Why I Practice Yoga

As a child, I couldn’t touch my toes. I didn’t consider myself flexible despite many years spent in dance and sports.

I was first introduced to yoga in my early twenties. About the same time that yoga pants became trendy. I think the two were related for me. If I bought myself a pair, then I could wear them to practice yoga. So I bought a pair of yoga pants and started practicing yoga. 

Fast forward a couple years and I’ve now been practicing yoga for over a decade. I’d say I’m a casual yogi. I may practice regularly or infrequently depending on what’s going on in my life. Some poses needed to be modified while I was pregnant while a handful of other poses were all I would focus on when I was experiencing tension headaches. 

I started practicing yoga so I could wear the pants. I also wanted the benefits of the physical practice. I’ve continued practicing for much different reasons.

Yoga has brought mental wellness into my life. This is what keeps bringing me back to the mat. How I feel after a yoga practice is phenomenal. 

I’ve learnt that yoga is about focusing your mind. It’s not about perfecting the poses. Over time, improving the poses comes as a by-product. Improving your lifestyle is another benefit.

This practice of training my mind began to creep into my life off the yoga mat. I had a new awareness of my mind and body. I was learning to subtract what wasn’t benefiting me. 

I noticed that the breathing I was doing on the mat kicked in automatically when I felt stressed or overwhelmed. I found myself doing the same deep breaths I would do through a yoga pose. 

When I was in labor with my children, I turned inward and focused on the sensation of my breath. This helped me immensely so I could get through the contractions. 

Currently my children like to practice yoga with me. This means the mental benefits I get out of a practice are a bit different. Usually, I'm used as a "bridge" for them to crawl under when I'm doing down-ward dog. Sometimes the practice evolves into me being the student as my children led the practice. The benefits of this are twofold - I get my movement in for the day while modelling that to my children and we all get quality time with each other.