Life Moves Fast

The best definition of yoga I have ever heard was, funny enough, said by Nick Rosen who is the subject of the film we watched, Enlighten Up!. The end of the movie is quoted by him claiming, “Yoga has no simple definition and that's the beauty of it.” Yoga is simply yoga. It is what you view it as in your life, and what it means to you only. Whether you practice yoga to get your mind off of the bad or use it simply for strength and flexibility, it goes beyond what a jog would do for the body. Yoga involves the mental aspect of exercise the entire time you are practicing, and even after in everyday activities. Yes, there is a mental strength involved in continuing to run when you really don't want to, or do those extra push ups, but yoga forces you to bring all of that up and completely push it out. To acknowledge, yes life is life, but right now you are here and you are doing this. Yoga moves beyond just physical exercise and emphasizes, more importantly, mental toughness. 

Yoga is empowering, and though that may be an opinion, I consider it a fact. I guess to make it a fact I should say,” yoga is empowering to me.” I mean, come on. An hour straight of balancing and forcing air through your lungs, all while thinking about anything under the sun. A complete time allotted in your life to think about anything and everything you want. I guess you could argue you could do that anytime in life, but I would disagree. I feel like life moves too fast sometimes, like we spend time thinking about things that don't really matter in the broad spectrum of things. I mean REALLY! Positive or negative, most of our daily thoughts are consumed by the stupid little things in life. Also, don't get me wrong, the little things are sometimes what matter most… I'm talking about the small complaints of life. Yoga, in my practice space, cuts to the chase, straight up front, leave all your crap behind and come think about life REALLY. ACTUALLY, GENUINELY consider your place in this world. You are a speck.The moment I realized that I couldn't stop. I am in this world. I am a person that can literally do anything I put my mind to… literally. Yoga is flat out empowering. It puts a whole new perspective on life, which is what I meant before when I said it spilled over into everyday life. I began to see the daily stressors of life and turned them to gratitude. Yeah, life sucks sometimes, like a lot, but even when it sucks it's still amazing. Life is still this concept to be discovered day in and day out, until the end. Nobody is an expert at the game of life, but it is possible to learn how to master it at your own level. Yoga, I believe, is the practice of that mastery. Yoga empowers the mind to wholly acknowledge the beauty of the world around us all. 

This week I completed two practices. One was Bikram Yoga we completed as a class together on October1st. Our teacher, a woman named Diane Polli, had been practicing yoga since the 1970’s when she discovered it at 19 years old. Since then, she's loved it. She led us through a series of postures, all while focusing on breathing techniques. It was calm to experience. My favorite part of the session was the end when we sat Japanese style and spaced our knees 6 inches apart and then grabbed our ankles from behind. After that, we had a mini meditation and a song to “bless” us. It was pretty awesome. Bikram yoga tests your balance, a lot, but by the end you feel amazing. My second practice this week was immediately following the Diane Polli class. I began with a guided breathing meditation. I especially liked this class because we changed positions a few times for “optimal air flow.” It lasted about 45 minutes in total, and I felt like I could fall asleep by the end of it. I was so relaxed. Overall, I think this week was a complete breakthrough in the aspects of yoga for me, I can't wait for what's to come.