I joined this forum to try and connect with others about yoga. I have done yoga videos over the years for fitness but I have recently gotten into the philosophical/spiritual path of yoga. I attended my first live yoga class last week at a local studio and loved it.
Yoga is the only thing in my life that isn’t rooted in perfection and external validation. I feel like over the years I have been living my life in order to be compete with the masses. I have always wanted the perfect life with the perfect job, boyfriend, body, wardrobe, car, friends, etc…
Earlier this year I focused on getting in shape but realized that even that was a competition. I would go running but always felt like a failure because I wasn’t fast enough. I would compare my body with celebrities in magazines and become frustrated that I wasn’t as “thin” or “toned”.
I had one yoga video in my workout collection that I did on my “rest” days. I found that I liked the feeling I got out of it so much that I began to do it everyday. I loved that I didn’t have to do the poses to perfection and that I didn’t have to “push, push, push” like with my other workout tapes. I found that getting “inside” myself was more important. I also realized that learning to relax was as much of a challenge as competing 10k.
I have now tremendously cut down on my “drill sergeant” workout tapes and sometimes do 2 yoga practices a day. I would now rather do yoga than huff and puff on a treadmill like a rat on a wheel.
So far I have noticed remarkable benefits due to yoga and I haven’t even got into doing pranayama yet(excuse my ignorance if that is not the right terminology…I still have a lot of read up on and learn :)). I left yoga class last week feeling so much love. I have been having issues with vulnerability over the last couple of years and I think I made a good breakthrough. I was so afraid to attend a yoga class in person because I thought I would look foolish. However, I realized that there was no reason to do so.
I look forward to learning a lot on this forum and thanks for reading my post (not the shortest introduction). Sorry for any grammatical errors as I just wanted to quickly post this before I got back into the “rat race” again (aka. my job!).