So, this began my journey with yoga, I went back to school later that day got back to my apartment, opened up my computer and got on YouTube and search yoga videos. Up came all the videos and I scrolled through them pretty annoyed. I was stressed because I had school work to do along with house chores and I needed to unpack from my time at home, I just wanted to get this over with. Finally, I just picked one cleared a spot on my floor in my bedroom and followed the poses as instructed by the girl on the screen. Twenty minutes had passed and I had had enough. I closed the window and moved on to the other things on my to do list for that day. 

The next day I did they same thing I opened the computer and found another yoga video to follow along to. Then the next day and the next and I did this for about a week and a half and I noticed some improvements. For one my back wasn't hurting I could walk around campus all day without any pain occurring. the second thing I noticed was my legs weren't going numb and there was no pinching feeling happening. I felt good, it was so nice to go through my day without having to go through the pain every day. So I continued to do yoga at least five times a week and the change was amazing. The added bonus to this was that I did not have to pay a chiropractor hundreds of dollars over and over to help ease my pain. I was overjoyed with the results I was getting by just adding twenty minutes of yoga to my day. 

After a while when the exams and papers and assignments got busier, my anxiety took over I stopped almost all of my physical activities, including yoga. It was a couple months of zero workouts, yoga sessions, even walks in the park near my apartment. My anxiety was through the roof and was not serving me, I cut out all social connects with my friends I didn’t go out, and the only time I left my house was to go to class. I felt like I was racing the clock, everything I was doing was at maximum speed. I talked fast, I walked fast, I ate fast, I was living a fast-paced life style with no breaks or time for me. In my mind taking time to go to the gym was a waste; I had so many things to do for school, self care just didn’t make the cut on my priority list. The anxiety took over and my grades were slipping because I couldn’t focus I basically had cabin fever because I never left my apartment, I isolated my self and was terrified of what other people would think of me and I felt like a failure. And to top it all off my back pain was back.

I went to my Doctor again to tell him about how I was feeling and how my anxiety was bad. And like most doctors he suggested all these prescription pills, anti depressants and anti anxiety pills. For someone like me I had a really hard time taking pills in general (I know it is all in my head I swallow food bigger than most pills but I just couldn’t) and I really did not want to take those types of pills it was just my personal decision and preference. So, he then proceeded to ask me what my day to day routine was. And my answers we something along the lines of wake up go to school come home and do school work till late at night and then do it all over again. He asked about exercise to which I answered none I did not have time. He said if I didn’t figure out how to slow down then I was going to have a heart attack by the time I was thirty years old the stress I was putting my body through was bad for my heart. He said the fast-paced lifestyle I was becoming accustomed to was jeopardizing my health and if I wasn’t going to take medication then I would need to find time for me.

Of course, this stressed me out even more. I re-evaluated my daily routine, obviously I was resistant to spending time away from the security of my apartment, so opened up the computer and got on YouTube punched in some more yoga and workout videos. And then started my routine again. Exercise 3-5 times a week, added some yoga, some cardio and still tried to be a good student and manage to get it all done in the day.

This started a whole new daily practice to my life. Almost 7 years ago now I was having extreme lower back pain and nerve pinching where my legs would go numb and pain would settle in my lower back. I had gone tot he doctor and he told me to try doing some yoga. He said to go on YouTube and search up some yoga videos, it was either that or spending tons of money at the chiropractor. I had always thought yoga was too slow paced to have tried it before and that there was no way I was going to enjoy doing this. I really had no intention in partaking in this activity I was thinking its not that bad. I was reluctant to even try it, but being a student in university I couldn't really afford to be going to the chiropractor often. 

XO

Kristy