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Ditch the Excuses, Try Yoga

Published on March 14, 2024

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The title may be a little aggressive but your body asked me to tell you that. Why? Every day, more and more research comes out about the benefits of yoga. You may have heard yoga is good for depression, lowering stress and anxiety, reducing inflammation, etc., etc., but maybe despite the endless benefits, you’re still hesitant to try yoga.

The first time I tried yoga, I was 22 years old. I took a class with my sister at the community college. During savasana (a resting pose at the end of each class where you just lie on your back), I thought, “This is stupid. Why am I taking an hour long exercise class to just sit here for the last five minutes? What a waste of time.” Clearly, I was missing the point. And so are you if you’ve said any of these things about yoga.

“I’m not flexible enough to do yoga.”

This is like saying you are not in shape enough to go to the gym. Sure, a lot of people who do yoga are flexible, but yoga is more about your mental and emotional flexibility than physical flexibility. No one ever achieved enlightenment by touching their toes or putting their leg behind their head. That’s not where the answers are. The answers lie within and yoga helps us go within. That said, if going within isn’t what you’re ready for right now, of course yoga can help you become more physically flexible. Keep in mind that if flexibility was really the key, Cirque du Soleil performers would be the wisest gurus on the planet.

“It’s too hard.”

I used to play bass guitar and people would ask me, “Oh, is that easy?” (I don’t know why, presumably it seemed easier because it had four strings?) I would always answer, “Not if you want to do it well.” Nothing is easy if you want to do it well. Yoga is the same, but that doesn’t mean it has to be hard. There is yoga for everybody and there is yoga for every BODY. Seriously. Be smart about how and where you start, however. When I began playing the bass, I wasn’t slapping like Les Claypool at my first lesson. So don’t pick a hot, 90-minute, power flow yoga class for your first time. Start with a beginner class or a gentle class.

The temptation when going to your first class is to make sure you’re “doing it right” so you can look like everyone else. More than anything though, you should listen to your body. Not listening to our bodies is how we get hurt. Remember, the instructor is a guide. If a pose doesn’t seem right, modify it. Pay attention to how it feels. It’s your body and it’s your practice.

“I could never wear those little yoga pants.” Or “I’m too intimidated.”

Sure, there are plenty of yoga studios where the teachers look like models and everyone is wearing coordinating $200 yoga outfits, but there are even more where that is not the case. It’s easy to find them. Look at their websites. Find a teacher that says “yoga is for everybody” or something similar. That’s the teacher to try. And wear whatever you damn well please, as long as it’s comfortable. (Incidentally, that’s good rule for life, too.)

“I’m too old.”

There is chair yoga, senior yoga, gentle yoga, restorative yoga. This woman makes your argument invalid.

“But I’m Christian.”

Yoga is not a religion. You do not have to be Hindu or Buddhist or anything else to practice yoga. The practice of yoga can often become very spiritual though, and by deepening your connection to yourself, you may deepen your connection to the divine. If you’re still not convinced, you can find a more in-depth article about Christianity and yoga here.

One of my teacher’s teachers, Erich Schiffmann said this of yoga:

One of the main themes I always want to reiterate is that Yoga is a lifestyle. Yoga is about the way you do your life, not just part of the time, but all the time. The profound working hypothesis for how to do this, and this is the summation sentence at the end of many pages of figuring things out, is this:

THINK LESS and LISTEN MORE

because when you do KNOWING flows in,

and then GIVE EXPRESSION

to what you find yourself Knowing,

whether you can explain it yet or not.

It took having a stroke to slow me down enough to appreciate yoga. A stroke disconnects the mind and the body in such a startling way. One of the hardest things about recovering from my stroke (or probably any major health crisis) was the lack of trust I had in my own body. I was never sure what I was going to be able to do or not do, from putting on a sock to riding my bike. So for a long time, I just didn’t do much. As a result, I became more fearful and less sure of myself.

It’s not just something as dramatic as a stroke that disconnects us from our bodies. Our constant internet access may make us feel more connected to each other but now we’re even less present in our physical reality than ever before. I’m guilty of this myself–texting while I’m walking the dog, talking on the phone while driving (handsfree of course), shoving food in my mouth as I’m running out the door. All of these things are keeping us from really listening to our bodies. So when they don’t work how we expect them to, when they get sick or break down, we feel like they’ve betrayed us. In reality, by constantly ignoring our bodies, we are the ones betraying our bodies.

Try a yoga class. Listen to your body. I promise it will thank you.

