Posts Tagged ‘yoga’

10 days into 2012, and already, New Year’s Eve feels like a long time ago. These first 10 days of the year are probably rather indicative of what the rest of year will shape to be: a year full of surprises, changes, personal challenges that will require me to find my inner balance. In the past 18 months or so, I’ve always thought back to my life in Cameroon for perspective and some zen when things get a little out of control in the “real life”. As that experience fades a little more into memory each day, I am in need of some other forms of perspective.

A good friend dragged me to yoga this past week as I was struggling to find inner peace. I’ve practiced yoga on and off for many years now, but have resorted to audio and video recordings ever since I moved to Cameroon. I haven’t attended a studio class in well over three years. Yoga in a place like New York city is more of a fad than actual practice. The studios often charge an arm and a leg for classes that I often cannot afford.

As such, when I learned about Yoga to the People, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a donation-based studio scatter across NYC. Unfortunately a location doesn’t exist in the Upper West Side. I love this studio because every time you go, the energy and dynamic is entirely different, depending on the personalities that are in your class. It may sound strange, and although no one speaks except for the teacher, the energy in the room is different each time. The classes that I’ve attended are Power Vinyasa, so a pretty good work out on top of some much needed zen.

I know they tell you to leave you thoughts at the door as you begin your practice, but today, I had so much on my mind that my thoughts followed me into the studio. Strangely, while I was contorted on my mat, and then flowed into my downward-facing-dog, a sense of clarity glossed over my confused thoughts. Who knew?

Life is about to pick up speed again here in a few days. I am hoping this will be a good excuse to get me out of my Columbia bubble and allow me to find peace among chaos of life.

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

All of the rants and discussions about graduate schools lately have left me feeling anxious and out of balance with my village life. When I was randomly searching for Paris and London related blogs, I came across Hungry Yogini, a blog about a young 20something student currently living in Paris. She blogs about food, yoga, and various tidbits of her life. She inspired me to take up yoga again for the Nth time.

I attended my first yoga class during the summer before my freshman year of college. And for the past 5 years or so, I have dabbled in yoga off and on, but never able to really commit to the practice. I really enjoy yoga classes and it’s a nice escape in the midst of stressful life. But, they do get a bit expensive.

I am not sure why, but somehow it never occurred to me to practice it from videos at home. Hungry Yogini suggested a fabulous site, Yogavibes.com that allows people to stream classes from the comfort of their homes. While the country of Cameroon doesn’t provide Internet fast enough for video streaming, I still was able to download a few videos at 10kb/sec speed over many days…

For the past few days, I have consciously dedicated an hour a day to practicing yoga from the video. And already, I see a significant improvement in my mood and an overall state of being. My muscles are sore, but they are that liberating kind of sore. Not the kind of sore that makes you feel like death after running 5 miles or whatever. My thoughts are calmer and more collected. My muscles feel leaner already, and I feel more in tune with life.

Sounds crazy, right? how can a few days of yoga have such transformation? Well, that is the power of yoga. Mind. Body. Spirit.

I am hoping that by writing about my practice periodically here, that I am also on my way to become a yogini!

Like

Unlike