I enjoy sports, I really do, but I got tired of always being the last one picked into a team in gym class, which ruined my love for sports. Thank goodness, after grade 10 in high school, Phys. Ed is no longer a requirement. However, I ended up choosing yoga as one of my extracurriculars other than Choir. I wanted to take film studies, but the school could not fit it into my already crazy schedule. Hence, yoga it was. I was not excited, and I did not find the first day of yoga particularly fun either. The first day is always awkward for me, as we perform the typical icebreakers to get each other talking, and I hate small talk with a burning passion.
But after three months, things changed, and I found myself looking forward to pushups and headstands, despite how I still struggle with them. Rather than just being an elective that easily helped bump up my overall average, yoga actually became a safe space for me, a break better than lunchtime. This enthusiasm started slow, but it was constantly being built up each day, and now I look back at how I got to this point.
With my otherwise hectic schedule (History IB, member of Amnesty International, executive writer and editor for the school’s Parallel Magazine, Choir on Tuesday and Friday mornings) Yoga gave me the relaxation and mental timeout that I desperately needed. At first, it did not help. First times are often the hardest. All I could think about while meditating or working out was how I had a history test that was worth a lot of marks after this class, or how I just had a math test before this class and didn’t do so well. But I got better and better. Believe it or not, yoga does help you work better. At the same time, of course, I was learning to manage my time with everything I had to do.
Another thing that got me loving yoga, the major part, is that it’s all about you. You don’t have to worry about being slower or weaker than others; it is your practice. You work at your own pace. Although we sometimes work in partners or groups, there is no competition. I’m not saying competitive sports shouldn’t exist, but I need room to grow before I want to compete with someone, and how can I get better when no one will pass me the ball when playing soccer? Yoga gives me a chance to work on myself without beating myself up about my progress. There is simply no pressure. Scared of doing headstands? Don’t worry, you’ll get there. Feel pain in your back doing a certain position? Drop the position, you will get there someday. In a world where we are constantly under pressure to be the best at everything, yoga is the Sweet Escape, at least it has been for me.
What made me love yoga, even more, was my yoga teacher. I understand that teachers are human and that they can like some students more than others and then can’t seem to realize there are other students who really want to be told they are doing a good job, especially if you are a quiet student. My yoga teacher always made sure to let me know that my presence was acknowledged, always asked me what I liked about our practices. That is also a very important factor in how I got to enjoy doing yoga. I have had so many classes that I thought I liked but ended up hating because I never had that connection with a teacher, or I just felt ignored. The way a mentor does their job matters and has a big impact on your attitude and my yoga teacher has made one of my very first experiences with so many different yoga poses enjoyable.
If you ever get the opportunity to take yoga classes, please do. It’s calming, rewarding, and you don’t have to impress anyone. Also, it makes you so much stronger!
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