Why Yoga?

It’s been marketed as a sort of ancient cure-all for everything from our aches and pains to our mental wellbeing in recent decades, but can yoga really have all of the benefits people are raving about? Is it really worth our time? Regular-dad Craig not-super-flexible-but-recently-started-running Benzine tests it out for us!

Have you ever experienced this conversation? You’re telling someone about the tightness in your neck and shoulders, the anxiety in your chest, or how disorganized you feel and they respond with, “Well, have you tried yoga?” 

Why is this!? Why are people so in love with long stretches and breathing and standing on their heads and hands? We’re turning to one of our favorite creators about what he discovered after a month of giving it a try.

*Don’t worry, very little flexibility is needed to read this article (or to do yoga, for that matter).

So, what is it about yoga?

It’s done on hilltops, with goats, on boards in the water, in hot rooms, and is even recommended to improve the health and safety for commercial truck drivers on the road. (The program’s called Mother Trucker Yoga, they’re awesome!)

Everyone’s telling us to do it but we just don’t feel like we’re “yoga people”. And, starting anything is hard! But if you’ve ever been curious about what everyone seems to be so excited about, sometimes the best way to try new things is to take on a little experiment.

That’s how Craig Benzine and his partner, Chyna, have been putting all of the “self-care” and “self-improvement” advice people seem to give—drink less alcohol, quit sugar, reduce your waste, meditate, eat vegan—to the test to see if these “life hacks” are actually realistic in everyday life and if they actually see an improvement in how they feel.

Thirty days of doing something can usually give us a pretty good idea of whether that activity can continue to fit into our lives, or if it can be left behind. That’s the beauty of experiments! If they work, that’s awesome. And if they don’t quite, hey, you gave it a shot. Craig and Chyna’s journey into the world of yoga may remind you of your own if you’ve ever given it a shot!

Here’s what happened:

Find more fantastic videos from Wheezy Waiter over on YouTube!

So, how’re you feeling about yoga, now?

Are you still a skeptic? Wanna give it a go? Or is yoga already a part of your life and you’ve just been nodding your head intensely for the past few minutes?

With Yoga with Adriene, we all get to do it, for free! I’ve actually been following her YouTube channel for the past 5 years, and while my yoga practice hasn’t been consistent the entire time, I’ve always kept coming back to her. She’s lovely!

I took the challenge as well and completed the same video series that you saw Craig going through in the video above, and then I couldn’t stop. In fact, as I write this, I’m finishing up my second 30-day challenge on her channel! Adriene has a knack for making every practice comfortable for everybody and skill level, and for making it about way more than simply exercising our body.

So, whether you like classes, prefer to stay home, or are always on the move, there are ways you can easily bring a little movement into your life.

These little challenges are such a wonderful way to keep ourselves accountable and experiment with new ideas that could enrich our lives!

We’re so often told that we should be doing certain things. Frequently though, the people suggesting the latest, greatest life hack are leading a very different life from us. What works for them, doesn’t necessarily work for us. So, what if we approached these suggestions with the spirit of experimentation? We’d probably find that, very often, we don’t need to do a lot to reap the benefits.

If you’d like to see how yoga might work into your own life, here’s the link to the 30-day challenge, Home, that Craig and I completed from Yoga With Adriene. They’re short practices that always leave you feeling sweet!

For some examples of other ways you can still make a big difference by doing very little, check out these articles:

I, for one, never would have expected that literally doing nothing other than moving my body, noticing what it does, and breathing could have a real impact on my entire day.

I’ve noticed that on mornings that I skip turning on my Yoga With Adriene practice are days that I’m left unfocused and taking myself too seriously. It’s a recipe for a bad mood and for mistakes that I seem to avoid completely by spending a few moments moving in my PJs.

See how it feels in your life! And let us know your thoughts on yoga over on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

As always, stay open to new possibilities!

• Sam

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” —Albert Einstein

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