My Yoga Experience

Before I took this class I thought I knew a good amount of yoga because many of my family members practice and teach it. As the class began and we started learning about different types of yoga I realized yoga is so much more than what I knew. I learned about so many different types of yoga, teachers, and especially doing yoga online. After completing the first few practices in class I realized I was out of shape because the beginner classes were harder for me to complete and I could not keep up. As the semester went by I began to feel more comfortable and confident in my practice. I progressed each week from the weekly practices and I benefited a lot from the in class practices because those were always more challenging.

I learned that making the location of where I practiced yoga a sacred and safe space was very important to have a successful practice. By having a relaxing, quiet, comfortable place to do yoga I was able to focus on my posture and breathing much better than when I was distracted. Since all of the yoga classes were online I did most of my practices in my room with either essential oils on or a candle. I also learned to put in headphones to do my practices because I have roommates that were sometimes distracting during my practices. 

Yoga in my opinion is much more than just exercising. It is a way to destress, connect to a culture, and also a way to become enlightened. Yoga is very empowering because of all of the benefits it brings to you. Yoga can also be seen as a ritual because it is a sacred part of eastern culture. It is a very traditional practice that leads to many things such as opening your third eye or balancing your chakras. It can be considered a ritual because of what it accomplishes and also since it is done more than once.

Since this semester was fully online, it was hard to find a sense of community through zoom, but I do think it happened. At first, I was uncomfortable having my camera on while doing practices because I did not want to do anything wrong and look silly. Although, after our class discussions about the practices I always felt more comfortable because my classmates almost always had the same thoughts and feelings as I did. This made the sense of community much stronger and made me feel more connected even though it was through zoom. 

Yoga is seen as a healing practice for me because it is very soothing to me. I feel relaxed and more focused after I do it. Yoga gives me a sense of wellness that other forms of exercise do not. It does not make me feel fatigued and this is because yoga is much more than just an exercise. Yoga is also good for the mind and soul. It heals many problems people have either physically or emotionally. 

Yoga has also changed drastically from when it first began in the east to what it is not in the west. Traditional culture yoga is very different from what we see now in the west. In the west yoga is more of pop culture and a trend. People add twists to it and make it away to be fit and trendy in the west. When originally it was a way for eastern places to practice and connect to their culture. 

To me, yoga is a way to wind down and connect to yourself and the earth. I felt this feeling during my private practices and also during our class group practices. As the instructors guided us through different yoga poses they would explain the benefits to each one and this would make me feel as if everything they were saying was true.

Meditation is also connected to yoga because it helps focus on your thoughts and emotions to better yourself and relax. Most people think of meditation as a way to fully clear the mind, but this is not what it is. It is used to focus on what you want. Having an instructor guide you through it helps a lot because you can focus on their voice and not on the thoughts that come up in your mind. 

The role of your body is to hold your spirit or soul through the life you are living currently. This connects to the aspect of becoming enlightened when you do yoga and meditation. Your body is really just a vehicle for experiences your soul will be going through. As yoga can be more spiritual in the east, it is not taught as something spiritual in the west. Yoga is not really a religion, but instead, it is something that people practice and believe in. As your spirit lives within your body yoga can bring it to enlightenment. This is how yoga can be taught as spiritual, but this is more common in the east.

This course has taught me so much about yoga, myself, and about eastern culture. I find it so fascinating to be more well rounded within a practice that people typically just see as a trend. Now that I have a deeper knowledge of yoga and its culture I respect it so much more and feel like I have a deeper connection. After this class, I do plan on continuing my yoga practices, but I do hope COVID goes away soon so I can do it in a studio with an instructor who can guide me.