I’ve heard a lot about the benefits of yoga, and, as a baseball player, I have heard a lot of coaches suggesting yoga to boost performance. I decided to listen to their advice over the past few weeks, and tried yoga out for about 2 hours a week. Now, I’ll share with you my experience and what I’ve learned about yoga and myself through the process of stretching, breathing, and thinking.

Yoga is a practice that originated in ancient northern India, being cited in multiple sacred Hindu scriptures. The main concerns with Yoga in those times were meditation in order to achieve harmony with one’s self, and taking time to appreciate one’s surroundings. In the modern day, however, yoga is used as a form of exercise and flexibility, with a lot of the spiritual aspects being lost. Many places all across the country have yoga classes available for the general public, and many people see benefits in attending yoga classes in the form of losing weight, gaining flexibility, and making new friends. When I embarked on my yoga journey I used YouTube videos to teach me the poses and the breathing techniques.

It is not at all difficult to begin a yoga journey, as there are many avenues that one can learn the poses and techniques for yoga. I decided to use the YouTube channel Boho Beautiful Yoga because of her soothing voice, calming scenery, and her straightforward explanations. Each video is a 15-20 minute workout in front of a beautiful backdrop, and the routines are usually full body stretching routines. A few of the poses I had some difficulty with, as I am not the most experienced or flexible person out there, and my balance is also quite average. One day, I would love to be able to perform more of the challenging poses. As far as benefits go, I found most of my progress to be more mental than physical. Yoga is a practice that consists of slow, deliberate movements and feeling the way one’s body is moving. When I was transitioning into different poses, I really focused on how my muscles stretched and contracted, and how the ground and the air felt. During each pose, I found my thoughts wandering and I thought about things like school, friends, and different relationships in my life. Focusing on these topics for an extended period of time allowed me to work different things out, and iron out the wrinkles in my life. I also thought a lot about myself and how I’ve been living life recently. I discovered that I really do enjoy my current lifestyle, but, like many seniors near the end of the school year,  I think that adopting more initiative and an improved work ethic would greatly enhance my life in a positive way. Without taking the time to do yoga and really think about these things, I would’ve taken a much longer time to discover this, or maybe I never would.

In order to get an outside perspective, I asked senior Delaney Crandall, who’s been doing yoga for the past two years, about the ways that yoga benefitted her. I asked her about the physical benefits and she stated, “The most noticeable benefit from yoga would be my flexibility. I have pretty long limbs and I was able to increase my overall flexibility in all aspects that yoga focused on.” Because she’s been doing yoga for an extended amount of time, the increase in flexibility comes from the repeated stretching that yoga promotes, and the gentle tensions on the muscles that stretch them just a bit further after every session. When asked about the mental benefits of yoga, Crandall stated, “My mind did feel very clear for the entirety of that day after a class. I would typically do it in the afternoon and always felt that I was able to fall asleep more peacefully that night and at an earlier time.” It’s evident that yoga had clear mental benefits for Crandall, and an increase in sleep is beneficial to everyone, but especially high school students. The clarity of mind Crandall mentioned is common when participating in yoga, and I was beginning to feel it myself when doing different yoga routines. Finally, I asked Crandall if she recommends yoga to others, and she responded, “I would highly recommend yoga to anyone that likes looking for activities and strengthening their overall mindfulness and well-being.” As Crandall mentioned, yoga can also just be something to do in order to fill time. It’s easy to see that yoga is incredibly beneficial for anyone, and adopting it into one’s life is never a regret.

After participating in my (still very early stage) yoga journey, I’ve already felt and seen the benefits of an increased form of mindfulness and comfortability in my life. The stretching itself has also helped me feel more nimble and agile in my day-to-day life. I have yet to play a baseball game since beginning yoga, but I have no doubt that the increased flexibility from yoga will help my speed and agility. Yoga is a useful tool that everyone should look to include in their daily routines, if they have the time.