Assignment #5

Turning to Yoga: Benefits of Converting the Male Mid-Life Exercise Routine

I am frustrated.

I'm standing outside a small room and feel mentally ill-equipped for the moment. I enter to find fit-looking women territorially positioned and casually dressed in either loose garb or body-clinging tights and tops. I'm wearing running shorts and T-shirt. Why am I here? I need to do something for my health and sanity. Running took its toll on my lower back and right hip. It is my first yoga class, and I'm wary. I meekly stake out my own eight by four foot hardwood real estate and lay down the mat provided.

As the class begins and I go through the gentle warm-up exercises and listen to the instructor, a change comes over me.

"It's all in the breath," she explains.

After a few more minutes, I think, "This is pretty basic stuff and makes such eloquent sense."

We all draw energy from our breath. And in class after class with different instructors, the theme is consistent and a simple truth emerges: We can live without food, water, and rest for extended periods, but without breath, we expire - and pretty quickly! Breath is first and foremost. This is a central doctrine of Hatha Yoga.

I've learned much in this journey to practice yoga. My motives were purely physical initially - restore the back, alleviate past abuses, and balance the body. But as I acquired competence with the poses and developed greater flexibility, the philosophy of the practice penetrated my thoughts. At first, none of this interested me. I favored instructors who taught “power yoga.” I just wanted to muscle my way through the routines. Gradually, I began to appreciate the innate insight one gains of one's self through yoga.

In Western societies yoga still lags in popularity, particularly among men. My past tells why. I grew up in the typical public school environment where personal popularity depended on how well one played competitive team sports. The workplace is no different. You must be competitive and conventional. And yoga is neither of these, nor flashy, nor public. Yoga requires introspection, but who today promotes the inward look? Are we not manipulated and encouraged not to pursue self enlightenment to better fulfill our roles as consumers? Our distractions and addictions - drugs, sports, alcohol, television, computers, overwork, and pursuit of material and fame - help eliminate the need for self intimacy.

Yoga, however, helps extract the individual from social pressures, generates a communal spirit with fellow yogis, and eliminates any need for competitiveness or adversarial interaction. Skeptics may argue that running, tennis, golf or popular team sports stimulate mental discipline and the self-criticism required to motivate self-improvement. Further, working as team members and developing strategies of play enhance our social skills, ultimately improving our societies. While these premises have merit, they overlook several critical aspects of self-intimacy and self-awareness that yoga naturally incorporates.

In yoga there is no need to critique or analyze performance. You are in control of your body and mind, not outside influences. You are who you are, and you perform a pose or routine to whatever level you're at. Try your best and benefit by focusing the mind on your body and how it is responding to what you are doing with and to it. Inhale relaxation. Exhale tension. Regarding teamwork, yogis share an intimate bond through self-acceptance and inner peace that facilitate interaction with others.

Can walking or hiking, combined with a solid stretch and flex routine, substitute for yoga? Perhaps. But I have found a deeper appreciation of these activities from my practice of yoga.

Yoga can be very challenging for some and still is to me. When I first started and got into the basic seated posture, my stiffness and lack of flexibility showed. It was painful after a few minutes. Not now. And my breathing is no longer shallow. I have even used yoga breathing to calm myself prior to key meetings – and I was CEO-equivalent of a 5,000 person organization. I am better able to relax in commonly stressful situations. I also no longer reflect on becoming some idealized wannabe manufactured for me by society. All these benefits, and more, emerged by embracing yoga without being obsessive about it. I just stuck with it and kept an open mind - even when the only male in my classes!

I encourage everyone to consider yoga as part of an exercise routine. Research and choose a branch of yoga that best suits your objectives. With yoga meaning a union between self and either a supreme being or an ultimate principle, it fits within any major religious doctrine, agnosticism, or atheism. Yoga, then, is both universal and highly personal, promoting a synergistic joining of mind and body.

I am no longer frustrated.