- I do a lot of videos about things
that other people like which I don't like,
such as musicals or The Little Mermaid,
but here's something I love
which a lot of people hate, yoga.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
Yoga is for rich California hippies who eat tofu and granola
and who can barely make it up a flight of stairs
for lack of protein and iron.
Or maybe you're thinking, I can't sit in a pose.
I can't sit still, it's not for me.
If you think you hate yoga, that probably means you need it.
I wasn't always a yoga lover.
I started taking yoga when I was an undergraduate at UCLA.
Yoga was completely foreign to me,
but I really liked the sophisticated and strenuous poses.
They required strength and patience.
And surprisingly, I liked the calm, reassuring things
that my yoga teacher would say to us.
I was a high-strung type A neuroscience student,
and the notion of being calm or reassured
about anything was not part of my curriculum.
But I was open to it, and it felt good.
Cut to getting pregnant with my first son.
I switched to prenatal yoga.
It was wonderful in a different way.
It was specifically designed
to prepare my mind and my body
for the rigors of natural labor.
So I had my first son and then my second.
Yoga was put not only on the back burner,
but off of the oven and out of the kitchen.
As I nursed babies and mashed up beans into paste
for countless dinners for toddlers,
yoga became the hot new trend.
Meanwhile, I just wished
that I could find some time for myself again.
Cut to getting divorced.
A good friend of mine who I spent a lot of time with
during my divorce lived near a yoga studio.
I went with her one day and was amazed
that my body remembered how to do these poses.
It felt so good to remember how to breathe
and cultivate calm as I worked through difficult things.
But work got in the way again.
This past holiday season,
I reassessed my body and my mind and, yes, my soul.
I made the commitment to go back to yoga,
not hot yoga, not nude yoga, which is a thing.
Don't look it up, or maybe do.
Not power yoga, which emphasizes fat burning and cardio.
Just good old-fashioned vinyasas, hatha yoga,
poses, simple yoga,
quiet, calm, serenity, strength.
Here are my tips for yoga success.
Number one, don't do yoga in Los Angeles.
With all due respect to the lovely ladies of Los Angeles,
for someone with social anxiety and body image issues,
going into a yoga class in Los Angeles is basically
like lining yourself up next to the fittest,
most beautiful women on the planet.
They wear all of the hippest yoga clothes
which kind of sometimes look like lingerie.
They have their nails done.
Some people come in in full makeup, full hair done.
Doesn't work for me.
I feel terrible about myself
'cause I'm constantly comparing myself
to women all of the time.
It's me, it's not them.
I know I shouldn't be focused on them.
I should just be focused on myself.
But guess what, I'm not perfect.
Progress, not perfection.
I take class outside of Los Angeles in a suburb
where there are more average-sized women,
and I feel much better about myself and the other women.
Number two, don't feel the need to buy fancy yoga clothes
unless you want to.
Here's a tip, those clothes don't look the same way
on normal bodies as they do on those models.
They just don't.
I've seen those ads.
Women who look like if they never worked out another day
in their life, they'd perpetually be a size zero
or all misty as if they've just worked out.
I don't look like that in workout clothes.
I just wear whatever I want,
which is usually baggy and comfortable, and that's it.
Oh, and P.S., I sweat like a pig.
Number three, lean into discomfort.
If you think you hate yoga because it feels uncomfortable,
that's because yoga is designed
to exercise physical and mental muscles
that help you get through discomfort.
That's why it's so great to use yoga to prepare for birth.
It gives your brain the experience
of going through discomfort
so that you know that it's not dangerous
and you can get through it.
In addition, your body contains muscular connections
called fasciae which are said to hold memory and emotion.
Scientifically speaking, these places hold a lot of tension.
There's a lot of torque,
and a lot of rotation of force happens in the fasciae.
This means there's a powerful set of emotions
that often comes up when you activate the fasciae.
This makes some people cry or feel very emotional,
and that's okay.
Yoga is a safe place for experiencing discomfort
and being supported to breathe through it.
Number four, take what you like
and leave the rest on the mat.
You are likely gonna hear things in yoga class
that rub you the wrong way.
Maybe the teacher's too out there for you
and talks all about activating your chakras.
Maybe you don't like the way they ask you
to set an intention for the class.
Whatever it is, yoga is your time to dedicate yourself
to being open to new things and trying them.
Stick with what resonates with you
and leave the rest on the mat.
Of all the trends out there which I don't stand behind,
yoga is one that I do stand behind.
Yoga is an ancient practice
of aligning your body and your mind.
It encourages getting in touch with your body
from the inside out.
It gently forces those of us who claim to be too busy,
too antsy, or too cerebral
to open your mind to the possibility that optimal health
or even closer to optimal health lies
in finding new ways to move, new ways to be still,
and endless possibility for reminders
that breath is always waiting
to get you through every discomfort.
And now I'm going to do what we do
at the end of every yoga class.
Namaste.
For more on yoga and how to make it work in your life,
go to groknation.com
and see Suzan Colon's posts all about yoga.
Tell us what you think of yoga in the comments below.
Do you like it, do you hate it, why?
Are you open to trying something new?
Let me know, see you next time.