My Yoga Experience

"Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind."

Fact: I have a terrible problem with relaxing my mind. I’m constantly thinking about anything and everything. You would think this may not be a bad problem to have right? I can assure you that after weeks of sleepless nights, you’re quickly turned into a walking zombie and the jubilation of coming up with new ideas daily becomes more of a burden than a gift.

I tried different things to relax. Taking melatonin, which in part, regulates the sleep-wake cycle by chemically causing drowsiness and lowering the body temperature which seemed to help sometimes but not always and not completely. I tried chamomile tea which was very relaxing but did little else. Of course I tried the occasional warm bath, but those were short lived. I also tried reading which I love to do and never do enough, but this only distracted me for short periods of time. Think Peter Griffin and a shiny red ball.

As you can tell, I’m going to a natural remedy here. I wouldn’t call myself a hippie, although that’s been known to happen, but I would much rather find something that actually fixes the problem. Prescriptions for these sort of things seem to simply mask the problem by clouding the brain instead of re-wiring it to be more efficient.

So in an attempt to assuage my mind, I bought a Yoga DVD…about 6 months ago. This DVD sat on my computer desk for the past five and a half months, waiting for me to give it a chance. I finally did. And so far? I’m incredibly happy with how I feel. I feel more energized and much more focused almost immediately after starting Yoga.

I used to wake up and immediately get on my computer and start checking tech news. Now I get up and begin doing Yoga which not only allows me to wake up more gradually, but actually relaxes me before I start pumping information directly into the IV in my arm (I had this surgically done. Of course I had to wait for Heidi Montag who was apparently on the waiting list of every plastic surgeon in North America).

I’m hoping to keep doing this for much longer than a few months to see what benefits it offers over an extended length of time. I’ll try to post an update in 6 months to a year to gauge my progress.

Until then, I would seriously recommend giving this a shot if you’re stressed out, have back pain or if you just want a new challenge in life (and yes, it actually is a challenge).