7 Things I've Learned and Gained from a Continued Practice of Yoga

College. That's when I had my first yoga experience. I walked into a room full of people. Full. It was a large room filled with other college students. I don't know what I was expecting, but not this. Were this many people interested in yoga?

Nervously I sat on the floor and waited for the class to start. I didn't sign up for this class with a friend. Just me. I did that with all my college classes. I took the class because I was curious or genuinely interested.

I signed up for this yoga class because... I actually don't remember why. Maybe I needed another P.E. credit. Martial arts interested me the most at the time because I had been working at a martial arts academy as an the afterschool program teacher and manager. But I had already taken the one martial arts class the college offered.

I was not comfortable doing P.E. classes because I always felt foolish in them. I didn't feel athletic. In high school I did horribly at sports. I was timid and shy and afraid of failure. But here I was doing yoga. What would people think of me as I did the poses? Would I fall and embarrass myself? I had no idea what I was doing.

Turns out, I actually loved the class. It was power yoga, teaching a very specific style and sequence of poses. I had fun learning about breath work and moving through the asanas. After the class ended, I kept my book and came back to the practice time and time again.

It wasn't until years later that I would really get into yoga and want to keep it a daily practice.

But why? Why did I keep going with yoga? What kept me coming back to it? What has kept me going all this time?

Truth: I have learned and gained so much from the practice.

Here's What I've Learned and Gained from a Continued Practice of Yoga

Over the years I've talked a bit about my love for yoga online. Especially after I took my 200-hour yoga teacher training, I loved to show off my new skills and poses. Years later, I'm still learning, still growing, and still loving yoga as my favorite form of creative movement. Here's why:

Yoga Teaches Me to Stop Comparing Myself to Others

For a long time, longer than I'd like to admit, I was worried about how I looked doing yoga, especially when doing group or class yoga. I watched others, saw what they could do, and let their abilities determine how I felt about myself and my practice. If I fell out of a pose, I felt horrible, like a failure, because others were doing better. If I couldn't stretch far enough or lift high enough but Andy could, I became embarrassed and frustrated.

It was a hard lesson to learn, but as I have continued my practice, I have learned to focus on my practice, not other people's practice. Sometimes, some days, I do well and I can get into Dancer pose no problem. Other days, I flail about in balance postures. Before I had Berkley, I could do the slits and camel and other poses. After I had Berkley, I lost a lot of core strength and had to re-learn a lot of poses. Some took me much longer to get the second time around.

Was a frustrated? Yes. Am I still sometimes? Absolutely. But I have more patience. I'm no longer comparing myself to others in the class. I'm looking at my practice as my practice. My journey as my journey. I get frustrated not because Betsy can do it and I can't, but because I want to push myself, and my strength or ability is not quite there yet. I let the desire push me instead of the comparison berate me.

Yoga Strengthens My Body, Mind, and Soul

When I first started doing yoga back in college, I thought yoga was all about stretching and flexibility. Nope. There is so much strength involved, especially in more flow-like or vinyasa or hot yoga practices. Think all balance postures (inversions, one-leg balances, etc.), Warrior poses, lunges, planks, backbends, and so much more.

Yoga has strengthened not only my body, but my mind and soul. My practice over the years has had many ups and downs. I've tried a few different styles. I've tried different teachers. I've tried different settings. Through all of them, I've had to learn:

• Patience: For holding poses for long periods of time, or for not getting a pose right away

• Focus: To be able to hold poses, balance, and follow instructions

• Determination: To keep going even when it seems impossible (I have at one time thought certain poses impossible but can now do them)

• Resilience: To push past failure or embarrassment

• Perseverance: To try and try and try again

• Gratitude: For what I can do, how far I've come, and what I have yet to learn

• Love: For myself for just being me

I have felt my mind and soul, my spirit, strengthen so much from what some might deem a daily exercise. But for me, it's so much more than that. Yoga does bring me close to God.

