The first time I did yoga, I thought it was just for women. Maybe this was because I never saw any men doing it. I was not inclined to start yoga either, until my sister took me to my first yoga session.
My first yoga session was doing bikram yoga. The HOTTEST environment I have ever done any exercise in! and by far the toughest to stick with mentally, as your mind plays tricks on you and tells you to get the HELL OUT!
After this day I was hooked! I am the type of person who if at first finds something super hard, i will stick to it, until I become somewhat good at it. I also just could not believe how much I sucked at it, so i felt inclined to become better with balance especially.
The reason why I am sharing how good yoga is, is because of how big of a game changer it is for mental health. For a long time I never loved myself and did not know how to share my emotions with friends, truth is I still struggle like so many men and women.
I remember a few months into yoga, I was doing a session at home. Playing a yoga video from youtube on my tv and practicing in the lounge room. The channel I was using and still use to this day, as I believe it is the only yoga channel on youtube, that really expresses and urges people to love themselves first and it is truly powerful the content that Adriene puts out into the world.
The channel is Yoga with adriene and I will link it down below, all her content is FREE!!!!!! so take advantage of that.
Anywho back to my story! I was in a half pigeon pose and it must of been from all the years of stored up emotions in the body, that I started to not cry by any means, but tears started to roll down my face and it felt amazing. In that moment I new straight away how powerful a yoga practice can be for mental health. Other benefits I noticed as well over the course of doing yoga is that, I make way better decisions and I am less reactive to negative situations. I tend to appreciate and be more grateful as well.
But as a male! I can’t express how important it is to love yourself. The pressure of being a man or even a women in today’s world is stressful and a lot of things in western society act as psychological warfare with individuals who struggle to talk about life, because we always want those around us to be healthy and happy and if we bring something negative up we feel like we have just ruined our friends and family’s day with how we feel and certain situations we are going through.
I am trying to change that because, beyond the mental side of which yoga helps with it helps ten fold more in the physical aspect.
I am a super active Jiu Jitsu practitioner and I need yoga to stretch all those tight muscles after training all week. It is a necessary YIN to my YANG.
have you ever done yoga? if so what have you noticed it does for you? and others around you?
if you have not, why? My challenge to you would be to start with one of the free videos adriene has on her channel, because that’s where I started and It changed my perspective and made me love myself just a little bit more than I used to, and yoga will over time accumulate and the love for my body and mind will flow into other areas of my life.
please leave your comments :) I look forward to reading them.
Stay Safe.
The photo above was just a random google stock photo for yoga