Recently I find myself increasingly curious about meditation, yoga and obtaining peace of mind. I am not sure if it has to do with all of the Oprah programs I am watching or more the desire to find a way to keep my mind clear enough to write when I am up against the deadline (as I always am). Truth be told it is a fair mixture of both, I am a huge fan of Oprah’s LifeClass any Own program and I still have a 2 page analysis paper due from before spring break(please don’t judge me). Whatever it might be that is bringing on my constant stress and cloudy mind I have found that a few things actually help to clear it.
After years of wanting to do yoga I finally took a friend up on an invitation to join her at a Sunday afternoon session. The experience was a memorable one; me struggling to balance my self on one leg or hold positions with every muscle trembling while the rest of the class seemed to flawlessly glide from position to position. I lost track of how many times I said to myself ” I thought yoga was supposed to be relaxing and calm”. But as the session was concluding , I found myself down on my yoga mat calmly breathing , mind effortlessly drifting off unaware of the macho body building men who had earlier watched me head over to the yoga mats.
When the lights finally turned on and the instructor told us she looked forward to seeing us next week, I was floating over to my friend with the surrealist feeling of serenity I had have ever experienced. I felt somewhere in between sleep and euphoria. The rest of the day and subsequently the next one as well was filled with great clarity. In the time after, I spent nights practicing breathing exercises to help settle my thoughts enough for me to fall asleep.
Since then I have developed a weekly routine of attending a Sunday evening yoga class courtesy of Oswego’s fitness centers. What has made my yoga classes even better was learning that other SUNY schools don’t all offer classes without paying a separate fee. How lucky are we to get a yoga class that not only winds down as the sun sets over the lake but not have to pay an additional fee?
The health benefits of yoga are substantial I am sure but I’ll leave that up to a professional or someone with more knowledge on yoga practices to tell you. I’m just here to say yoga has definitely been a great stabilizer in my life.
Hi Kwambe.
I love your article 🙂
It’s wonderful to hear you have gained so much from your yoga practice so quickly.
I love your description of your first experience – ‘somewhere between sleep and euphoria’ – absolutely!!
You could call it conscious sleep in which you derive all of it’s benefits while in the joys of lucid awareness :))
Good luck with your classes and studies and may the prana remain with you always.
Best wishes and Namaste,
Matt 🙂
I’m glad to see that more and more people are starting to resort to mindfulness meditation to bring balance to their emotions, stress levels and self-acceptance, all of which are very essential aspects in the modern day. Even larger communities and groups have begun to profit from the numerous health benefits of mindfulness, it’s amazing how fast it’s growing on people, after all, these techniques are very ancient. When you combine this with another sport discipline, you’re on your way to being the best version of yourself you possibly can, both physically and spiritually!
Bad breath is a direct consequence of my difficulties in handling the situations I experience inside and outside. This difficulty may be due to the fact that I remain in my positions on certain ideas that I do not express and that are rotten in situ. The difficulty may also be that I cannot overcome the difficulties of a time of great change in my life and that old ideas stagnate too long in terms of the speed of change I experience. I see the extent to which I can “choose” the situations in my life. It is important that I communicate with the people involved to share my emotions and thoughts, to “get rid” of my bad breath. It is often linked to thoughts of criticism, hatred, revenge that I have for myself or for another person and of which I am ashamed. The air I breathe and nourish my cells is charged with all my positive and negative thoughts. What thoughts do I have in myself that infect my breath? Often these thoughts are unconscious. If a person is constantly in this situation, it would be a good idea to tell them to become aware of it and to solve the problem that may have existed for a long time. If you know, you will have the opportunity to experience forgiveness. Either forgiveness for herself, because she had unhealthy thoughts, or forgiveness from someone else, because she had been angry with him for so long. It is good to remember that when love and honesty are the building blocks of my thoughts, my breath becomes fresh. I free myself from the unhealthy thoughts of the past. Now I breathe in the freshness of my new positive thoughts of love, for myself and for others.