Spirituality…Something That I Somewhat Lack.

Well, I am on to week 2 of my learning project!  I decided that this week I will just spend some time researching yoga, before continuing on with practicing yoga moves.  This week, I decided to find an online source that explains yoga in full detail.  Sure, I know it is a series of movements that can lead to strength and flexibility, but I was unsure of the different yoga terminology, and so I wanted to find a source that explained yoga in full detail.  The source that I used was Yoga For Beginners.  This website stated that yoga is “a vast collection of spiritual techniques and practices aiming at integrating mind, body, and spirit to achieve a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe.”  After reading that quote, I felt a slight sense of panic!  I am not a very spiritual person, and so I feel as though this might be a lot of learning for me; I sometimes have a hard time shutting my brain off and relaxing, and so I think it might be difficult for me to relax and really feel that spiritual connection.  Although I am nervous, I am excited to see if I can feel a calming spiritual connection to the universe, after finishing my learning project.

Yoga For Beginners explained some different yoga terminology.  I learned that yoga postures or poses can be called “asanas,” yoga breathing can be called “pranayama,” and yoga body gestures can be called “mudra.”  Something that excited me was when I read that “yoga poses themselves is a fantastic form of mental and physical exercise.”  I am excited to not only gain physical strength from practicing yoga, but I am excited to see what it does for my mental health.  As I said in my previous blog post, I am a person who vigorously works out.  I do high-intensity workouts, so I think that slowing down and doing yoga, especially during a full university course load, might be good for my mental health!

I learned that there are many more benefits of practicing yoga, and they can include:

This website was a great learning tool, and I would recommend it to anyone who is just starting out with yoga.  It helped me to gain knowledge of some new terminology, and it gave me insight into the many benefits of yoga.  Overall, I am excited about my choice for my learning project.  As you can see, there are many benefits to yoga, and so I think that the outcome of this learning project will be nothing but positive!  Next week I plan to do more hands-on learning and actually practice some more yoga moves.  I will post some pictures of me doing some beginner yoga moves next week, so stay tuned!