Yoga has got to be one of the longest-standing health fads out there. It can be traced back to India around the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., and is definitely the only one listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. The word yoga in Sanskrit roughly translates to “union,” and the activity is based on the connection between the mind, body – and in some forms – spirituality. While yoga as we know it in the Western world was not imported until the late 1800’s, it gained mass popularity only recently, and like any health fad such as vegetarianism and drinking kombucha, your girl Hui Wen jumped right on that train.
I took my first yoga classes at the Repsol Centre (formerly Talisman Centre, RIP) with my junior high gym classes, and all that I can really remember about the classes was that I liked the part at the end where you got to sleep. However, as I became more aware of the world and myself, mental health and physical well-being became a priority for me; I started to take yoga a lot more seriously since it bridges the gap between the two. I practiced sporadically for a few years, dropping in to the odd class here and there, but never regularly since taking time to go to a studio and paying for a membership wasn’t practical, so when I found out my high school was going to be offering a yoga class in my Grade 12 year, I enrolled.
Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was still a rookie yogini who didn’t know much about yoga apart from some memory of the poses I’d held as the sweat dripped into my eyes during my hot yoga classes. I went into the first day of class expecting more or less the same: some sweaty, work-out, vinyasa (flow) yoga. Instead, what I quickly learned was that there are many different schools of yoga with their own unique purposes and focuses, and the style our teacher was skilled in was Iyengar form, which focuses on posture and correct alignment in order to improve the integrity and benefits of a pose. I would practice this style of yoga on the weekdays at school, and go to my weekly free hot yoga class on Sundays to sweat out the week and start fresh. And after more than four months of yoga six days a week, I’ve come a long way in my practice and learned a lot from it too.
Practice Makes Perfect
Before taking the yoga course at my school, the sporadic practice I did left me would leave me feeling sore for a few days afterwards, but I was never really reaping the long-term benefits of yoga. Throughout the semester, I began to see yoga as so much more than just a trendy way to work out, instead, I began to see it as a lifestyle that needs to be fostered. By practicing daily, I felt myself getting stronger and more flexible, being able to hold poses and stay focused for longer, and being able to find balance quicker. Even when I went on a yoga haitus over winter break (while still going to my class every Sunday), I found that when I returned, I wasn’t as flexible or comfortable with the poses. The true benefits of yoga, like anything else in life, can only be reaped with dedication and constant practice.
Being Mindful & Letting Go
A large part of what makes yoga such a great activity is the aspect of mindfulness that is essential to the practice. When the stress of school and life got to be too much noise inside of my head, I could always rely on yoga class to relieve the pressure. We started every class with sukhasana, a grounding pose that was mean to make us aware of our posture, and shift our focus inside. From there, we were told to let go of any expectation for the day, and anything that might’ve already happened to make sure we were fully living in the present and focused for our practice. My teacher made our class aware of the fact that so much of what occupies our mind is either from the past or the future, and we rarely think about the present moment, and in a lot of cases, we let the anxiety or the feelings created from those thoughts prevents us from staying focused. Once I became more aware of this fact, I began to accept that thinking about my chemistry test in the afternoon won’t help me and I should just allow myself to relax.
We spent a few classes focused on learning and practicing meditation, which essentially aims to quell the noise and random thoughts that drift into the mind with the help of your natural breath. While it seems like a pointless act, being able to control what thoughts stay and what thoughts leave your mind is actually an incredibly useful skill to learn. It allows us to shut out negative thoughts from our brains during crucial moments and can be applied in many different situations, not just when you decide to meditate. Mindfulness has been probably one of the most useful and life-changing skills that I’ve taken away from my yoga practice this past semester, and has allowed me to let go of my negative feelings and live a happier life.
Trust Your Body & Be Aware
One of the biggest differences I experienced with practicing Iyengar yoga as opposed to vinyasa was the amount of individual focus the teacher paid to us. In vinyasa, poses move quick, with little time to stop and correct any misalignment, risking injury if you are unaware. Through a slower practice, I learned so much about how to hold a pose correctly, and how to modify poses to suit my own needs. In fact, yoga is all about variations and accepting without judgement, so no matter what the pose and what the skill level, there is a modification that will make the pose accessible to you and will reap you the most benefit. By listening to my own body and trusting its limits, I modified poses to my own needs. I also found that through practicing in the Iyengar school of yoga, I was able to solidify a lot of the yoga basics (i.e. I can hold a pretty good triangle pose!) that I can translate to my vinyasa practice. Because of all the microscopic adjustments that I had to make to hold a pose with integrity, I became more aware of my body, and even when I’m not doing yoga, I am aware of the alignment of my spine and my posture and have the tools to correct it.
Karma – Giving it Back
Yoga is so much more than just stretching or strengthening. A part of yoga that transcends the classroom is the practice of Karma Yoga, the practice of being selfless and giving back without expectation of reward or recognition, but simply because it is the right thing to do. This belief system is something that I’ve come to strongly agree and identify with, and I hope to carry it in every action. It’s so much happier to do what is right with no ulterior motives or desire for reward than to expect something will end up personally benefiting you.
Through yoga, I’ve come to live a happier life by improving my physical health by achieving a balance between strength and stretching, and improved my mental health by learning to let go of necessary thoughts and to act with pure intentions. There is so much more to explore with yoga, and while I am still a beginner, I’m so glad that my school decided to introduce yoga as a class and that I took a chance on it. My hope for the future would be to continue my yoga practice and to carry forth with me the benefits and the skills I have learned from this semester wherever I go.
Looking to get involved? Luckily, Calgary is an amazing city home to numerous studios and teachers who teach many different styles. I currently practice at HotShop and am a fan of the cleansing effects of the hot vinyasa yoga classes offered there, however, yoga is meant to be a highly individualized practice, so when exploring options, always choose a studio, style, and a teacher that you feel comfortable with!
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All opinions are my own