I have been exercising for a very long time, before I even knew that there’s something call yoga. I tried exercising without yoga, yoga without exercising and and doing it both at the same time, here’s what I found out;
When I was just exercising, it was fine for me, I didn’t know anything about yoga and its effect and all of that, then I heard there’s something called yoga and it can brings flexibility to the body, which exactly what I needed at that time, because exercising didn’t give me that.
So I tried yoga and I loved it immediately! I thought it was impossible and totally unnecessary to do yoga and exercises at the same time, so I decided to stop exercising, because what matters to me back then was to keep my body moving, wether it’s a workout or yoga, and when I was doing one I stopped the other.
Then I had to go back to exercising, because I needed to gain some weight, so I stopped yoga and I focused on working-out because I thought I didn’t have the time or the energy to do both! but now I can’t go without working out, it becomes more like a lifestyle for me. I was exercising regularly for two years, then I missed yoga and its calming effects on my mind and soul. So I decided to do it every Friday- when I don’t workout- hoping that I’ll get back on doing it regularly. And I did!
When I started doing yoga every Friday I loved the feeling and I knew how much I love yoga, so I decided to do it first thing in the morning just for a while! But now, I’ve reach to the point where I can’t skip yoga. Especially when I’ve experienced by myself how much my body needs it and how much it was necessary for me to do both yoga and exercise.
I do yoga first thing in the morning and I go to the gym in the afternoon, after I finish my workout I do couple of stretching exercises -I never miss it- but when I wake up next morning I feel like I need more stretching and when I do yoga which helps so much with the stretching, I feel so much better. The moment I found out that yoga is helping me so much to stretch more after my workout and I saw the different and the progress that yoga gave me, I couldn’t just go without doing both yoga and workout. Now I do my exercises three days a week and yoga five days a week.
Exercising is something essential to me, I’ve seen its benefits and its effects on my body and I just can’t go without it, and when I skip it I feel something is missing in my day.
Yoga for me is more than just flexibility or stretching exercise -as it was when I first started it- I see it as a gift to myself and I appreciate the time that I’m giving to myself to take care of myself.
I would like to end this post with a huge thank and love to my one and only yoga teacher Adriana Mishler who has been my online teacher for almost 6 years now. You can find her YouTube channel here where she shares her free yoga videos every now and then.