Yoga Matters Now
it’s not for rich, flexible, or zen people.
Yoga is for rich people, flexible people, and zen people.
Have you had this thought?
It kept me disinterested in yoga for a long time. I was (and am) NONE of these things- rich, flexible, or zen.
Novelty is the only reason I went to my first yoga class (NAKED yoga). But I returned to the crowded, sweaty, foreign room week after week for the challenge and reward. I’ve always been an athlete, and am familiar with ‘being in the zone’ or a ‘runner’s high’.
Yoga gives me this feeling consistently. In the 7 years since my first steps into a class of naked strangers, it has given me a runner’s high that far outlasts the physical motions.
Yoga is an exercise that can be done indoors or out, socially or alone, loudly or quietly. It requires no special equipment (not even a mat)or esoteric knowledge. It is full of movements that are missing in everyday life but critical to long term health.
So, what are the real benefits for the average person who will never get their foot to touch their head? Does this practice have value even if I NEVER cross my legs in lotus pose?
1.Physical
Yoga poses have permeated popular culture and become an exercise trend over the last 20 years. There are dozens of physical schools or styles to choose from, each with its own poses and goals.
On a spectrum from physically taxing to relaxing, here’s a quick view of popular styles:
(Hot) Super-sweaty
Ashtanga
Bikram
Vinyasa
Hatha
Yin
(Restorative) nap-time/super stretch
Athletes have likely dipped your toe into the taxing, hot, sweaty, demanding end of the spectrum. Familiar with a runner’s high, you’re probably getting and seeking a similar effect from your yoga classes. This is a beautiful and wonderful feeling.
Yoga practices, even the relaxing ones, also hold the ability to access this “high” feeling. (Albeit through slightly different means like breath and mental control).
Here are some (slightly jargon-y) benefits to a physical yoga practice that you may not often think about:
- builds neuromuscular pathways
- increases stamina
- resets resting muscle length
- decreases tissue tension
- works to lengthen muscles under load, which makes you stronger with less reps and joint wear
- incorporates balance training (an ability VITAL to your long-term health!)
- increases brain cell production strengthening neuroplasticity
- regulates your nervous system (which is fabulous for your brain and ALL your other stressed out organs)
Like any other sport training, these benefits accrue over time.
The hidden, but most important, benefit of physical yoga is that it encourages bodily balance to un-do our harmful modern habits. Phone-neck, potato-sack sitting, computer wrist drop- all are chronic problems for inhabitants of industrialized societies, and their instances are continuously increasing..
For example, low-back pain is the most common complaint in doctor’s offices today. There is an 80% likelihood, if you’re over age 35, that YOU have experienced low back pain. Yoga postures at their best train against this- they create a responsive core, hip mobility, and spinal awareness which enable the lower spine to function as nature intended and alleviate (or prevent or repair) pain.
I have gotten out of a large share of low back pain and seen my body become more resilient (I can almost do a handstand now!) while practicing yoga. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
Also, yoga is physically play time. The array of funky of leg and arm balances, twists, and backbends are just fun.
Whether your practice style is more active or relaxed, there is always something to physically reach towards and always something to heal.
2.Mental
So that runner’s high, that in-the-zone sensation- do you experience that as mental or physical?
Likely a bit of both, but for me it’s more mental. The peace, timelessness, and satisfaction of an exercise high is the ultimate goal of yoga. I call it simply “Flow”. There are many names for this sensation- bliss, samadhi, turning-your-brain-off.
Flow doesn’t only happen on the yoga mat. You have likely experienced it while reading, exercising, spending time with friends, cooking, or any number of things you enjoy.
The discipline of yoga, though, teaches us to CULTIVATE the sensation of flow and access it more in daily life.
Mental flow during an exercise session is familiar to us, and we’re used to the necessity of physical exertion to achieve this sensation.
But yoga teaches us to mind flow in other ways as well- through attention, through breath control, through checking in with our body to act in accordance with our best selves. In yoga we learn to find flow while moving through postures, yes, but also while sitting still.
That’s meditation- to be in flow. Doing it while sitting still is just harder because we aren’t used to it. But it will also increase experiential life satisfaction.
3.Philosophical
What does it mean to increase experiential satisfaction, to live a better life? Being calm, generous, and baseline happy — all side effects of spending time in flow.
Yoga lays out a path for the practitioner to more often achieve and increase the intensity of their flow states. This is what it means to “practice”.
In India, Yoga is one of the 6 ancient sciences seeking attainment of the uninterrupted flow state, samadhi.
Atheists and agnostics take note: yoga is the philosophy of direct experience.
Yogis say- hey, have an idea about how to achieve flow? DIY, brah. Do you feel better (more calm, clear, and connected to all life)? Then cool you’re doing yoga. Keep it up.
The reason that yoga practices have been shared for thousands of years is that they keep working for people. There is no brainwashing, no unfounded stories (OK, maybe a few stories about yogi superpowers), nothing you HAVE to believe.
Except perhaps that flow is worth cultivating. And that YOU have the power to do so.
Conclusion
The point of a yoga practice, or any flow practice, is mental clarity. When we are free from the encumbrances of daily life (duties, emotions, desires) we are free to act as WE chose, and we more naturally observe and experience the world from a place of peace.
I like experiencing the world from a place of peace and security and beauty. That’s exactly what happened when I first started going to yoga. Driving away from class, I’d say to myself “why do I feel THIS good?” Because my mind was finding flow easier in more ordinary circumstances (like driving).
By training my body to move in flow, I was training my mind as well. That has made me more even-keel, more compassionate and loving, more clear-headed and creative, more joyous over time. While you can (and inevitably, already do) experience flow in many activities, learning the skill of flow while sitting still is immeasurably beneficial to long-term happiness.
Yoga is one path to get there. But as meditator Dan Harris says- if you could do something that would make you 10% happier, wouldn’t you do it?