My yoga practice has brought me back to myself by teaching me how to really be in my own body. It has restored the mind/body connection that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get back. I’m so grateful for yoga that I became a yoga teacher last year. Just like any good teacher, I will forever remain a student. So now when I take a class, during savasana I think, “please, just five more minutes here.”

WARNING!

Doing yoga may cause the following side effects:

Love (of self, of others, of life)
Calm
Happiness
Patience
Being nicer to people
Knowing yourself
More flexibility- mentally, emotionally, and physically
Desire to wear fun pants

Have you experienced the benefits of yoga? How has it affected your life?

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Photo by kike vega on Unsplash.

This article was published originally in July 2016.

Why Medicate When You Can Meditate?

by Kerry Gretchen

Published on October 24, 2016

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When the subject of meditation comes up, I often hear, “I could never do that my mind is always racing.” Mine too! That’s why I meditate. To be honest though, many days it goes something like this:

Okay, good. I feel comfortable. This is going to be good. Just ten minutes. Wait, did I set the timer? Does it matter if you set the timer? Shouldn’t you meditate without a timer and just “know” that you are done? Maybe I’m not that good at meditating. Obviously, I’m not that good at meditating. I’m not good at a lot of things. Hey, wait, aren’t I supposed to stop with the negative self-talk? Yes, okay. I love myself. I am good at many things. Has it been ten minutes? I’m totally going to have a sandwich after this…

Saying you can’t meditate because your mind is too busy is like saying you can’t work out because you’re not strong enough. That’s exactly why you should work out. Quieting the mind is a practice. You aren’t going to get better at it if you don’t try. “Okay,” you may say at this point, “but why do I need to quiet the mind?” Well, I’m glad you asked. Let’s look at the science.

The Science of Meditation

What does it do?

When it comes to the brain, bigger is better and meditation is fertilizer. It has been shown to increase the volume of gray matter in the left hippocampus. What does that mean? It means an increase in “learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.”

The growth doesn’t stop there. Another study found that “meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the right hippocampus… larger volumes in these regions might account for meditators’ singular abilities and habits to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability, and engage in mindful behavior.”

It also makes your brain thicker in the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. These regions are important for sensory, cognitive, and emotional processing. In addition, the research indicates that meditation may help slow age-related decline in these areas.

Meditation doesn’t just make your brain bigger, it also makes your telomeres longer. What the heck are telomeres? Telomeres are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA that protect our chromosomes, like the plastic tips at the end of shoelaces. “Shorter telomeres are associated with accelerated aging and related diseases… long-term meditators have a significantly younger biological age.” So maybe next time you’re fretting over getting older instead of reaching for the wrinkle cream, sit down and don’t think about it.

How does it work?

“Meditation enables us to move from higher frequency brain waves to lower frequency, which activates different centers in the brain. Slower wavelengths = more time between thoughts = more opportunity to skillfully choose which thoughts you invest in and what actions you take.”

What are the benefits?

The benefits of meditation are many and varied. An article from Dr. Hari Sharma compiles many of the highlights in the following paragraph:

“Research has confirmed a myriad of health benefits associated with the practice of meditation. These include stress reduction, decreased anxiety, decreased depression, reduction in pain (both physical and psychological), improved memory, and increased efficiency. Physiological benefits include reduced blood pressure, heart rate, lactate, cortisol, and epinephrine; decreased metabolism, breathing pattern, oxygen utilization, and carbon dioxide elimination; and increased melatonin, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), skin resistance, and relative blood flow to the brain.”

Reductions in stress, anxiety, depression, pain, and blood pressure—what else do you need to know? How about that meditation can also help with insomnia and appears to be effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

How to Meditate

If they could bottle and sell the benefits of meditation, you’d probably pay top dollar for it. Especially given the lack of side effects. Yet like diet and exercise, knowing something will make us healthier doesn’t always get us do it.

Some people think the only way to meditate is to sit in lotus position on a yoga mat with a stick- straight spine. Not true! You also don’t have to meditate for long periods of time. There are many different meditation techniques and you really can’t do it wrong. When does anyone ever say that to you about anything? I’ll say it again. You really can’t do it wrong. I often meditate for ten minutes at a time while lying in bed just after I wake up. (Incidentally, a snooze button makes a great timer.) Or, I’ll meditate when I go to bed. Sometimes I just end up falling asleep. Guess what? It doesn’t matter!

You can also meditate while eating, while walking, while dancing, or even just gazing. Perhaps the simplest and easiest way is just to focus on your breath. As explained in the 2 minute video below, Tibetan Buddhist Master Yongey Mingyur Ripoche offers a simple technique for meditating that you can use anywhere. I know it’s helped my “monkey mind.”