Yoga: East Meets West

I believe that yoga is more than just exercise. In the West though they believe that yoga is a mere way of exercising through the physical movements. To attain that "perfect body" that everyone wants to get. Yoga was a mind body practice with a strong religious and spiritual element. Strong empathizes on the "was" because after it was introduced into the West it lost most of the spiritual underpinnings to it. Many people practice it for some significant health benefits if done regularly. Like for example yoga can be a good way of reducing stress and maybe pain also. Some ways that yoga can empower me is turning my pain, weakness, and vulnerability into strength, connectedness, and presence.  Yoga teaches me to be self reliant and to not care what anybody thinks of me. I feel that yoga promotes a balance in body and mind as compare to running which is repetitive and lackluster that misses out on the balance of the body.   

Antonio Sajiun September 19       I unfortunately did not have the time to attend a yoga class outside of school so I decided to do something different instead.  I wanted to try meditation and the best place I know to do it was at home. I look up videos and articles on the best way to meditate in your household as a beginner. After hours of researching I finally had an idea on how to do it. I decided to meditate in my back yard early in the  morning so I can have a strong connection with the Earth and little to no noise from other people. I was sitting down in lotus position on top of a yoga mat. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. Every breath drew me closer to the spiritual world. I wanted to visualize my goals better and to quiet the inner chatter from my mind. I was able to quiet the mind. I remember listening to the buzzing of bumblebees and dragonflies flying passed me constantly. After I thought felt like hours was just only minutes. I was ab...

Antonio Sajiun 9/12/19 I walk into the class having no idea what to expect. I noticed other students with gym attire and yoga mats. Since it was my first class because I join the course later. I didn't think that I was going to go right into it the first day, but I was very wrong. Everyone was moving furniture to give room to place our mats on the floor and opening windows to let fresh air come into the room. At this point I just went with the flow and did what everyone else was doing. The mood of the room was relaxed. While we were waiting for the yoga instructor to come in I was mentally preparing myself for what was to come. When the instructor came in she introduced herself and told us that we were going to perform 26 poses. In my head I thought that this was going to be a piece of cake cause how hard can stretching be, but I was very wrong again. We started by doing some breathing exercises to get us prepared for the class. Throughout every pose we did, my body went into p...