By Will MacDonald
“Yoga is not about touching your toes. It is about what you learn on the way down.”
For a long time, I had a lot of false assumptions about yoga. Before trying it out myself, the only examples I had of individuals doing yoga in my life were women, so naturally I thought it was mainly an exercise for women. Yoga seemed like a weird workout where you sweat and twist yourself into pretzels. I figured you had to be flexible to do it, and I have always been very inflexible. So all-in-all, I thought that yoga was not for me. As I got into college, I got very stressed with everything that I felt I had to do. While studying psychology, I learned that exercise is crucial to regulating anxiety and other symptoms like depression (APA, 2017). However, I have never been good at consistently going to the gym. At that time, someone recommended yoga to me, citing all the benefits of how it might help with anxiety. I was skeptical because of all of my misguided assumptions. I lingered on the idea and when the time to sign up for more college classes came, I noticed my school offered a yoga class for a credit. I figured if I had to attend a yoga class at school, then I would be more likely to consistently do yoga.
The type of yoga I did was called Ashtanga yoga. There are many different forms of yoga, but as far as I could find, there are 13 basic forms of yoga, although it seems this number is debated (Taylor, 2020). There are different practices that can fit all types of people, intensity, and focus preferences. There is couple yoga that you can do with someone you care about and even prenatal yoga that helps pregnant women manage the side effects of pregnancy (Taylor, 2020). Power Yoga/ Vinyasa Flow yoga is a high intensity yoga often done in high temperature studios whereas Kundalini yoga focuses more on spiritual techniques which includes meditation, breathing, and chanting. For me, Ashtanga yoga turned out to be perfect to help me start out and get comfortable with it.
When I attended my first yoga class, I noticed it was almost entirely girls, which only helped to confirm my biases. I felt hesitant and a little embarrassed to be there; however I swallowed my hesitancy and reminded myself that I am never against trying new things. It definitely took some getting used to, but after a while, I felt more comfortable being there. I started to realize that yoga was not a girl’s club, nor a religion. Yoga is a practice which has been used for thousands, possibly millions, of years for people to find peace and balance in their lives. I assure you, this peace and balance is nothing magical, although some would say it is a spiritual experience. For me personally, yoga helped me regulate my stress and anxiety so much.
Yoga has been shown to improve stress, resilience, positive affect, mindfulness, job burn out, and even satisfaction with your job (Trent et al., 2019). I notice all of these improvements in my life, especially with school. I was able to work for longer periods of time and I tended to not let the stress get to me so much. Yoga even helped me to remember to simply breathe whenever I felt overwhelmed and needed a break. It has also shown to have long-lasting effects, so as long as you practice, your anxiety can continue to stay down (Trent et al., 2019). Whether you have practiced for 10 years or just for the past 10 weeks, it does not matter. Studies have shown that how often you practice actually matters more than how many years you have practiced (Ross et al., 2012). So you can pick it up at any time and start feeling the benefits right away. It may seem too good to be true, but I know it is for myself. I started out with practicing only twice a week, and as I practiced more, I saw more of these benefits in my life.
Through research, scientists have found that yoga actually increases the amount of GABA in your brain, an important chemical that is responsible for regulating a lot of your stress and mood (Harvard, 2021). Those who practice yoga tend to have better temperments when faced with high stress situations. The same research found that yoga practitioners have thicker cerebral cortex and hippocampus’. Both of these parts of the brain are essential for retaining memory and reasoning, especially when you are older. As yoga practitioners age, these areas of the brain show less shrinkage than those who do not practice yoga. There are so many reasons to do yoga.
If I haven’t said it yet, I will say it now—I really like yoga. After trying it, I have learned that anyone can do it, no matter your gender, flexibility, or stamina. I will also say that yoga is not my life and certainly not the only way I maintain my happiness. In fact, yoga should only be used as a supplementary treatment for mental illnesses such as depression and severe anxiety (APA, 2017). I try my best to practice as much as I can. Being in school actually makes it very affordable as well. I have been in two yoga classes at my college now, which I encourage you all to check out as well. If that doesn’t seem like an option for you, then you can also try out youtube videos or even yoga apps. I use an app called Down Dog, which has many prerecorded yoga sessions led by a trained instructor. You can set how long you want to exercise, what kind of yoga, and even your level of experience. The best part is that it is free for college students (believe me when I say this is not an ad). If you are debating whether or not you will try out yoga like I was, then I ask you, coming from someone who knows how it feels, to just give it a shot. :)
“Yoga is essentially a practice for your soul, working through the medium of your body.”
References
American Psychological Association. (2017, August 3). Yoga Effective at Reducing Symptoms of Depression. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/08/yoga-depression
Harvard Medical School. (2021, June 12). Yoga for better mental health. Harvard Health. Retrieved November 4, 2022, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/yoga-for-better-mental-health
Taylor, R. B. (2020, August 27). Which style of yoga is best for you? WebMD. Retrieved November 4, 2022, https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/which-style-of-yoga-is-best-for-you
Ross, A., Friedmann, E., Bevans, M., & Thomas, S. (2012). Frequency of yoga practice predicts health: results of a national survey of yoga practitioners. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2012, https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/983258
Trent, N. L., Borden, S., Miraglia, M., Pasalis, E., Dusek, J. A., & Khalsa, S. (2019). Improvements in Psychological and Occupational Well-Being in a Pragmatic Controlled Trial of a Yoga-Based Program for Professionals. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 25(6), 593–605. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2018.0526