Journey

To begin, I’d like to ask you to do a short breathing exercise. We just need to inhale and then exhale. Count 1 to 4 for the inhale and another 1 to 4 for the exhale. Repeat 3 times. What you did is called controlled breathing. We do breathing everyday, but we don’t notice the energy that it gives us – awake or asleep, we breathe. Controlled breathing or Pranayama is one of the things I learned in the practice I’ll introduce to you, which is yoga.

Why am I deeply interested in this practice? There are several reasons but I’ll share with you four insights or I would say benefits of yoga to me.

Y – Yin / Yang (Balance)

– It simply means for us as balance. In a yoga class, yang focuses more in developing strength through a set of active poses and sweat-dropping movements. When we talk about yin, the goal is to increase flexibility by staying still in one position for longer time. These create balance in a yoga practice. This is an insight that can be brought outside the mat, where I create balance in the different aspects of my life – family, friends, work, me-time, etc.

O – Openness to Opportunity (Learning)

Yoga opened up different opportunities for me.

– Opportunity to be healthy and well. When I started doing yoga, I became more conscious of the food I eat as I became aware of what will be its effect to my body.

– Opportunity to learn. There is a wide range of insights in practicing yoga – from having the right posture to how to deal with emotional struggles.

– Opportunity to meditate. With the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, finding a quite place to meditate can be hard to practice. Yoga became one of my venues to do meditation and just let the ideas flow freely.

G – Gratitude

– With a lot of things happening around us and various things I want to have and accomplish, there are times that I forget how to be grateful. Yoga helped me to appreciate life in general – the state of life I’m given, the family, the health/body, the friends, the career, etc. May it be in a class or doing yoga at home, I always thank God for giving me the strength to endure and finish it. This is the same prayer I have when I face challenges and uncertainty in my life. Being grateful doesn’t mean that I stay in my current state and not aim for my goals. Gratitude made me realize that what I have now or where I am now are just some of my aspirations before. If I didn’t strive before, I will not be here speaking in front of you.

A – Awareness/Acceptance

– I’m not expert in yoga. I can’t do a handstand. I can’t do splits. There are days I can’t reach my feet. But, it is okay. One of the lessons teachers share to us, was to be aware of our capabilities. We have to know if we can do certain poses or not. The teacher will show different variations that would fit different students. Since it is a practice and if done regularly, there would be days that you can reach your feet! Accepting that what we have done is enough to progress in our practice.

And, those my friends, are my realizations with my yoga practice.

Yoga is not a performance. There is no stern rule of how each and every person in a class should look like.

Yoga is a practice. And that is why it is a personal journey. It is a journey of the self, through the self, to the self.

Namaste…