YOGA -- the name itself symbolizes peace, tranquility and connecting oneself to the divine world. For some it might also mean lot of hard work, struggle, getting up early in the morning (less sleep) etc etc.
The joy and power of yoga is only understood once u start doing it. I started yoga because i wanted to loose some weight also to control my sinus problem. I was totally left with no solutions to these two problems. Once when I was enjoying my holidays after my engineering, I randomly picked up a pamphlet kept in between the newspaper which I took to read sipping my morning dose of coffee. That advertisement was regarding a yoga course which was going to be conducted in my city for one week duration. I was attracted to the words given in the pamphlet like losing weight etc etc. You know, you wont get attracted to ads so easily until something interesting catches your mind or you see what you eagerly wanted to see. There was a sudden idea that flashed my mind.
I picked up my phone and dialled my best friends number. When she answered, I started asking her different questions which actually did not need any answers. Its actually because I could not directly jump to telling her that I wanted to join this course badly and I needed her to accompany me since I was little hesitant to going alone. I waited till she gave me answers to all the questions that i asked ( actually none of the answers were getting registered in my brain which however has only limited capacity). After she finished, I started telling her about this yoga course and somehow managed to convince her to join the course.
The next day we went to the introductory class. After i listened to the instructor there I was really inspired and then decided to go the next day too. As we started with the different postures (asanas) in our subsequent class, I started to realize how my body had been in the last few years due to lack of exercise. It was as if i was trying to bend a hard block of wood. I somehow managed to start doing the different postures, but one asana which as was really scary and would make me sweat was "Halasana"- called the Queen of YOGA. I really used to get goosebumps when i used to hear its name as I was not able to do it properly and it would pain terribly. Finally I decided that i would somehow conquer it one day and do it successfully.
The course ended in 8 days. I continued to do all the postures taught in my class daily. Though I didn't notice much changes in myself in the beginning, after some 2 to 3 months I started to see the improvements. I started losing weight, my head ache had completely gone and most importantly my confidence level increased. In due course of time I lost around 10 kilos which in itself was a great achievement. My friends noticed me and started asking me to teach them yoga.
Its been more than 3 years now since the day I decided to join my first yoga class, but it has brought a new ME. That's why I call yoga as the "Road to happiness behind Twists and Turns"... :)