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Strengthening my Core

How my yoga journey lead to a more creative approach to life

By Robina SharmaPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Strengthening my Core
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash

Breathe. Breathe deeply. Breathe consciously. Breathe with with your whole being. Breath is life. It sustains us. Breath work has long been associated with regulating the nervous system for thousands of years. Yoga is one method. It is an ancient Indian system designed for physical, mental and spiritual well-being. In the west, we normally associate yoga with the physical aspects and see images of a flexible body contorting into all sorts of pretzel-like shapes when we hear the word. This was my introduction to it as well.

I signed up for yoga after driving by a local studio that offered hot yoga. I was intrigued by the idea of it and had heard good things about its health benefits as well. Not being someone who likes to work out or go the gym, I decided it was worth signing up for to get in some physical exercise. I was a bit apprehensive as I am not flexible at all and was worried about not being able to do all the postures and looking foolish.

Before even getting into the first posture, we were instructed to breath and taught how to breath deeply, so that the air filled from the bottom of our bellies to the top of our lungs. We were taught how to control it so that it was a rhythmic in and out, an even tempo we could focus on and loosen the grip of all the fickle thoughts that run through our minds. This was the first step on the path of yoga. Focusing on the breath, for me and many others, works out to be a more effective way of clearing the mind than other methods such as trying to sit and meditate.

After completing my first class, I learned that being able to turn into a human bow was the least focused upon aspect of yoga. While it is important to do the postures correctly to avoid harming the body, effective yoga is less about physical flexibility and more about finding your centre, finding your breath and finding your balance, both literally and figuratively. Yoga helped me strengthen not only my body, but my mind and spirit as well. It has changed my outlook on life and made me focus on my achievements not in relation to anyone else, but my self. As one of my favourite yoga instructors told the class, “You are your only competition. The only competition is with yourself.”

I had never been very competitive in any way, but hearing those words put me more at ease with myself. As a child I was quite nervous and shy as well. As I grew up, the anxious thought I had stuck with me, often getting in the way of things I wanted to do. Learning to breath helped me release a lot of that anxiety and to just be. Going to classes became a retreat, an escape from the daily stressors and was a way for the stress to just drip off along with the sweat that is inevitable in a room heated to 40 degrees Celsius. My feet gripping the mat became a way to ground myself, to root myself, not only to floor, but to my will and spirit. Slowly I became stronger - in every way. I was no longer as anxious and afraid to try new things, to stretch myself. I started doing things like signing up for other community classes, meeting new people and even teaching overseas.

Not only that, but yoga helped open my mind and become more creative as well. I got back into writing, something I had mainly done in school and a tried for a while after, but then had pretty much fallen away from. I was able to come up with new and creative lessons and project ideas for my art classes. I was able to create better rapport with my students as I became more patient and understanding. I became a better problem solver,as I was able to look at things from different perspectives as opposed to the same old way.

I began to understand how yoga went beyond just the physical and had just as much to do with mental and spiritual well-bing as well. It affected every aspect of my life, every aspect of me.

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About the Creator

Robina Sharma

Robina is a life-long learner who enjoys the small joys in life and large ones. She likes to cultivate her love for culture, literature and new experiences through reading, travel and other closer-to-home pursuits.

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