There are a lot of reasons why people start yoga at different times of their lives. Initially, everyone thinks that it is not a workout it is more like random exercise and some chanting. There will be many stories, some people feel that it is a mental leeway to move past certain things in life.
Others feel it is a good form of exercise as it requires the least equipment and can be done anywhere. So, just like this I too have a story. Initially, my mother proposed the idea of doing yoga together as a family every morning.
How and why did you start practicing yoga? How would you describe the impact it has made in your life?
byu/21andsheasavage inyoga
She proposed it as a family bonding time, where all of us would be together and not use our phones, plus the added benefit of exercising for the body. After trying for a few days, it turned out that we could not fall into a routine since there was no hard and fast rule. So, we hired an instructor for training.
Benefits of Yoga
byu/urban-yogi inyoga
It was kind of a binding activity because now everyone had to wake up and do their exercise at the same time. And because it was guided we could also tell what we aimed at individually. As a few weeks passed by we became interested in these morning sessions.
This is actually where the game changed, 5 weeks into the beginner training our instructor suggested we incorporate chanting and spirituality into our sessions. At first, I was not very interested in the idea. Especially because I have a hard time believing in things like manifestations and chanting to evoke our wishes.
That was when I asked my instructor to suggest some other workout while the rest were doing this session, but she insisted that I give it a try for at least 4 weeks, and if I didn’t feel anything even then; she would completely drop the idea.
Thing you most like about practicing yoga
byu/Flashy-Staff-6166 inyoga
It started with Om chanting, then some mantras, and slowly, she took me towards meditation. For the first few times, it seemed impossible. When I told her that it was not working for me because I couldn’t focus on my breathing or feel the calmness, she said that I could not control my thoughts.
She added that my brain is not strong enough to push for unnecessary thoughts even for 5 minutes. This hit me hard, and I started feeling incapable of taming my mind. So, although with this weird thought, I started to condition my brain to ignore the thoughts that would fly by during meditation.
After a few weeks, it was not difficult anymore. I could not just focus but also retain that feeling of emptiness. This was also accompanied by Om chanting and mantras along with it. It almost became an indulgence to my inner self and to the outer world, which not only connected me to the supreme powers but also gave me eternal peace in my mind.
Last Updated on by Ananya_Sreen