The Art and Benefits of Yoga

**Ok, for some reason Blogger was not letting me load any photos on here, so you get just the writing part of it. My group will get the original one I did on Word with the pictures through e-mail.**
         
           “You want me to do what???” This is usually the first reaction to yoga by many people. What they don’t know is that yoga is not about tying yourself into a pretzel and trying to outdo the person sitting next to you (if you do you might find yourself in the Emergency Room). Yoga is about finding your inner peace with yourself, and yes, it also help to strengthen your core as well.

          When I walked into yoga class in March, I didn’t think I would come out feeling like I have accomplished something. I was thinking, “Oh, this will be an easy A to help boost my GPA.” The reality is, I was completely wrong. Yoga is the one activity in my life that I actually look forward to. For me yoga gives me a sense of relaxation and at the same time energizes me for the rest of my day. That is just my story, yoga affects the lives of many throughout the world, and some even find it therapeutic.

           According to Dr. Judith Balk from the University of Pittsburgh, “Osteoporosis is one of the most common skeletal disorders… and 34 million more have low bone mass, or osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis” (Balk 63). Studies were done by Balk and associates to test the results of a 12 week yoga program on women with osteopenia. Out of the few that completed the study, 3 of them showed, “As Yoga duration increased, bone formation markers increased” (Balk et. al. 66).

          Some people even use yoga as a form of stress relief. The breathing exercises help to lengthen your breathing and slow down your heart rate. This decreases the amount of tension and stress that runs through your body. So far I have focused on the positives for the women that take yoga, what about the guys?
In my current yoga class there are a few guys that play baseball and use yoga as a strengthen tool for their games. Some of them also just use it for the stretches.

          We all find ourselves sneaking a peak at the people surrounding us and giggling at how they are doing with downward dog, warrior pose, and happy baby. And to the average these all might sound like moves out of a karma sutra book, they are used by many yogi’s in a daily routine of yoga.

          From many students that have taken it in the past it has changed their lives. Some students have (anonymously) reported, “I have been dealing with back pain for more than 5 years, and doing the standing poses has certainly reduced my back ache.” Some even liked yoga for the breathing exercises. One person wrote how yoga made them, “feel that my stress level has gone down and the breathing techniques allow more oxygen and have longer and deeper breaths.”

          So for many people yoga is not just a way to get an easy A on their record. “Yoga is not a competition with my peers but a self check-up.”

Word Count: 505

Profile Post Re-Revised

**My post is similar to Stephanie's. I have revised it, but there are still some things I will probably revise again before class tomorrow.**

 

"Well, look what the cat drug in!" This is the type of thing my dad would say whenever I would get home from school. What does this mean? I didn't have a cat attached to me and nothing was dragging me in except for the car. He usually used these sayings when he had been sitting in his garage and was bored out of his mind. He's really just looking for someone to talk to and was excited to see someone pull in the driveway. Visiting with my dad usually consisted of sitting in the garage in silence. It might have been silence to my ears but in my dad's world it was a whole other ball game. I could sit there and stare at him for hours and he wouldn't know because memories of the past were eluding his mind.

Dad is a man of few words. The only words that really trigger a good conversation with him are "tractor, John Deere, beagle, and beer." If you want to talk about anything else it's a one sided conversation with you doing all the talking. He might add the occasional "huh" and shake his head back and forth.

While still living at home I took my first airplane ride and had my first visit to Washington, D.C. I came home exhausted, but excited to tell my dad all about my trip. I went to the garage (because he wouldn't be in the house unless he was eating or sleeping) and gave him a big hug.

"Hey dad!"

"Hey Shell"

"I had a really great time in D.C."

"I saw the White House, the Capitol Building, and the World War II Memorial…"

"huh"

    This was the perfect example of having a one sided conversation with him. Seeing that this was not going anywhere I immediately decided to change the topic to see if I could get him talking a little bit.

