My love for yoga
How yoga transformed me…
Ever since I can remember I have struggled with my mental health, there’s moments when I am happy but even then, it does not feel real. I tried many things to balance and regulate my emotions and overall be a happy, normal person and nothing helped. It was not until I tried yoga that my mental health and way of being completely shifted. Yoga is a spiritual practice that allows for your mind and body to connect, bringing peace. Yoga is a Hindu practice which involves the use of bodily movements and meditation to gain deeper relaxation and physical health. During quarantine I had what people like to call a spiritual awakening. You see I was so depressed and mentally exhausted that I could no longer let myself stay in that place. I decided to practice mindfulness and dive into spirituality.
In the beginning of this phase of my life I tried to meditate. The thing about meditation is that you need to be able to have a clear, emotionally stable mind and that is difficult to do when you are constantly losing your mind. Meditation is something that was hard for me to sit and do. I could not just sit there and not think. I couldn’t strictly focus on only one thing. So I investigated other ways of practicing mindfulness. I quickly came to learn that yoga was a wonderful way of practicing mindfulness because you can use your body and breath to aid in its relaxation. One day I was having a dreadful day and so I decided to just start yoga and prayed that it would be the one thing that could help me. I looked up a beginner yoga video on YouTube and picked up an old yoga mat I had laid in my closet from sophomore years gym class. From that day I completely transformed my mental state forever. I played a YouTube video from a woman named Nico. Her channel is called “Black Yogi Nico Marie,” having her as my introduction to yoga allowed me to fall in love with the practice. Nico Marie’s mission is to make yoga accessible to people of color and share all the benefits yoga has to offer. I will link her channel because her mission is just as beautiful as the way she teaches yoga. Nicos channel has a way of making people feel included and welcomed as a beginner yogi trying their best to learn all the poses. The following link to her channel is, (Click here to see Nicos channel and mission statement ). The first video I watched and practiced with was a grounding root chakra yoga meditation. I will also be providing a link to the video because not only did the video help and drastically improve my life, but grounding yoga can also really help keep you balanced and grounded in your being. ( Click here to see the Root Chakra grounding yoga meditation ). I did a variation of focused movements and tapped into my breath work. By the end of the yoga, the base of my spine was throbbing and pulsating as if it was about to burst. I felt completely connected to my body and mind. I felt as if everything in my mind was finally silent, and I could just be.
Ever since that day I have been practicing yoga and hoping to get my yoga instructor license one day and even later in the future my own yoga studio. In which I hope to help other people like me connect with themselves and their body and hopefully find peace. Ever since that day I have tried my best to practice yoga every week. My practice was improving but I wanted to switch things up within my practice. I have always practiced yoga from the comfort of my own home and so I could only rely on my own amateur knowledge on how correct my form was when acting out the yoga positions. So, I decided the best place to advance my yoga skills was to go to a yoga studio and have an actual instructor teach me yoga. Physically being at a yoga studio would allow for me to make sure I was doing the yoga positions safely and accurately. I would also be in a room full of people who also practice yoga and I would be able to look at them and their form to correct mine. Being in a yoga studio full of people who do yoga also allowed me to be in a space where I would feel comfortable sharing an interest that mutually brings us a lot of peace. At first when I signed up for a yoga class, I was scared and a little intimidated. I was intimidated because this would be my first ever yoga class and I did not know if everyone in there was already advanced. When I first wanted to join the yoga class, I was a bit hesitant and felt as if everyone in there would be judging me. I decided to go anyway and ignore the little voice in my head of self-doubt that was the reason I turned to yoga in the first place. I packed my black yoga mat and wore some athletic attire and headed to the yoga studio in Harlem. I got to the yoga studio and the aroma in the studio relaxed me instantly. It smelled like Lavender essential oil and incense. I felt as if I was going to be taken care of because I was in a room full of people who understood me and shared a love for the same practice that brings so much peace to so many people. I went into an open spaced room which already had a few people inside and laid out my yoga mat in the back of the room. A few minutes went by, and the yoga instructor began the class. We began a vinyasa flow which is a series of yoga moves transitions one after the other. The flow can best be described as so peaceful and transformational. It first starts out with a series of movements and transitions into a steady flow. The flow feels like an ocean moving throughout your body connecting your mind, body, and soul. During the practice I felt so comfortable and so at ease. I used my breath work to ease in and out of the yoga poses as I listened and followed the yoga instructor’s instructions. For the first time since I started yoga, I felt confident in my yoga abilities and did not feel like an amateur who did not know what she was doing. Before, yoga brought me a lot of peace and I always came out of it more relaxed and grounded, but I did not fully feel as if I were improving with my poses. I felt I could improve with my accuracy and balance. It was not until I walked out of that yoga studio that day from my first ever class that I believed I had truly gotten one step closer to perfecting my craft.
Yoga is a practice that has helped millions for centuries. Yoga started 5,000 years ago, that’s 5,00 years of helping people with a variety of different issues. Yoga is a practice that can help many people heal their mind, body, and soul. Which is why more people need to know about yoga and the drastic ways it can help and heal your life. I went from a very depressed girl to someone who found hope and confidence in a new way of life. Yoga saved me through its gentle, motherly, healing energy. I felt as if I could become who I always wanted to be and live a life without pain and sadness. Yoga can help transform the lives of many for the better, every person that I have spoken to who has tried yoga said that it has changed their physical and mental health. Yoga is a spiritual practice, but it is also a practice that can connect you to yourself and allow for you to be In-tune with everything around you. You become so connected to everything as if you were simply one. That is a powerful transformative thing.
