I get asked a lot of questions about yoga and flowing. Therefore, I thought that I would dedicate an entire post to this topic. Today’s post is a little bit different from my other fitness related post, so grab your coffee or tea, get cozy and enjoy!
I first practiced yoga when I was in high school during PE/dance class. It was very fun, relaxing and I loved it. Then, I went off to college and they always had those weekly yoga classes where you can attend for free. Sadly, I only went once haha. I really wish that I had went more often because yoga classes are kinda expensive, especially for a college student living on her own (Insert raised hand emoji here). Fast forward to about 2 years ago, I started showing a lot of interest into yoga; it wasn’t for the deeper, spiritual part of it, but for the flexibility and stillness part of it. Whenever I saw a picture of a yogi or a video of a yogi flowing, they always look like they had that flexibility, stillness, inner peace thing going on. And I wanted that.
Therefore, I started watching yoga videos so I could learn the basis. One of the first channels that i started watching was “Yoga with Adrienne”. She’s still one of my favorite yogis till this day. I would do the easy poses such as cat and cow, chair pose, tree pose almost everyday. My form wasn’t correct but I was learning everyday. I was focusing on getting flexible and working on my balance. Practicing made me happy and I feel like I was getting closer and closer to be able to do any yoga poses just like the yogis on my Instagram feed. But something happened.
One of my friend told me that I should not practice it because of its roots since I’m a Christian. I’ve never thought of it like that. I always thought of yoga as a physical exercise even though I knew about its roots and a little bit about the whole spirituality going on with yoga. Therefore, I stopped practicing for a while. I did not think that I was doing something wrong because I was just focusing the physical aspects of yoga or Asana. Therefore, I started to refer to yoga as ”stretches” because that’s one of the main reasons why I was doing it. I did some research on ”yoga and Christianity” and I found that there are a lot of Christians who practice yoga or asana. I found that ”It’s the intention- On and off the mat- that determines whether a practice is yoga or not” (Beliefnet); And that’s what I’ve always believed. I read this article that used gymnastic as an example… ”But to attempt to draw conclusions on the theistic nature of yoga by examining only posture is problematic. If posture alone is religious, then what is difference between a headstand in gymnastics and shirshasana in yoga practice? If it’s only about posture, then are all gymnasts who do headstands also doing something religious?” (beliefnet).
Yoga is so much more than just asana. It’s a whole practice beyond me and my understanding, hence most of the time I don’t refer to my stretches as yoga but simply as stretch, asana or flow. To be honest, I don’t believe practicing yoga (asana) as a Christian is wrong when you’re doing it as a physical activity. It can be very confusing because the word yoga has so many different meaning in this modern world. However, I think most people,especially in the US, use it as just a physical activity, asana. I’m still pretty new at it and consider myself as a beginner. I learn something new everyday through flowing which I’m very thankful for. I’ve come a long way which encourages me to keep going because I realize that my body is so amazing and is able to do poses that I’ve never thought possible. Therefore, I’m very happy to get to experience asana.
Have you ever thought of practicing yoga/asana? Or do you practice yoga/asana? What do you think of yoga in general? Leave a comment bellow to tell me because I would love to know!
As always, do not hesitate to email me with your feedback and post that you would like to see more of on my blog!
Xoxo!
♥SmileyMaruth♥
