Three Reasons Why Twenty Something's Should Be Doing Yoga
I think it would be fair to say that my twenties was a time that I spent pushing boundaries and questioning. It was a really exciting time with many possibilities. What do I want for my career? What kind of life do I want and where do I want to live? Life long relationships started to shift, and while I was no longer in those awkward teenage years I still felt somewhat… well awkward.
Searching for a sense of direction and at times struggling with a lack of confidence to answer the big questions and make the ‘right’ choices is common during this decade of your life and possibly even beyond. So the three biggest reasons why every twenty-something should be doing yoga;
1. Building a relationship with your body is important!
This is where you reside 100% of the time! Your body is the best tool you have to discover who you are, what you need, and what might be holding you back.
While I had practised yoga here and there in my teens, my twenties was when I truly established a regular practise and it made a massive difference to how I treated my body and not just on the yoga mat either.
Practising yoga regularly allows you to have the space to escape from all the circulating thoughts and brings your awareness into your body. Developing that connection to your body helps you realise where your strength is, and what parts might be carrying tension. Your body is constantly talking to you through feelings and sensations.
The more connected I became to my body, the more comfortable I started to feel in my own skin when I was off the yoga mat. It results in making better choices when it comes to what you eat and how you treat your body, as well as how you allow others to treat your body – all because of the intimate connection you create through yoga.
2. Escaping the external noise to hear the quiet whisper within!
There has never been a time with more noise and distractions, with so many external influences encroaching on every moment of life. We are constantly plugged into social media, and the reality of living in this digital world makes it almost impossible not to be constantly distracted. While it allows us to gain information at lightning speed, we must ask ourselves, “Where is the time and space for self-reflection and self-study?”
Any stage of transition and moments in life where we need to make decisions that will have long term impact on our lifestyle (e.g., from full time study to full time employment, moving home, career changes, relationship changes) it becomes even more important to make time for going within so that we can process thoughts, emotions, and dreams that exist within each of us. A yoga practise can facilitate this self-exploration and provide a refuge from all of the external noises that can often drown out our deepest most authentic desires and potential.
The speed of life never stops or slows down, and to expect that it will is wishful thinking. Allowing your yoga practise to be the place you go to explore and push the boundaries of your body and mind, experience your own potential, and form a solid relationship with yourself, will mean that all other relationships in your life will have a richness that may not have existed otherwise. It’s only through my understanding of myself that I am better able to understand those around me.
3. It’s always changing… the right NOW is perfect!
It’s so easy to get caught up in the chasing of everything life has to offer – and let’s face it, in your twenties you have the energy to do it all. Chasing and achieving goals is exciting and satisfying. Creating and embarking on adventures consumed a large part of my twenties.
Perhaps the one thing I value more than anything else with my yoga practise is the sense of peace and clarity that comes with the presence in the NOW. Working with the simple marriage of the breath and movement together. The direct experience of the constantly changing sensations, thoughts, ideas and emotions, and developing my ability to find the space and peace to be with all of it in the present moment is what allowed me to develop more rich and authentic experiences with myself, others, and my environment.
It was my yoga practise that taught me that I can put in significant efforts and focus and do everything in my power to achieve, but that there are some things that you just must accept because they cannot be changed no matter how much you will them to. Acceptance of what is right now allows you to release yourself of the constant chasing and to just ‘be’ with a sense of freedom and happiness that only the present has to offer.
I feel hugely blessed and fortunate to have found yoga and teachers who evoked a passion for the practise within me during my early twenties. I don’t know where or who I would be without it.