Yoga And Me

Then on January 1 of last year, I discovered yoga. My husband and I were vacationing at the La Costa resort in southern California for the New Year, and it turned out that Deepak Chopra has his Center at La Costa. With our room came a coupon for one free yoga class at the Center, so I headed over one morning to check it out. It was a very gentle class, but I was intrigued by the cute names of the different positions (asanas). For those of you who haven't experienced yoga yet, there are asanas named Mountain, Tree, Cat, Cow, Pigeon and many others. Also, yoga is completely non-competitive, with the entire focus being on you and what's good for your body - a big change from golf.

Perhaps due to karma, that Christmas my family had given me yoga clothes from Lululemon. After returning from California, I discovered that there is a Lululemon store at the Galleria and they have free yoga classes every Tuesday. I started attending yoga class there once a week. I would typically be exhausted by the halfway point of every session, but just as I would think I could not continue, we would start on the slowed-down deep-stretching moves like Pigeon and Bridge. For all last year, I tried to attend a yoga class once or twice a week.

Yoga has had amazing health results for me. Before yoga, I had started having some significant health issues, including arthritis and neuromas in my feet. For the arthritis, I had tried many different medicines, all of which caused unacceptable side effects (or didn't work at all). For the neuromas, I had tried getting steroid shots in my feet as well as acupuncture. At best, those provided mild relief. I also discovered that I have a broken vertebra after experiencing pain and numbness in my hips and legs. It turns out that yoga is the best medicine for all of these problems. All the different positions of yoga keep my joints lubricated, which helps a lot with reducing the pain from arthritis. Yoga works your feet a lot, too, which has helped some with the neuromas. And although I was barely able to sleep at night from the pain caused by my broken vertebra prior to starting yoga, I immediately experienced an improvement, having no pain at all on many days. These physical health effects alone are enough for me to keep on with yoga for the rest of my life.

However, there are also spiritual results from this amazing exercise. My favorite part of yoga is the end where you get to lie absolutely still and meditate. This break feels very deserved after having worked so hard during the rest of the class. It's just the most wonderful, relaxing time. Surprisingly, people close to me have noticed a change in my personality since doing yoga. I am more accepting and little things don't bother me as much.

I am even one-fourth inch taller now due to holding my body in a better position (the nurse at my doctor's office kept re-measuring me - she couldn't figure it out!). And although I weigh a few pounds more than I did a year or so ago, my body is so toned that my clothes fit the same (or better!) than they did then. My arms in particular have gotten smaller, and sweaters that used to be tight on my arms are loose now. I guess it's true that muscles weigh more than fat.

All in all, yoga has been a revelation for me. I actually prefer yoga to playing golf now.  I hope this article will persuade others to give yoga a try. You might be amazed at the wonderful effects it will have on your body and soul.