"There were lots of people out walking their dogs. One person had two little beagle pups. They were so-

"Really what color were they? Were they male? Female? Tricolor? Yellow? How big were they? You know that if you can straighten out their ears and they come down to almost touch their noses they are really good hunting dogs…"

    I look back and remember how annoyed I was that he didn't want to hear the interesting parts of my story. He didn't want to hear about the amazing pictures I took of the monuments. I wanted to know the details of some stranger's beagle pups. Once he got done questioning me about the dogs I left the garage while I could because I knew he wouldn't come into the house.

You will never see him in the house either. His house is the garage. It's fully equipped with DirectTV, wood burning stove, and two full size refrigerators (one of them holds all of the soda and the other his Michelob Ultra).

His wardrobe consists of white t-shirts and handkerchiefs, blue jeans, tube socks, his work boots, and his flannel shirts in the winter. Oh yeah, and don't forget his John Deere hat regardless of what season it is. Because of his refusal to buy new clothes my sister and I always end up getting him something to add to his wardrobe at Christmas time.

The summer time was my favorite growing up with my dad. Because I was out of school, dad would be the first one home from work. He smelled of asphalt and cigarette smoke from working construction outside. Usually he would want to sit in his garage for a little bit to cool off and then hang around outside with my older sister and me. After a few days of heat we would get a huge thunderstorm come through the town. My dad and I were the only ones that liked to sit on the front porch and watch the storm come in. We would watch it without a word being said, but you could see them as he would stare into space and smile. After the thirty minutes of silence he proceeded to tell me what he's thinking about,

"once there was a storm that caused a tornado that came through here. I remember having to get into the cellar with mom and dad."

We sat a few more minutes in silence and the smile faded from his face as he looked in the direction of the storm. "We better get on in the house," he would say. "Okay dad." As we headed towards the house he would remember, "I forgot to put the tractor in the garage, go ahead I'll be in in a minute Shell."

    As the storm moved closer my sister and I hurried to get our baths in case the electricity would go out. My dad and I would end up watching the rest of the storm from inside after being cleaned up and then I headed to bed after a hug from his tired but muscular arms and a kiss with his scruffy beard scratching my face.

Most of my fondest memories of my dad are sitting on the front porch or in his garage. He is reminded of his childhood by things surrounding him. There would be a truck coming down the road and immediately he would be reminded of home. "My dad used'ta have a truck like that," he would say. I would then see his eyes start to glisten as he would remember the special times he spent with his dad in that truck.

Spending all of these times with my dad and looking back on them really makes me realize how lucky I am to have such caring and structure in my life. Even though we are separated by seven hours worth of driving now, I still manage a grin when I hear the voice on the other end of the phone, "Hello?"

"Hi dad!"

"Hi sugars how ya doin! How are things goin over there?"

"Fine. How are things at home with Mandy and the kids?"

"Things are gettin better, how's work?"

"Same ole, same ole, dad."

"That's good; I'll let ya talk to your mom, Love you sugars!"

"Love you too dad."

    These conversations remind me of the good old days of sitting on the porch with nothing being said, but a million things to listen to.

 

Word Count: 850

 

Yoga Journal Feature Article

     According to Yoga Journal being in tune with your inner self involves more than just meditation in a biweekly yoga class. Making yoga part of who you are and making it part of your spiritual being makes you a yogi. You have to be in tune with nature.


     Being a current biweekly yoga class person I find that just those two times a week isn’t enough to get me through my daily stress of working full time, going to school full time, and sometimes having more homework than I can handle. I am definitely intrigued at the links yogi’s go to to make yoga part of everything that surrounds them.

     I would love to be able to say that before I put together a prefabricated home that I made sure that it was okay with the land and the trees through listening to their souls and getting approval. I would love to be that in tune with nature that when placing my hand on a tree I can feel the inhalation and exhalation of the tree sync with my own.

     I would love to say that there is no separation between where my feet and the ground come in contact with each other. Being one with nature is a true importance in the everyday living of a yogi.



Word Count: 218