I started practicing yoga when I was suffering from deep menstrual cramps. Soon after I was on the mat, I fall in love with yoga as not only some postures did help me relieving the intense pain but also I was overwhelmed by the feeling of relaxation and distressing after that. Nevertheless, after attending 200 hrs training class, I came to know that yoga is far more beyond than what I have initially taken it for.
In my personal view, yoga teaches us how to master our body as well as our mind. In daily life, we actually are slave of our body. We pamper our body to the extent that we stay in our body’s limit to do things in life. Indeed, we never think of training our body nor test our body ability to do some movements which we think is beyond our reach. Moreover, lifestyles, environment factors, poor posture and tightness in the muscles around the shoulders, back and abdomen leads us to become habitual shallow breaths using only a small percentage of our lung capacity and keeping us from tapping into all health benefits that are available to us. I have learnt that Yoga is a system designed to tone the body inside and out. On the inside, yoga postures massage the internal organs, improving blood circulation and supporting body system functioning. On the outside, as yoga postures balance strength building and flexibility, it leads to fine posture and body tone relative to your body type. As you know that health & fitness go hand in hand, fitness promotes overall health.
In addition to physical fitness, yoga can help increasing awareness and promoting emotional resilience, clarity and calm. In nature, we all are immersed in our thoughts of past and future. Our mind is never clear of things we have done and of things we will do in future. That is very clear when you practice your breathing exercises. As your awareness to breathing stable, you have a clear picture of your present state. Moreover, breathing practices promote health by enhancing lung capacity while oxygenating and energizing all body systems and promoting health circulation.
In brief, practicing yoga is a miracle for me since postures, breathing and mindful awareness practices are training ground for optional physical functioning and psychological health.
Thida (IHA Student)
