Karunaratne 1
Karunaratne 1
Amanda Karunaratne
Yoga-100
November 20th, 2017
Semester analysis on Self
During this semester of stress reducing yoga, I learned a lot about my inner self and how my body reflected everything around me. During the first half of the semester, I took yoga as a flexibility course but towards the end of the semester I learned that there is so much more to yoga than just flexibility.
The very fist thing I learned was that yoga includes being aware of the sensations throughout the body, the posture itself, the breath, and noticing any thoughts or feelings that arise. In the beginning I felt like the asanas were only concerned with the physical because they focus on movement of the body, but when I started doing them with awareness, they influenced and harmonized everything in my body like the physical, mental, and emotional. I also realized it was tempting to let my mind wander to everyday task but I noticed when I was being more mindful and observant I felt more at ease and relaxed throughout the day.
Secondly I recognized that yoga gave me time to sort through the mental noise of my mind and meditation helped to process my thoughts entirely and harness my creativity more. It helped me write better by allowing time to mentally develop everything from characters to the scene. Also, it helped me to disregard all unnecessary, destructive thoughts that did not aid in my life for progression. By learning to breathe in and out slowly and noticing the small movements within my body I was able to incorporate all these tactics into my daily life.
Last but...