Atyanta (Post 5)

Well, I did it! The presentation didn't go exactly how I planned, but I have done worse. I brought note cards, and forgot to bring up my last note card which had my amazing ending on it. When I realized I didn't have the exact words in front of me, that when put together just completely tie everything together, I froze (of course). I think I recovered fine from that, I got through the basics of what the ending was supposed to be, but didn't execute it exactly how I had rehearsed. I think that my message got across to the audience and they really embraced and understood it. I wanted them to walk away from my presentation thinking about and realizing that this project is only temporary and that once you present, the stress you were experiencing will subside. I wanted them to realize that all the stress we experience in life regarding grades, assignments, and, of course, our futures, is only temporary.

Overall, this project has seriously helped me with my stress and anxiety issues. And, I know I talk about it a lot, but those were the main reasons behind why I chose yoga for my project. I wanted to do something that would not only benefit me mentally and emotionally, but also physically. I am happy to say that achieved all of that. I am more relaxed and laid back. I am not longer yelling and screaming at people over things that are out of my control. I am not longer staying up until all hours of the night working on assignments. So, I am very thankful that I was given this opportunity to try something new and experience something that I am planning on sticking with.

For my final blog post, I chose the sanskrit word atyanta, which means 'endless'. Although this IS the end of this project, this IS NOT the end of my experiences with yoga. Yoga has opened me up to a completely different world full of relaxation and peace.

Thank you all for following my blog over the past couple weeks. Maybe I'll keep updating yo guys with my advancements in yoga past this project. Stay calm, my friends. And remember, everything is temporary.

Namaste.

Vichara (Post 4)

Hey followers.

So, the time has come where I must present what I have been working on for the past couple cycles. I always dread this part of the project, as I am not that good when it comes to giving presentations in front of large groups of people. I always talk too fast, or don't annunciate enough. One time I just stopped talking for what felt like a minute because I completely forgot what I was supposed to say. But, I am happy to say that I feel confident with that I am presenting tomorrow. My ending is my favorite part, and no I'm not going to tell you what it is. You'll just have to wait and see.

There isn't really much to update you guys on from the past couple days. I've been trying to do yoga every chance I get, but with spring sports starting, I get home so late every night that I barely have time to finish all my homework. Obviously, the yoga helps me stay calm with all of that stress about being up until all hours of the night working on some biology lab or silly math worksheet, but it's still really stressing me out. And preparing for this, and the Les Mis project (which will be amazing because my group is amazing) were taking up a lot of time. Hopefully, it will all be worth it in the end. This entire project has already been worth it. The changes I have seen in my mood, stress, and anxiety are unlike anything I could have imagined.

My title for this post is vichara, which means reflection or continuous self-examination. This was perfect for this post, as it is my last post before I present. My presentation is all about my journey to where I am and what I have learned, in regards to yoga and the brain, but also what I have learned about myself.

Well, wish me luck with my presentation tomorrow. I'll be back on to tell you guys how it went!

Namaste.

Mukha (Vlog)

For the title of this blog, I went with the sanskrit word for 'face'. Pretty self-explanatory, as this is the only post so far where you will see my face because I am actually talking to you instead of typing. Please excuse my um's and so's. Hope you enjoy the vlog!





Yoga Vlog from Lizzy Cutler on Vimeo.

Kaarana (Post 3)

Hey dedicated yoga enthusiasts. I have a lot to catch you all up on, but where should I start?

How bout this. This past weekend, I went to Nashville, TN (don't ask why- I won't have a good answer). It was a fun experience, up until things started going downhill. So I flew into Nashville Friday afternoon, which means that I was supposed to fly home. But, as karma or something like that would have it, my flight for Sunday night into Philly got cancelled. Not surprised. Bad things always happen when I travel with my grandparents (one time, we were supposed to fly back from Florida, but missed our flight, so we had to drive. Yep, trapped in a little car with my grandparents for two days straight). This time it wasn't as bad; only 15 hours. Still, I am scarred for life. Anyway, as you can imagine, my stress and anxiety levels (as if not already high enough from being away for a whole weekend) were through the roof. How was I going to get home in time to do the hours of homework I had due for Monday? I can't miss school on Monday, I have tryouts. I gotta get home. So, we started our journey late Saturday night. We stopped at a hotel right before leaving Tennessee, as we had been driving for about four hours already. We slept for about six hours, then got in the car and continued driving. After about eight hours, the bad weather started. Snow, sleet, rain, ice, literally anything you could imagine we experienced. Once we got into Delaware, it took us three hours to get back to my house because the roads were so bad. At this point is was already 8:00. So, what was the thing I did right when I got home? Nope, not homework. Nope, didn't watch Netflix. I went right up to my room, turned on my meditation music, and did a little yoga.

