I’ll be honest and say that I’m not completely new to yoga. But it’s been a while. A very long while. Like 17 years while.
My parents were really into yoga when I was a kid. And it wasn’t just your regular exercise. It was a full-blown cult. With a “real” guru, who was an old Indian guy claiming to be god and building a whole cult around this belief. We had received our yoga names and our on mantras in sanskrit. Receiving them was a whole ritual. My first trip abroad was to ashrams in Czechia and Slovakia to meet the guru.
It wasn’t all bad. It was a nice community of people who tried to do good in the world and lead a healthy lifestyle. It was fascinating. Travelling abroad was a huge deal for me. It was a lot like the Eat Pray Love when Julia Robert’s character goes to India. I have fond memories about those times. If you ignore all the brainwashing it was really nice.
Eventually my parents left yoga. It turns out the cult leader wasn’t a divine pure soul. As it usually happens with many cult leaders, sexual assault allegations started to arise. I don’t know much about that but I googled it recently and the cult still exists and there is an anonymous website with some scary confessions.
So yeah, you can imagine that I was not super exited about doing yoga for the last 17 years. I did go to a few gym group classes that didn’t push religious stuff onto me and only did the exercise. But I didn’t find the right class for me and didn’t enjoy them at all. Everything annoyed me. Because it wasn’t the right tempo, the right atmosphere. It wasn’t how I remembered it from my childhood.
I did try BodyBalance by Les Mills which is a mix of yoga, pilates and tai chi. And I loved it! My favorite part was of course yoga and I always knew in the back of my mind that I want to find the right yoga class eventually.
I recently went to get a massage and felt so much pain! I even thought the masseuse doesn’t like me at first because it was so painful. My body obviously needed movement. So I decided maybe it’s time to find some workout that I truly enjoy and can do on a regular basis and not for superficial reasons. That combination is truly hard to find. I used to do pilates but it was mostly for superficial reasons. There are tons of workouts on Youtube but most of trainers yell at you to “burn those calories” or “get that beach body” which is really strange to hear when you are at a place when you truly love your body as is. I want to enjoy those movements and do it for my health and well-being.
Now I’m a grown up and not that easily brainwashed (or so I’d like to think). Maybe it’s finally time to find the right yoga for me?
Spoiler alert: I think I found it! I started doing Yoga with Adriene and it felt so right from day one. I’m doing her January Center journey. It’s been 17 days so far (I’m a bit late to the party) and I am pretty sure I’ll continue even after 30 days of the journey. There is no brainwashing (I know, seems obvious, but that’s a big plus for me), Adriene has a calm voice, right tempo, she doesn’t want you to push through and get quick results, she encourages you to find what feels genuinely good in the movements. Her videos fit like a glove.
I’ll update when there is more to tell. For now I really like being in the moment and enjoying how my body feels. And it feels awesome for the mental health too.