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What is the most stressful thing you have ever done? Being an upcoming college freshman and scheduling classes is one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done. During new student orientation at Penn State, in the College of Science at least, they match you up with an upperclassman who sits with you at a computer while you “shop” for the classes you want at new student orientation. I had a basic idea of what I needed to take and I knew that I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with too many credits my first semester.
After all the required courses were added, I had a little room for general credits. I ended up deciding to take Crim 100 because I was interested in Forensic Science which left me with 17 credits. I ended up being the last one to leave the room due to my indecisiveness. I cried to my Dad in the car due to feeling like I hadn’t chosen the best classes and signed on for a heavy course load of credit hours.
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We came to the conclusion that I would put myself on the waitlist for Beginner Yoga (to satisfy gym credit and for less credits) and if I got in, I could drop Crim 100. Luckily by the end of August I saw that the class was secured on my schedule so I promptly dropped Criminology. I was both excited and nervous on my first day of yoga-excited to see everything that it had to offer but nervous because I didn’t know what to expect.
In the first week, we learned some basic positions and it wasn’t until the next week that our first reading assignment was due. It was during this reading that I realized what my goal for the rest of the semester would be; to apply the values of yoga to my life.
This reading, called Living Principles: Yoga mind, body and spirit: a return to wholeness, discussed the answer to the basic question, “what is yoga?” and the ten living principles of yoga including the codes for living soulfully. It also answered the question, “what are yoga asanas and why practice them” and then further explained it in a section titled: Practicing with Joyfulness. It wasn’t until the end of this article that I realized how true everything that this article said was and how, being an easily stressed-out person, I could make myself more calm. I read through the article carefully and thought about ways I could take these words and apply them to my life. In the section titled Yamas-Wise Characteristics, I was particularly drawn to the paragraph titled: Ahimsa-Compassion for All Living Things. It is important to be compassionate towards others- that is something that has been taught to us from a very young age. But being compassionate towards ourselves is not something we tend to think about very often, or at least I don’t think so. This paragraph brought up the importance of self-acceptance and made the reader contemplate what it means to be non-violent to themselves. Unfortunately, we surround ourselves with negative messages during times of stress by restating old clichés such as, “Oh I just wish I could die,” or “Kill me.” It is important for both the practice of yoga and for our everyday life that we focus more on rewarding ourselves for what we have and what we have accomplished rather than reminding ourselves of what we have failed on or struggled with that day (Farhi, 9-10). I hope to bring this to my yoga practice and also to my life- especially as a college student who is easily overwhelmed with studies and a busy schedule. The other part of this reading that I really enjoyed was the section titled Santosha- Contentment. I feel like this section, of all the sections, spoke to me the most. Contentment allows you to be “okay” with whatever situation is occurring in your life. It should not be confused with not wanting to move forward or grow at all, but rather realizing that you don’t need to in order to be successful in that exact moment and time. It also does not mean that we put up with something in our lives that is bothering us, but rather we allow ourselves to come to terms with it and make the most out of it (Farhi,13). In order to improve contentment, you must also focus on hopefulness if your situation is not ideal. This seems counterintuitive, yet in practice it allows you to realize that you can be content with your current situation and also realize that things are going to be better. I know I need to apply this concept to my life, because a lot of times I feel anxiety if things aren’t going as planned. Recently moving into college, I had hoped that I wouldn’t be hanging out with my friends that were here from high school and making new friends but it seems that I’ve been so busy with other things that I often turn to them anyway. I want to take the time to be content with the fact that I have them in my life and that they are always there for me and remember that I will continue to make new friends as well. I am therefore content with what I have and being hopeful for what is to come. I want to remind myself constantly of the good things I have in life rather than bringing myself down.
Reading this article prompted me to want to do more research on this topic and more specifically on exactly how to bring these values of yoga into my life, expecting that I would learn more about perfecting my practice of yoga during class. I found the article titled “Yoga as a Spiritual Path” that attracted me right away with one of the first paragraphs answering the question, “But How Do Most People Live?” with the fact that we live in a “mental hurricane.” A lot of times we get ourselves caught up in this hurricane of emotions like anger, frustration and jealousy so much that it stops us from feeling the emotions of happiness and love that yoga can bring us. It goes on to explain that yoga is a relaxation to the body and therefore allows us to release our mental stress. The most important part of this section to me was that it mentioned that you need a good teacher in order to continue on this journey. That made me feel blessed to be able to take this class and learn from my teacher, who has a lot of experience with yoga. It then goes onto explain the different types of yoga. At this point, I came to the realization that this is the perfect class for what I had hoped to accomplish. The class I’m taking is specifically Hatha yoga which is practiced for maintaining healthy and vitality and is known for creating clear-minded individuals. ‘Ha’- translates to sun and ‘-tha’, moon which symbolizes harmonizing your inner body with your outer. The article then proceeded to explain “The Spiritual Path and Its Stages” and it was as if whoever had written this article was inside of my mind. You are first inspired to do something to change your life, just as I was when on my first day of yoga class. Next, you choose your path, which I have chosen to continue practicing yoga and working towards practicing applying everything I learn to my life. Followed by giving yourself to truth, beauty or goodness; I feel as if working towards my goal I am accepting the truth of what yoga has to offer which is considered equilibrium. The final step is to reach deeper into relationships with God and with yourself which is why I have chosen to make my goal to continue to work toward learning everything that I can in order to reach this relaxation that yoga brings.
Feeling inspired by what this one class could do in my life made me want to explore if others had this same experience and how it affected their life, I wanted some reassurance that it was possible to have this occur in my life. I found an article (titled “How Yoga Changed My Life”) written by a woman who had been introduced to yoga by her friend and at first felt hesitant for a number of reasons including the fact that she didn’t have a yoga mat and that she wasn’t flexible at all. She then went on to discuss how she felt after continuing to go to class. She discussed how the negative thoughts that often raced through her mind had begun to slow down when she was forced to focus on her breathing. This was something that I had noticed happening without even realizing it in my first few classes. I want to focus on breathing not just inside of class though. When I feel myself getting overwhelmed in life, I want to remember the feeling of focusing on your breathing and how easily it can remove negativity. She explained that yoga made her feel like she was living a life free of judgement which is something that I feel myself getting caught up in so often. It is so easy to start judging others based on their outward appearance. For me yoga makes me feel like there are greater things to be worried about within yourself than judging someone else. Reading through this article made me feel even more ready to begin focusing on teaching myself to feel how you do during practice. This woman, who had started out just like me, was able to accomplish exactly what I have set out to accomplish.
I feel so thankful to have been given the opportunity to take this class as well as to have been given that first reading as an assignment that allowed me to set a goal for the rest of this semester. Reading that first article taught me the basics of what yoga is and that it offers relaxation to your mind and soul during practice. As I was reading I was feeling that I wanted to feel this in the rest of my life. As I began to explore this idea more, I came upon the specific ways in order to do so and how my journey would look. At last, I found several articles and one specifically that I enjoyed the most, written by people who had yoga change their life. Now that I have gained all this knowledge, the next step on my journey is to remember it all, continue to learn from my teacher by embracing each class, and to remind myself of what I can do when I am filled with negative emotions. This will be my goal from now until the end of this semester.
The Values Of Yoga To My Life. (2024, Feb 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-values-of-yoga-to-my-life-essay
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