It's kind of amazing how much yoga has helped me over the past couple weeks. I feel like it has changed me (for the better, obviously). Normally, in that situation, I would storm upstairs, slam my door in frustration and anger, and lay on my bed trying to figure out how the heck I was going to cram four hours of homework in before I fell asleep that night. But yoga has made me realize that being frustrated at things that are out of your control won't do you any good. Instead, you can exert your frustration and anger into yoga! I did some of the basic moves I explained in my last post for about 15 minutes, and then went back downstairs to start my homework. After taking those 15 minutes for myself and worrying about nothing other than myself and those poses, I was calm. Everything else that had just happened was the past, there was no point in being mad over it. The only thing to do now was to calm down, relax, and get as much homework done as possible.

To document my progress, I am going to take pictures of me performing the poses every couple days and post them. Now, remember I am not a professional, but hopefully these will somewhat resemble the pictures of the professionals in my last post.

Attempt at Tree Pose

Attempt at Pigeon 

Attempt at Warrior

Attempt at Upward facing dog

For this week, the title of my post means 'reason'. I am strong believer that everything happens for a reason. So, looking back and reflecting on my experience this past weekend, I realize that my misfortune must have happened for a reason. So, overreacting and freaking out about it wouldn't have done me any good, and yoga reminded me of that. Yoga reminded me that sometimes, you have to take a breathe and focus on nothing other than yourself.

Stress before yoga: 7 (I've got a lot of tests/quizzes/long term stuff due this coming week, so my stress has been pretty high. I have tryouts coming up this week, which I'm not too worried about)

Anxiety before yoga: 7 (My anxiety was through the roof right before I did my yoga. I had just gotten home, after fearing that I would be trapped in the middle of nowhere, which would result in me missing another day of school, which means I would have missed tryouts. It just would have been one bad thing after another if things didn't go as surprisingly well as they did)

Stress after yoga: 3 (I was still a little stressed, as I now had hours of homework to complete, but while I was practicing I realized that I should just be happy that I made it home in time to get a little work done as well as a decent amount of sleep)

Anxiety after yoga: 2 (My anxiety decreased immensely after my yoga, as I had time to slow down my breathing, close my eyes for a little, and even stretch a little after being stuck in a car for an entire day)

Namaste.

Comments:
Avery Ryan (Brown)
David Weiss (Red)
Sarah Kollender (Yellow)

Mukta (Post 2)

Post 2

Let’s start off with how relaxed I feel. I did yoga for about an hour today, going through a cycle of about 10 poses a few times. Throughout my yoga practicing today, I decided to listen to a meditation playlist on Spotify. While I was going through the poses (all of which I will explain a little later in this post) I felt as though everything around me had stopped. The whole world just stopped and the only thing I was thinking about was me; not school, or homework, or friends, or parents, nothing. Honestly, that was the first time I have ever not been thinking about any of those things, and let me just say, it was so nice to have an hour to myself where I didn’t have to be worrying about if this specific assignment is due tomorrow, or if I failed that one test, or if my parents are gonna let me hang out with my friends this weekend. Everything was stopped. Everything was quiet (except for the meditation music, obviously). I am going to really enjoy this experience, I can already tell. I’m a very stressed, uptight person, but today, the yoga made me take a break from life and just forget everything I was stressing about in the upcoming week. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’m so excited to continue with it. Alright, enough about tranquility and peacefulness. Let me teach you all about the 10 poses I learned. First of all, here is the video I watched today that helped teach me some of the most basic and most common poses for Yoga. Not all of the poses I am going to mention later are from this video, but they are all regarded as the most common yoga poses.

Now, I am only going to highlight and explain a few, as I'm sure most of you would be overwhelmed with all 10 poses. I will include many, though, so if you want to research them, be my guest. 

Mountain Pose

With this pose, you will stand with your feel directly under your hips and your weight distributed equally on your feet. Be sure to keep your arms at your side. Keep your neck aligned with your spine. Breathe deeply and stretch your arms gently upwards. Stretch your arms as high as you can and keep a fluent inhale and exhale breathing pattern. 

Tree Pose

With this pose, stand straight with your arms at your sides and looking straight ahead. Bend your right knee and place the sole of your foot on your left thigh. Then, raise your arms over your head and place your palms together. As you continue to breathe, make sure your body is straight. Bring your hands back down to your sides and lower your foot to the ground. Repeat with other side.

 Downward Facing Dog

With this pose, begin on the floor on your hands and knees. Spread your fingers out and walk towards your hands as you move your hips up into the air until your body forms an upside-down "V" shape. Keep your feet flat on the floor about shoulder width apart. If you can't keep your heels on the ground, that is fine, just bend your knees a little, but be sure to keep your back as straight as possible. 

Here, I am just going to list the other poses I learned, along with a picture. Feel free to google the poses to find links and videos on how to successfully complete these poses. (Yes, a few look very difficult, but if you have confidence and breathe while you try, I believe that all of you can complete all of these poses). 

