30 Days of Yoga Have Made Me Healthier and More Relaxed

_{by Julia Kraft}

I can definitely say that I’m the type of person who constantly needs something to do. I like being swamped with work, doing lots of sports and in the remaining time, enjoy meeting friends. Therefore, you could say my days are pretty full. The only problem is that with such a busy schedule, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters – like listening to your own needs. Everything just seems to run on its own. But at some point, you realize that you haven’t planned enough time to be with yourself. And that you should bring your body and mind back into balance. In order to achieve this, I decided to do yoga for at least 15 minutes a day for one month.

How do you start doing yoga?

Perhaps you are thinking, “Great, I’ve never done yoga before.” But that’s the perfect time to try it out! I didn’t start doing yoga until this year: at Runtastic, there is a free yoga class for employees every Wednesday. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wanted that feeling of a relaxed body and mind more often than just once a week. That’s why I picked some sequences from “Yoga with Adriene” and tried them out at home.

The 30-day yoga challenge

Motivated by my coworkers who have already conquered several challenges, I decided to take on a 30-day yoga challenge. I planned active time into my schedule to help me reach my goal. Squeezing in 15 minutes of exercise a day sounds pretty easy, but it turns out it’s harder than you think, or at least it was for me. Especially on the weekend when I was meeting up with friends, I didn’t feel much like doing yoga. And after a long night of clubbing, the last thing I wanted to do was roll out my yoga mat and assume the downward-facing dog pose 😉

I quickly realized that penciling in my yoga sessions wasn’t the way to go, yoga had to become part of my daily routine. And that it was okay to skip a day once in a while. This also had the added advantage of making me even more excited about my next yoga session

My learnings after one month of yoga:

1. Increased strength and flexibility

Yoga not only brings your body and mind into balance, it also helps you trim your figure and increase your flexibility. The exercises have strengthened my shoulder and back muscles, which is really important when you spend most of your day sitting. Yoga has also helped me build up my core muscles.

2. Strong mind and more self-confidence

During a yoga session, ideally, you should just concentrate on yourself and do the series of movements at your own speed. The fluid movements helped bring my body and mind into harmony, giving me the feeling of pure relaxation we all need in today’s fast-paced world.

3. Better sleep and greater resilience

Another big benefit was that yoga improved the quality of my sleep. The relaxation aspect of the sessions had a calming effect on my body. It basically prepped my body for that night’s sleep.

Takeaway:

Yoga has turned out to be the perfect combination of physical exertion and mental relaxation for me. I found that 15-20 minutes a day was enough to make me feel healthier, fitter, stronger, and more confident. Try it out and see for yourself. Namasté!

About Julia:

Julia is a Scrum Master at Runtastic. Besides her thirst for traveling, she likes to try out different sports like kickboxing. “I love to take on new challenges and learn from them.” #alwaysimproving

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