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Be a Better Person

Whenever I call my Dad he usually asks me, “Did you go to 'yogurt' today?”
He calls it yogurt to be funny, I think it’s cute. "Sure Dad," I say, "I went to 'yogurt' today - how’d you guess?"

Most people don’t understand why you should go to yoga; it seems so foreign to them. They of course will say things like. “Oh yea, I heard yoga was really good for you.” But yet they won’t go if you ask them – I wonder why? I guess I was like that too once. Some people have too much fear of the unknown to try something new, some think it’s over-rated, and others have more serious problems. I’m glad I got over my initial nervousness because I’m a totally different BETTER person because of it.

So if you were to ask me why I go to yoga? I would probably answer as “that depends on what day it is” the reasons always differ. In the beginning (3 years ago) I went to class like a Nazi yoga girl 5 - 7 days a week; and twice on Sundays. Back then I was super stressed out because I had a job that I hated, worked in a cubicle (Yuk!), talked on the phone 40 hours a week, and had to deal with micro bank mangers. (Not good). So, my only escape that wasn’t the refrigerator was the yoga class room. Yoga makes you feel much better then chocolate, ice-cream, or white Russians because you don’t feel bad after you indulge. It took me sometime to figure that out, but that’s part of the practice “Self Realization.”

As the years have gone by, and the jobs and relationships have changed, my yoga has changed as well. I now come about 3 times a week (if I’m lucky), but I’m so much more flexible then when I started. I can balance without falling (this was a big accomplishment at the beginning), and I can now do most of the postures correctly. Even though I’ve been practicing for years I still find myself learning new things. For instance here’s a hard one: try to relax your shoulders throughout the whole class especially between postures. This sounds easy but it’s hard to remember, because we have a lot of stress in our shoulders and they naturally tense up.

There’s no doubt about it, I’ve turned into a “yogi.” I think there are worse things in life so I’m happy with the nickname. In the beginning I went for the exercise, but now I go for the mental calmness it helps me to keep throughout my day. We’re all different; some of us are stressed, worried, depressed, sick, injured, out of shape, lonely or worse, but by the time we finish class all that yucky stuff seems to melt away. I can’t explain it – all I can say is that if you’re not doing yoga a couple of times a week, you’re missing out on a better life.