YOGA – THE BREATH OF MY LIFE

This is my story about the long road I had to take to find yoga that has become the breath of my life.

I will not discuss about the philosophy and teaching method of yoga, as I am not the right person to discuss about those. I will let the experienced yoga teachers to explain these. I just want to share the story to the world why I love yoga.

It has been a year that I learned about yoga. When I joined my gym, Fitness First, two years ago, I only exercised at weigh-lifting and treadmill areas only, without joining any class provided in the club, including the Mind & Body yoga class. I laughed at the people who practiced yoga at the class by saying: "Why do I have to do that kind of useless stretching? To long and too slow for me. I am afraid to get sleepy. I’d rather do the weigh-lifting and running."

Even when looking at the people who practiced yoga through the glass-wall, I thought that they did not move anywhere.

Time went by, and I was still fat hehehe. I did numerous tight diets. Name it: detoxification with fruit, stop eating rice, etc. They only gave a yo-yo effect in my body.

One day, at the fasting month in October 2007, I felt that I wanted to exercise without spending my energy at the fasting month too much. So I started to thing about yoga as a very good alternative. I told myself that a little bit of stretching would not make me tired.

But I was wrong. Wait, why? Hehehe. Here comes my first experience in yoga class.

At that time, I joined the Dynamic Flow yoga class. The Dynamic Flow is a yoga class for trained yoginis or at least for those who practice regularly, as the movement at the class is very fast with some difficult yoga poses. From the beginning to the end of the class, my purpose to relax and easy at the class was totally failed. The yoga movement looked so slow and easy, but then I realized that they were difficult, hard and heavy. At this first class, I fell for so many times as I could not lift and hold my own body. After one hour joining this yoga class, my opinion about yoga had changed. The yoga movements are so challenging and hard, even harder than my usual exercise at the weight-lifting area.

After the class, the yoga guru said something that made me curious about yoga. While touching my shoulder, he said: “You did not use your energy."

What??? Why did he say this after all the flip-flops that I did in the class? Wait the minute, what is energy? That was really the questions that triggered me to join the yoga class for good.

So, at the fasting month, I did yoga once a day, while I still did my weight-lifting exercise. At the second and third months, I increased the yoga practice to two times a day. After three months, I felt that the yoga practice was not enough without having good knowledge about it. So I started to look for the yoga books to understand it very well. Some of the yoga books I read during my first yoga learning were: Healthy and Balance Living with Yoga (Pujiastuti Sindhu), 10 Minutes of Yoga (Donald Butler), Classical Yoga (Vimla Lalvani), and Understanding Everything about Yoga (Cynthia Worby).

I also practiced my yoga at home through the VCD I bought: VCD from the book of Pujiastuti Sindhu, Yoga for Strengths (Linda Arkin), Yoga Mind & Body (Ali MacGraw) and Yoga Exercise Workout (Jane Fonda).

Finally, yoga has become the most important thing in my life. I just feel that I can not live without yoga.

Yoga has become the breath of my life as yoga also gives me some positive effects in my body, such as: I go to sleep easier, I lost water retention sickness, I realize that I have so many weaknesses, I lost the fat around my body, my body finally has a real curve, I become stronger, I can easily control my emotion, I become more patient, easy to concentrate and focus, and many other things that I can not mention. Maybe I will write another note to discuss about it.

Today, my yoga schedule is almost like my eating schedule. Between two to four yoga classes a day, 6 days a week. What impress me is that morning yoga is just like a morning cup of coffee in my breakfast.

Some of the yoga teacher told me to slow down my yoga schedule, so my body can take a rest. And my answer is: “What can I do? When I found my passion in yoga…."

That is the entire long road that I took to know and fall in love with yoga.

I want to thank God who introduces me to yoga, a lifestyle that makes my body healthy, and repairs the way I think and the way I live my life. I believe that God has His own plan. I do not have to tell the world on how many things that happened before I met yoga, but I think if God wants it, then be it.

I also want to thank to all of my yoga gurus in Fitness First who taught me yoga, other yoga gurus that I meet outside of my safe-haven, and all of my yoga buddies who share the suffering when we are slaughtered by the yoga gurus. There is always broken air-conditioner in our yoga mat hahaha.

Once again, this is a personal note from me, a person who loves yoga just the way it is. For those who disagree on this note, please let me live my life with this yoga that I really love. For those who agree and happen to like yoga too, let’s walk hand in hand in the yoga path, the path of peace and love.

Namaste!