Pandoraspace

Clueless about Yoga

When I was still asking myself “If yoga is a jar, what would it contain? “, I thought that this Yoga jar definitely has something inside it.  Only, I could not tell what it was.

Star asked me if Yoga was a religion. I was stunned by the question. I did not really know the answer to it. I told Star that I am still a Catholic, and as far as I am concerned, I have not switched religion.  After that, I panicked and started reading up about Yoga from the internet. Do you know what I learned about Yoga from reading articles about it? Well, nothing much except to realize that the true meaning of Yoga is not something I can discover by reading about it. After that, I practiced and observed my classmates and teachers to try to discover what Yoga really means.

I learned that Yoga could be different things for different people. For some, Yoga could merely be a physical activity, a sport, a science of movement or art. For others, it could be a religion, a way of life or a philosophy. While Yoga could be treated merely as an exercise to get into shape, it has the potential of being so much more than that. The how much more depends on you.

How I got on this bus

About four years ago, I could not climb a flight of stairs without feeling like my lungs would explode. I felt lethargic and weak. After years of doing mostly paper work in front of a computer for at least ten hours a day seven days a week, sleeping no more than five hours a day and stress eating, my body was protesting from the abuse.  I ignored my body’s protest until vanity took a hold of me. That was when I could no longer fit in my old clothes, i.e., I was fat.

So, I enrolled my vain self in a gym, paid the annual fee and went there about five times. At the gym, I would run on the treadmill for what seemed like hours (when in actuality I was only there for no more than ten minutes), drink a liter of the gym’s “free” ice tea and eat several bananas. After that, I figured that the gym was not for me.

Without putting much thought into it, I showed up at Rina Ortiz’s studio one day, joined my first Yoga class and immediately realized that I had no idea of what I was getting myself into.  As the Pandora in me was curious, I hopped on this bus called Yoga and it has been one heck of a ride since then.

When I started practicing Yoga, I asked myself this question – “If Yoga is a jar, what would it contain?” Later, it dawned on me that that question is inappropriate. Instead, what I should have asked myself is this - “If Pandora is a jar, what would she contain?” But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Perhaps I should start by saying that there are some journeys that require us to travel deep within ourselves.  These are the journeys where we expect to learn how far we could go and how much of ourselves we could share with others. In one of those journeys, Yoga is my bus. I don’t quite know where this bus will take me or if and when I will decide to get off. All I know is that this bus is moving, I am on it, and the destination is unknown.