How Yoga Made Me A Better Person
So, I’ve wrote a bit about yoga before – my experience getting into it, 10 tips for your first class and about the beauty of savasana. And I know, with this post I’m almost starting to seem like the poster child of yoga or like I’m part of some Pyramid Scheme or MLM for some big yoga corporation. I assure you, I’m not. And the reason you can actually consider my opinions is because I was the classic example of “sedentary lifestyle” pre-yoga. That’s right, my life has two distinct stages right now, pre-yoga and post-yoga, with “yoga” referring to the first 4 lessons I attended at a studio as a Groupon lesson. Are these things here going to happen to you as well? Maybe not. Are these things here the only things that have happened for me from yoga? Absolutely not. Are these things here going to get you into yoga? Let me know!
1. I make better choices for myself
The number 1 way that I do this, and also the first real better choice I made for myself when I started doing yoga was with food choices. I’m not going to go all green juice on you, (I do drink it though, it’s actually quite nice) or all practice ahimsa by not mistreating animals and eating them (I am mostly vegetarian but for completely different reasons). I used to hate the concept of dieting and being careful about what you eat and nutrition because I used to be all one life, I’m going to live it however the hell I want. But somewhere along the stretching, sweating and breathing, something just shifted in my brain. I’m not sure what, maybe it’s the awareness yoga has brought me about myself and my body, maybe it’s “Oh I’m doing yoga I better eat healthy too” somewhere in my mind, but I have been eating better and I subconsciously make better food choices. But at the same time, I’m also more forgiving towards myself during my occasional binge because it’s all about balance. #namaste
2. Inner Peace
Okay this is going to be a tad too much, I admit, because when I talk about yoga giving me inner peace, I’m talking about Kung Fu Panda 2 with Po manipulating a water droplet type of inner peace. As effervescent as I may be, I have always been that person who is calm and level-headed during bad situations, the person you would turn to. So it’s only natural that with yoga, this calmness has been built further and sort of strengthened that I’m even more calm and together that I’m like Master Shifu. So I completely understand if you roll your eyes and say this is too much because I acknowledge, this is quite individual. (Sorry are these Kung Fu Panda references falling flat on you guys? I’m a die-hard fan of the franchise and I can work it into most conversations. Please do not tell me about how animation movies are for kids. Don’t even start.)
3. Self Love
I am very confident about my intelligence, my wit, my humour that I can almost get cocky sometimes. Anything to do with my brain is how I would describe myself and it’s something I pride myself about. Ask me to talk about my looks however, and I get shaky to the point I might crumble. It was for this reason, that I would sit at the back row of a yoga class when I first started, it was for this reason I hated yoga studios with full length mirrors for you to see yourself during your practice and it was for this reason I couldn’t even relax during a savasana. Because I would be thinking about how big I must be on the mat right now. My body love, self-esteem about my looks and all of that was in the negative end of the spectrum and yoga has brought it to a few numbers away from zero. Don’t get me wrong, yoga has helped a lot but the numbers are so small only because my outlook about my physical appearance is severely damaged. Full acceptance is going to take SO much more work but I’m happy with my journey so far, and I’m okay with who I am right now. At least I don’t cringe when I see myself in the mirror anymore!
4. Better Relationships
With so much improvement on the personal front, it's only natural that this growth and awareness radiates out towards the people around you. Post-yoga, I listen better, I empathise better, I keep a neutral outlook better. To be honest, it's not like I read a bunch of texts or books on yoga and then worked those principles into my life and these were the after-effects. I have always been a spiritual person, and pretty inclined towards self-realisation and growth since I was a child. So being better in my relationships with the people around me must be a result of my own reflections, journaling and understandings but the reason I'm attributing it to yoga is because there is a difference in how I act and behave when I'm consistently doing yoga and when I stop.
5. Lighter than air
Oh the irony. The reason I'm saying this is because I honestly feel lighter since I started doing yoga. In fact there is a specific incident since which I have been feeling drastically lighter. I talked about it in my savasana post, where I woke up from a savasana feeling incredibly light and powerful. So yes, ever since then, my heart is lighter, my head is lighter, and my overall being is just lighter. I don't take myself so seriously anymore. As in yes, I take my efforts and work seriously but I'm more forgiving towards myself and I don't walk around like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. And this sense of freedom and lightness somehow makes me more compassionate towards myself, towards others, I don't get as worked up as I used to if my friends are late to a meet-up, I don't feel like I just want to die if I do something foolish at gym. Is this how I feel 24/7? No of course not, but when something upsetting happens or when I have a heavy heart or disturbed mind, it's easier to go back to my equilibrium.
And that's it! Those are just 5 of the ways yoga has made me a better person. How has yoga made you a better person?
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