Final Practice Journal

My final summation on yoga is probably not the one most people will put. It has not done much for me as a whole and I very much doubt that it will. I know for most people it's supposed to help your flexibility and be more healthy but I could not fund any such effects.

I have found yoga to have absolutely no benefit to my body or soul that my regular meditations involving pagan religion and doctor prescribed physical therapies. Honestly, my doctor says I pushed myself too hard trying to complete this as it was detrimental to the progress I had made with the issues of one of my tendons.

I am not even sure I made much progress over the course of the semester due in part to my body issues and maybe not suffocating every time I did anything that sent my chest into my throat. That is only in the sense of practice.

Academically I did advance in my knowledge of the practices and of the philosophy of yoga itself. I originally assumed it was just some stupid 'fad' going on with white American women but it has a diverse and vast culture that peaked me curiosity.

Meditation

This was our final practice for the semester but I will mix it in with my own practices of meditation as a whole. In the sense of in class I could not reach my level of meditation as I usually do due to the distractions outside. At home, I have a quiet room dedicated to my meditation where I can relax and de-stress from the day as a whole and deal with my anxieties in peace.

On the subject of Yoga as a religion, in India it does seem as such with the cult-like appropriation Americans have done, such as they do with many things like turning people's cultures into disgustingly racist halloween costumes. But that is not my place to say as it is way past Halloween.

10

So today we did poses based off one of the books which was interesting to say the least. The more interesting thing was doing a one on two practice with a friend and myself with their 'teacher'. I mostly got admonished for being unable to participate much but even explaining the situation did nothing honestly. I will admit I am very disillusioned to yoga as a whole but I will continue my journey to the end.

Pranayama & Practice

Breathing is always so important within any space I have entered, but on the other hand, it has also caused me an asthma attack or two. Breathing depends from practice to practice I have found but the ones with calm, deep breaths are usually the safest for me to participate in to give me a sense of relaxation much like when I am meditating.

Practice 8

This week we did a practice based off of a video. It was honestly the easiest of the practices that partly lined up with some of the stretches my physical therapist used to prescribe me, which makes sense since it is made for physical therapy itself. I felt completely relaxed and felt more flexible than usual as well and didn't feel sore or in pain afterwards.

Practice 7

This week was Sivananda yoga and I know I wasn't up to peak performance. I was running off of 2 hours sleep, had not eaten yet and was probably dehydrated to boot so I ended up sick and sleeping as soon as I got home. I am now finding how "pop culture" yoga is due to celebrities and stick thin women doing it. I could not really do most of it since my chest is almost an E cup now and I can no longer do most things on my stomach. It is now not much more than a fad for skinny women with no chest.

Practice 6

Due to the fact my brother is working all week this week covering shifts, I decided to tag along with a friend to a place they practice at, which is surprisingly at someone's house. It was pretty close to my experiences outside the classroom with mats, incense and bells of some sort. The person teaching this time spoke a lot about healing your soul and bringing the body into alignment with your center. Mostly I just ended up getting hurt from my hips and rib cage hitting each other. I don't know exactly how I feel about it as a whole but at least I wasn't too sore after the fact!

Practice 5

For this week we did Ashtanga. I can say I am still very sore in my bad shoulder. Still, I feel our class has become a sort of community, though I still don't feel like I am much part of it. It might be due to my own frustrations at not really being able to do as much as I should. I don't know if it is my busted shoulder or my bad hip doing me in but I am terrified I am going to hurt myself and get a bad grade. I hope in the future I can gain more confidence and grow more as a learner.

Practice 4

This week we did Iyengar yoga which was actually not that bad. I mean...I didn't hurt myself which is a plus in my books. Was terrified of anything where my feet left the ground though. The practice itself could be considered a "ritual" in the sense of the movements of the body and the centering of one's self to get into those postures. It doesn't change much of my practice, except for maybe the sense of I really need to check my back out since my hips and ripcage kept hitting each other.

Practice 3

For this practice I went to a more local yoga studio, mostly due to the fact I live in Cape May County and wanted something close to home. Still, I only managed to observe since I was still working off a stomach virus. This studio framed yoga more as a flexibility training than anything else, saying things about how it will make you more flexible in bed and satisfy your man. As it can be inferred, there were only women in the room. It was mostly regular 'yoga' postures within the practice with the addition of flexibility stretches. If it didn't cost so much to go, I would actually try the practice itself.

Practice Two

For my second practice, I went to Yoga Warriors because it's the only yoga class I can attend due to not being able to drive and having such a busy schedule. I found this practice to be easier on my body as I did not fall or choke at all during the practice. She played calming music and there was the smell of essential oils in the air. She also rang I think a bell when we were finishing up with relaxation and slight meditation, I'm not quite sure as we were instructed to keep our eyes closed. It gave the space a sort of ethereal feel even though it was in the TRLC. I plan to continue going there and journaling in the coming weeks, and possibly bring my brother along.

Practice One

Mulling over this first journal, I really didn't know how to start it. After all, this was my first time doing yoga...ever. It definitely wasn't what I expected. I really did think yoga was a lot less intensive, which probably didn't help with my bad tendons and asthma. Overall though, it was a very enlightening experience.

I know I was the only one really struggling with it unlike everyone else, mostly since I kept getting nauseous and dizzy, but that was my own body fighting me against the movements. The teacher made a lot of health claims about blood and toxins as we went about the practice and she shared a healing story of her own.

As we went about it, I realized one big thing. My body is not very flexible and I need to find some way to practice this more outside of school or the yoga thing for students on Wednesday. This also reminded me I really need to actually go to a gym before I hurt myself.