Discovering Yoga!

       Wow. If I could put my yoga experience this semester into one word it would be “wow.” I mean… seriously?? I had no idea my body could do some of the things it could do, and that's coming from a 10-year gymnast. Some might even ask, “well how could you not know” *cough* my mom *cough* but I'm dead serious. I had no idea my body could bend and balance in some of those ways. In another way, yoga taught me there are ways to be active without being active. Also learned within that very same concept is the idea of mental activity. The realization that sometimes exercising the mind is way more important than exercising the body.     This semester has been especially hard for me, I will admit. I am a type-A person. For whoever is unfamiliar with that concept, I am very “OCD” if you will. With that, comes my learning style. I learn from others actions, their demeanor, and thrive off of their presence. Between online classes this whole semester, to 2 of my brothers going off into

            In my opinion, yoga is not taught as a spiritual practice. Though it does absolutely encourage the person doing the yogato dig deeper within, I believe non spiritual people would be able to do a practice and not feel as though they are missing something. Yoga does not preach, it only encourages. I say that because often the sentences during meditation time do not start with “you should” or commands, they are often suggestions. This makes a difference than commands because it allows the person performing to not feel as though they are doing something wrong. IF they don't want to do the action, that is also perfectly fine.  There are spiritual aspects to the process of learning yoga, however. It's training the body as well as the mind. It took me about halfway through the semester before I REALLY learned how to calm my mind enough to focus on the postures only. It took me the entire semester to train my body well enough to be able to handle some of the more intense po

       The body is a vehicle for any accomplishment in life, without a doubt. I mean… it is the only way one can do things. Without a body, there is no way anything can get done in a literal sense. A body is seen as a vehicle in a mental way, in my belief, because it is the part doing the action. It is doding the “carrying out” of whatever needs to be done. The role of the body is to be there. Yes, I mean literally to be there… for the mind, that is. The body does the carrying out. The mind wants to run? The body better be ready. The mind wants to sleep, the body better also get ready to sit still. The body is the actual mechanics behind the thoughts.       Similarly, one can look at this in a yoga sense. If the mind wants to reach the divine then it must train the body of the necessary actons to do such things. The body needs to be approached fragily. I dont mean treat it like a china plate, but understand that there are indeed limitations to what the body can do. As much as the mind