My first sort-of
rendezvous with this old and established hindu form of mind and body exercise
was quite a ‘yog-a-yog’- just one of the many ‘by chance’ events of my happy
life.
A friend and
physiotherapist, who casually dropped in home to meet my mother in law, has
managed to hook me to something I had preferred
to stay ignorant about all these years. Somehow, I always took up to liking a
particular form of exercise or physical activity, only if it made me
sweat a bucket and lose some
significant pounds on that ‘reality-check’ scale. Sitting in a verandah doing
some acrobatics never motivated me enough to give it a try. More so when yoga
is a practice that is inseparable from ‘meditation’. Because I am yet to fully discover the strengths of meditation.
However, I did
enroll myself for a yoga class only because my friend so highly recommended it to me. Thanks for that, Ketki. The 5:45am
session seemed most suitable. When I
woke up on day one to get ready for the class, I remember muttering to my
husband “I don’t think I will be
continuing with this. Its crazy. Too early to wake up”.
But quite
surprisingly, when I was back after my
first day at yoga, I knew I am not going to quit this one! You wanna know why?
Like all the trending ‘Five reasons and ten reasons’ links, here are my ‘High
Five’ :)
ONE is
, it does make me ‘sweat’!! Sweat while I stretch, and stretch and twist, and
twist and turn, and turn and bend, and then I sweat some more.
TWO is, while
I attempted to do all of this with my
minimally flexible body, I realized that I was better today than what I was the
previous day. When you see your body respond to your efforts, it pushes you to stay
stretched until the last count is heard. There’s visible improvement and hence
motivation to better yourself.
THREE is I
never knew that all through these years, I made a mess of my breathing. Did it
harm me in any way? May be. May be not. Until last month I panted for breath after
speeding up through the 100 steps of the hill behind our house. I am more comfortable now. Because I don’t
hold my breath anymore. I consciously practice the ‘inhale and exhale’ cycle
while climbing. Yes, we all tend to unconsciously hold our breath while we do heavy workouts.
Never realized? You may want to go for a run!
FOUR is I
have never been so pepped up about waking up at 5am without any external source
of motivation or compulsion. I enjoy my seven minutes of walk in the quiet dark
of dawn. I love doing my yoga as I hear the birds chirp on trees far away. Its more rejuvenating than a hot cup of coffee
with a book over a luxury holiday. All the verandah acrobatics make sense now J
And FIVE
is I love my ‘no-non sense’ yoga instructor. Meditation and philosophy is
sprinkled in just apt amounts .She knows when ‘not’ to be easy. Rest of the
times don’t matter.
That feeling when all your body muscles and tendons ache in the
night as you prepare to sleep, definitely adds up to the satisfaction quotient
of the day. Am sure that happens after
any rigorous workout. But yoga doesn’t show any overplay of a set of muscles
over others like in running, tennis etc. Its more like swimming. A balanced form of exercise because every
action is so beautifully and intentionally co-ordinated with breathing.
I am
not new to working out. And yet I am also more than used to being in the X or XL
category of physique. I do not know if yoga can bring down the X by a
couple of alphabets. But, it already makes me feel like the fittest and hottest
creature around. J I see that I am not too
concerned about the ‘weight’ anymore. Its more about fitness and ‘flexibility’-
a word that was missing from my workout
regimen so far.
Reason enough to
love and continue it, I say!
So all of you,
who’ve chosen to stay away from Yoga, this is one addiction you’ll never regret
having. Its worth indulging.
So, DoYouYoga????.... Not
yet??....
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