, I looked at an article by The Yoga Journal titled “How Yoga Transforms Lives”. In the article the writer talks to Rod Stryker, who is the founder of ParaYoga and a Tantra scholar, and they discuss how many people may be confused on how yoga could “change someone’s life”.
Stryker addresses this misconception of yoga changing someone’s life and says that it is really that this practice helps you remove obstacles that obscure who you really are and allows you to come into a fuller expression of your true Self. According to Stryker, what people don’t understand is the concept of transformation in regards to yoga. He believes that yoga does not change you from one person to someone completely new and improved afterwards, but it can help reveal things about yourself you may have never noticed before.
“We’re not transforming into something we aspire to,” he says. “We’re transforming into the very thing that we are innately: our best Self.”
What really stood out to me was the article’s reasonings on why yoga will actually transform someone’s life in the context of becoming your best Self. So, if you’re like me you are on the edge of your seat right now—wondering why that class made such a positive impact on your lifestyle—and you’re finally about to understand why. The three main reasons on why yoga can transform someone’s life is by helping you shift away from patterns you’ve developed over time, teaching you how to make better decisions, and allowing you a glimpse of the joyful and free person you can actually be.
This last point is something that I truly resonated with. After completing at least forty-five minutes of this practice, I suddenly realized everything I had just accomplished and had a moment of self-reflection during the final meditation part of the class, called Savasana. For me, I could feel joy and freedom running through my veins. As I grazed the blades of grass through my fingertips and felt the sun slowly disappear through the palm trees, I felt a tad embarrassed about my previous critiques of this practice. Yes, it wasn’t the same feeling as swimming 20 laps, but this strength I felt was something totally unique to me. The reflection part of yoga allowed me to critically think about each and every move or action I made. To stop and think–now that was not something I did all the time. Yoga showed my true strength, my true Self.
And I am not the only one beginning to receive positive results from the practice of yoga—but each person has their different reason for continuing to attend classes. According to statistics gathered by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, about one in seven U.S adults practiced yoga in the past 12 months in 2017, and that percentage grew from 2007 to 2012 and again from 2012 to 2017 for both adults and children. But why are people doing it? Well, 86 percent said it reduced stress, 67 percent said it helped them feel better emotionally and 63 percent said it motivated them to exercise more regularly, to name a few.
While I began to grasp a better understanding of why people feel a positive connection to yoga, I wanted to reach out to someone who has been immersed into the passion of yoga and can truly be called a member of the yoga community. So, I talked to Aria Dudley, who has been practicing yoga for over five years and has recently become a certified yoga instructor.
Aria did not enjoy yoga the first time she attended a class when she was in high school. She did not like the heated room and said she walked out of the studio “with a more negative feeling than positive.” But, it wasn’t until a few years later in college where she began to develop a love, what she calls “an addiction,” to this practice because of the physical and mental benefits. And it wasn’t just based on the continuous breathing techniques and intricate poses leading her back again and again, but the welcoming group of people encouraging her to find happiness.
“I starting using it as my fall back for anything, bad mood… yoga, sad… yoga, happy…yoga, overwhelmed with school work…yoga,” said Dudley. “One of the biggest factors that led me to continue my yoga journey was the yoga community. I felt so welcomed and loved by others in the studio.”
As I began to talk more and more to Aria, I almost began to see a connection between her yoga journey and mine, just on different spectrums. We are both deepening our understanding of the yoga community–but with me doing research and interviews and her doing 200 hours of certification. That is truly how once can establish an understanding of a community or culture–by immersing yourself into it. And for Aria, this has led to a lifelong connection to a community she never takes for granted.
Although many people experience the same joy and freedom with yoga like Aria, there are others who simply don’t like yoga. Let’s be honest, I could have definitely been in that category a few months ago. And even though I am grateful for the amazing experience I had during my first class, it could have gone in a completely different direction.
Often times people eventually give in and take a yoga class (just like my situation) but walk away with a negative perception on the practice. Why is that? Well, just like the positives, there are many different reasons on why one would dislike yoga or have their stereotypes reassured in their mind. Many people don’t care for the slippery yoga mats, get cramps or push themselves too hard during poses, and the most reoccurring problem people have with yoga–the idea of sitting still and stretching cannot possibly be a workout. In Yoga International, Kat Heagberg discusses her problems with this practice in an article titled “Ten Things I Hate About Yoga.” One of her main discomforts is how she is unable to completely clear her mind during a yoga class and contains many lingering thoughts instead of focusing on her breath and the poses themselves.
“And I try to meditate,” said Heagberg. “‘Try’ being the key word, because really, mostly my cushion-time is spent gently coaxing my mind away from thoughts like ‘What’s going to happen on season three of ‘Orange Is the New Black?’or ‘Will Prescriptives EVER bring back their pink ‘poodle’ lipstick?’ or ‘I could REALLY go for some waffles right now,’ and especially ‘Dear God, I want to MOVE.'”
This appears to be a reoccurring problem and what leads many people toward never taking a yoga class again because of how challenging it can be to just simply relax. Caitlyn Fitzpatrick discussed in an article on PopSugar titled “Why I Don’t Like Yoga” why meditation can be at times very difficult for her. Even though she could not soak in each pose that was done in the class, she looked around her and saw how passionate everyone else was in the class.
“I couldn’t get the mindset to relax, working out at that slow, mindful pace just bored me,” and also “Mentally I don’t think I could ever truly relax and appreciate each and every muscle movement as other people in the class did,” said Fitzpatrick.
And I think that’s the beauty of yoga. It may not be the perfect practice for everyone, but merely by experiencing it once in your life, you can be lead to what actually makes you happy and makes you feel at home. After reading all of these articles and talking to different people, I was suddenly drawn back to that breezy Tuesday evening when I took my first yoga class. I sat down on my towel for a yoga mat, saw many preparing for the class as if it’s their 100th class–and I became a little nervous. I didn’t know how this experience was going to end. I didn’t know if I was going to make a complete dork of myself or if this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to me. But, either way, I put myself out there and began my first pose.
The outcome could have gone either way. I am thankful that it was a positive experience and that yoga has a happy place in my heart, but no matter what this allowed me to realize what is important in my life and strive to find my true happiness and my true Self. And I think that’s exactly what yoga is all about.
But more importantly, I think this experience showed me that a balance in life is truly what everyone needs–and that is why this topic is held so close to my heart. As you probably can tell, I put pretty much 110% into everything I do and get so caught up with my goals and forget to stop and smell the roses. Sure, I still believe that you have to persist and push through the rain to get to the rainbow, but I realized I never ever sat and appreciated that rainbow I had been working so hard to see in the first place. Yoga allowed me to reflect on my past accomplishments and see all the beauty and vibrancy that I have created for myself in my life. I finally have learned not to just seek out the pot of gold and move on, but to soak in every inch of that rainbow and truly find love in each and every part of this life. Remembering that I have a life I should appreciate is challenging, especially when you are thrown into an environment like college and everything seems nonstop and going 50 million miles per hour. But focusing on the little things that make me happy (a cup of coffee early in the morning, quality time with my friends and the occasional rom-com), help me take in a little bit of rainbows and sunshine each day. Daily gratitude is so important, and that isn’t something I realized until this yoga class. Every single one of us in that class, no matter our skill level or flexibility, we were all getting the same thing out of this class: we are a community of people just trying to find a little more time to see that rainbow.
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