Yoga Teaches Me about Failure and Success

How many times have I failed at a pose?

Currently I'm working on going from Wild Thing to Wheel and back to Wild Thing. I never, ever, thought I would even try this move. But I came across it in a video from Charlie Follows, my current yoga videos obsession. When I started her videos, I told myself I would challenge myself and try the poses out even if I don't get them right away. So here I am, following a new video last week and she instructs us to move into Wild Thing. I can do that. No problem. I've done it hundreds of times. But then she directs to put our other hand on the ground and flip our already grounded hand around to move into Wheel. What? Okay. I do it. And I"m so excited. I never thought I could move into wheel like this. Not me!

But then... she directs to flip back over to Wild Thing. I tried and... fell down. Other side--same thing. I've done that video twice now and have had the same result both times. But I'm not giving up. I favorited that video, added it to a playlist, and will keep trying.

If I failed and stopped trying all the time, I would be able to do very little in my yoga practice. I've had to work on all the yoga poses. I still do. It's a continual practice.

Yoga Teaches Me about Balance

I've been thinking a lot about balance lately as I've practiced yoga. In yoga, when you get into any type of balance, you have to make continual adjustments with your body. If you're in a one-leg balance, for example, you have to readjust your positioning, making micro adjustments, to keep yourself balanced. To a less experienced yogi, this might look more pronounced. In a more experienced yogi, an on-looker might not notice much, but the yogi does.

I relate this to life. In life, we have to constantly make adjustments to balance all the things: Work, family, school, church, health, fitness, etc. You don't just figure out a balance one day and then it all works every day. You have to keep making adjustments to things to make them all work.

Yoga Has Pushed Me Beyond My Comfort Zone

My love for yoga and the desire to keep learning has pushed me into some great spaces. When I quit my last corporate job, one of my employees asked me if I was going to get my yoga teaching certification like some of our co-workers had. I actually had not though of it. There were too many other life things going on at the moment. But her words stuck with me, and when things slowed down just a little bit, when Scott was deployed and I was living with my parents, I took the leap.

It was not easy to do my yoga teaching certification. I am a naturally shy person and it was hard to be in a class full of others that I had to interact with, people I had never met. It was hard to then get up and teach in front of them and others. But I did it.

After I finished the class, I wasn't sure I'd teach. I was happy I got the certification, but I wasn't ready to put myself in a teaching position.

When the pandemic hit, a friend reached out to me and asked if I would consider doing some classes online for my friends. I thought about it and decided it might be fun, and it's just my friends. Turns out, I loved it. Teaching online became my thing. I haven't taught in a few years because life, baby, moving, etc. But I've seriously thought of bringing it back. What do you think?

Yoga Has Helped Me Connect with Others

Through teaching online, I made connections I hadn't considered. I became good friends with one of Scott's cousins and really enjoyed our friendship. I have taught classes for my church to kids, teenagers, and adults. Yoga has become a topic that I can use to connect with others when this awkward girlie doesn't know what to say in new social situations. Yes, yoga helps me make friends.

Yoga Makes My Body and Mind Feel Better

This 42-year-old body knows when it has not done yoga for a while.

As I've gotten older, creative movement has become not just a fun, nice thing but a must. I've noticed new aches and tightness, some from stress, some from postpartum, some from getting older--all the things convening. Daily creative movement helps strengthen my muscled and gives me more flexibility to fend off those physical ailments.

And, it also helps me feel better mentally. For years I've noticed the difference in my mindset, mood, and happiness when I do and don't exercise. I could probably do almost any type of creative movement--running, HITT, pilates, weight training, etc.--and feel better mentally. Yoga has become my favorite form because it helps me feel good mentally in the ways mentioned above, but it also helps me with all the other points I've made in this long post.

To End, Yoga Is the Best

How else do I end this post? It is all about yoga and my love for it, after all.

This is some of what I've learned and gained from a continued practice of yoga. The gist: I feel good about myself, I've grown a lot from it, and it makes me happy.