Doing Yoga Alone

So far, this semester has been a little hectic trying to adjust to a new schedule. In September, my brother got married, my sister is flying home from South Carolina, I hosted a Disney Club meeting and 50, that's right, 50 members came out for it! Something big and new has happened every week and I have hand to drive 2.5 hours home to northern NJ several times already for many of these events.

At home, I always feel inspired by my cousin, Adela, who is a registered yoga instructor and my Aunt Jeanne, who blogs about her life with finding balance and cutting out unnecessary noise. They really inspired me to become a holistic health minor,

With the busyness currently going on in my life, I am still making the effort to continue doing yoga. While home, or in my on campus apartment, I do sun salutations. I enjoy doing yoga alone. It prevents me from falling into unhealthy habits like bingeing Gotham on Netflix too frequently and eating snacks during this binge (Even though Gotham is super good and TOTALLY worth the binge). Another reason why I enjoy doing yoga on my own is for self discipline. Now that we can view how many times we check our phone and length of time we spend scrolling on Instagram, it's important to disconnect. Doing yoga alone, I disconnect without having an instructor tell me. I can put on music I personally find soothing. And I go at my own pace. I've been doing 10 sun salutations in a row, but now I am beginning to incorporate moon salutations as well. I am planning to make a How To video for both salutations.

Doing yoga alone helps me focus on me. The thoughts of all the hustle and bustle in my life disappear as I focus on my breathing, balance, and sounds of the music. I practice at my own pace on my own schedule. I feel my muscles getting stronger, especially my core and arm strength. I used to be able to touch my toes, but after much time going by in college without stretching, I lost the ability. However, I am getting it back with my sun salutations! I noticed that I enter this relaxing state where I don't feel like I am in a cramped apartment anymore and the music I have playing becomes white noise.

I've done yoga before with people I knew and it was very not enjoyable. People were distracting each other or "faking" different poses. Side comments and laughter made it difficult to focus. I don't enjoy doing yoga around people who don't take it seriously. The only drawback from doing yoga at home is that my dog, Skipper (aka my EVERYTHING) likes to nudge me and see what I'm doing and then I fall victim to his cuteness and take a belly rub break for him.

Now that the craziness of this month is winding down, I will be regularly attending the free yoga sessions on Wednesday's in the TRLC. I moved my work hours from afternoons on Wednesday's to mornings. I shuttle from Galloway to AC for my 8am shift and class, shuttle back to Galloway just in time for the yoga session, and then return to AC for my night class, and the back to Galloway. It is a day filled with going back an forth, but I really want to put an effort in to utilize Stockton's free events. Plus, I know it's crazy, but I really enjoy the shuttle rides.