The Case for Yoga

I don’t know if we are reaching the point in this blog where I say:

“Yoga”

and you say:

“For the love of all things holy, shut the fuck up.“

But I truly can’t help myself when it comes to thinking about yoga and talking about yoga and thinking about talking about yoga because it’s just so damn good. I mean life changing-ly good.

I’ve been finding myself wanting to delve in further into yoga. Like really dive into the roots and origins of the practice and the scientifically proven health benefits of the practice (because let me tell you that based on personal experience I know the health benefits of yoga). And I want to hear (hello podcasts) and read what actual yoga gurus have to say on the matter.

And I was thinking how when I tell someone about yoga and how yummy it is and they’re all like, “Yoga isn’t my thing” and I’m all like, “I’m sorry i don’t understand what you just said,” that it has taken me a minute to get to the point of being borderline obsessed with yoga. I didn’t just wake up one day and suddenly want to be a yoga expert. It’s been 10 years since I first discovered the practice and what the hell, let’s do an “It all started when”… segment.

It all started when…

After I birthed my #2 and my post-partum hormones somehow started settling down that I began to think outside of my own anxieties. I wanted to get back in shape, you know flat tummy and pre-pregnancy clothes, because back then my goals were different. Now, I had done the conventional gym membership, personal trainer after #1 and I hated every second of it. Well, actually I had a buddy to go with so that part was fun but the work out suuuuucked and I knew I didn’t want to go back to “working out” to get in shape. But, I still had a gym membership and low and behold they offered some combination class of yoga and Pilates and I think they called it Pi-Yo.

I fell in love.

I looked forward to my weekly time-away-from-my-responsibilities classes because it was time for myself that I truly enjoyed. I tapped into something that I think I lost when I became a mother knee deep in babies and toddlers. Now, I know you’re not supposed to say this but I’m saying it anyway.

We lose ourselves in motherhood and there’s no reward for doing so. In fact, I think that the best thing we can do for our kids is to maintain our human-ness. We didn’t stop being human when we became moms so why do all signs of the world say we should we act like it?

I digress.

As we all know, gym memberships and exercise class costs become expensive and seemingly frivolous. So when something has to go from the budget we get rid of the things we think are extras and my soul reviving PiYo was one of them. This was before I realized the necessity of self care and how it impacted my spirit.

I feel like this was before the time of free YouTube (or at least I had no knowledge of it if it was available) and we still had to buy workout videos and they still cost money.

Y’all, I may as well be ancient

I remember trying to find somewhere free and affordable where I could jump back into the realm of yoga because I knew what it was doing for me when I did it. I took me another five years of dabbling in the idea of yoga before I discovered Adriene for freezies (do we say things like freezies anymore?) on YouTube and BAM.

I had my perfect workout scenario. Free yoga at home. Like I don’t have to talk to people.

Not to be antisocial but that is definitely my jam.

Anyhoo (do we still say anyhoo?), I fell in love with Adriene. Obviously everyone has since she has 10 million subscribers on YouTube. The woman is a fucking force to reckon with. The thing that I respect the most about her is that if you watch her older videos compared to now, she is literally the same. Same vibe and still humble. And one day when I’m rich and famous, I vow to be the same.

I mean if I’m gonna go for it I may as well go for it.

Also I’m kidding. I have no desire to remain humble.

Kidding.

Anyway, I did online Adriene yoga for awhile and then felt this nagging need to escalate my yoga practice. I heard about this thing called hot yoga. Now I hate sweating so I was semi skeptical and if fact had asked myself a few times, “what kind of psycho would do hot yoga?”

It me.

Somehow I got conned into going and damn it if it wasn’t the bestest thing ever. So, I converted. There’s something about the ice cold, essential oil clad cloth at the end of practice that made sweating worth it. I went once a week until COVID and then, well you know, I lost my mojo.

To be fair, I think we all did.

I’ve since rediscovered the joys of home practice and incorporating daily yoga into my routine and the more I practice the more I am convinced that yoga will save humanity.

Now don’t get your panties in a bunch. I know that Jesus saves humanity. But I think we can have Jesus AND yoga.

I get that it is not everyone’s cup of tea and to that I say:

but it is. You just don’t know it yet.

Yoga brings self awareness, mindfulness, and intention into my day to day. It also helps to deepen my faith and desire to know my Savior. I am literally a calmer and kinder human being when I start and end my day with yoga. It has taught me that I am worthy of slowing down. That I am worthy of taking time.

That I am worth being better.

It has let me be unapologetically big and loud and unafraid to take up as much fucking space as I can possibly take. I am more motivated to continue on the path of self improvement and I am so damn convicted on consistency I can hardly stand it.

To sum up: everything is better.

And really when I look at our world and what is happening in it, don’t we all just want better?