Eagle Pose 

Child's Pose

Pigeon Pose

Reverse Warrior 

Upward Facing Dog 

Warrior One

Extended Side Angle 

Dead Man's Pose

On a side note, this weekend, I went to a spa down the shore with a couple of my family members. I got a full-body Swedish massage, which I must say, was amazing. After my massage, I felt relaxed and rejuvenated. And then, coming home the next day and spending an hour on yoga really kept that feeling going. As I sit here typing this, while I would normally be stressing out about the large amount of work I have to complete in addition to this before I go to bed tonight, I am not really worrying about all of that. The spa itself was amazing as well. When we first got there, we were taken back to this room with dim lighting, candles everywhere, a little water fountain, and meditation music softly playing the background. One by one, we were called into our sessions. The room where I got my massage was just like the waiting room we were placed in, having dim lighting, lit candles, and a sweet smell of some type of incense filling the room. My mind has drifted off into a state of complete relaxation, only focusing on breathing. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Nothing else mattered but my breathing. And for an hour, I laid there while I was pampered with hot rocks and wonderful exfoliating lotions. Even after it was over, I was still in a state of relaxation, which is a feeling I hadn't experienced in a very, very long time.  

As I explained in my last post, I am going to choose one Sanskrit word that represents some aspect of my journey with yoga, which I will make the title of each of my posts, For this post, I have decided to title it mukta. Literally translated, mukta means liberation or freedom. Interpreted, it means relaxed, or freed from thought. This word clearly represents my feelings over the past couple days after my visit to the spa and then doing my yoga. Everything that I had been stressing and worrying about the past couple days has simply gone away, and all I am thinking about is me, nothing else. 

Starting now, I will include my anxiety and stress rating at the end of every post. I will give a rating for how stressed I was before I started my yoga session (and in this case, before my spa experience) and then compare it to after. The rating will be on a 1-10 scale, 1 being not that stressed or anxious and 10 being very stressed and anxious. Along with that, I will given an explanation for each rate. 

Stress before yoga: 7 (I'm pretty stressed about all the school work I have to complete this weekend, including this blog post, reading Les Mis, a good deal of biology homework, and some math to finish all before the school week starts)

Anxiety before yoga: 5 (Softball season just started up again, which means I have practices every day after school for a solid two to three hours, which means two to three hours less of homework time, which means generally less sleep on school nights because I will have more work to do in less amount of time) 

Stress after yoga: 2 (Once I really thought about it, there isn't that much work due tomorrow, as it's really only this blog post that MUST get done before tomorrow. The rest of that stuff I mentioned is due on Tuesday, which gives me a whole extra day to work on it)

Anxiety after yoga: 1 (School is my first priority, so if I feel like I have too much work one night, I can simply skip on of the open gyms. The coach even said that if we know we will have a lot of work a certain night, skipping that day is fine, so I shouldn't be worrying about all of that)


Namaste. 

Comments:
Avery Ryan (Brown)
David Weiss (Red)
Sarah Kollender (Yellow)

Surya (Post 1)

Post 1

The minute we were assigned this project, I knew exactly what I wanted to do; yoga! I have always been exposed to yoga, as I have many friends and family members that engage in this spiritual practice. I have always wanted to try yoga, but never found the time to do so. But now, with this project, it's the perfect opportunity! Yoga, in case you didn't already know, is a Hindu spiritual discipline that includes breathing exercises, meditation, and specific bodily postures. It has been linked to relieving stress and anxiety, which, if you know me really well, is something I struggle with daily. Throughout this project, I am going to focus on the specific poses and breathing techniques that are directly linked to stress and anxiety relief. In doing so, in each of my future blog posts, I am going to rate my stress/anxiety levels on a scale from 1 (being not that stress/anxious) to 10 (stressed/anxious to the max.) before and after I complete my yoga session. After, I will compare the two ratings, which hopefully will begin to decrease as I invest more and more time into yoga.

My research thus far has mainly been revolving around the mental and physical benefits yoga has to offer, as those are my main motivations for choosing this practice for this project. As I mentioned before, yoga is a major contributor to stress and anxiety relief. Along with that, research from Harvard University has shown that yoga is able to help relieve anxiety by regulating the human stress response system, meaning that trains our minds to see the big picture and act from integrity instead of freaking out in certain situations. Another major mental benefit yoga has is the fact that it calms the mind, which for a busy high-schooler, can be a very rare occurrence. On the physical benefits side, yoga is considered an exercise. When exercising, one would typically be forced to push their limits and see how long or how far they can go before giving up. In this case, yoga generally deals with leg and upper body strength, which are things that I, personally, feel as though I need to address. Yoga has also been used to help people with goal-setting techniques. By aiming to nail a certain pose by a certain class or date, we are given the chance to practice goal-setting outside of the school environment, where most of our goals revolve around grades. But with yoga, the goals are more focused on you, which I think can be a very alleviating experience.

As far as goals go, I hope that my experience with yoga allows me to better handle and relieve my stress and anxiety, as well as strengthen my mental and physical state. I also hope to boost my memory and concentration, as yoga has also been proven to improve those aspects of mental state as well. My expectation is that yoga opens me up to a more calm, cool, and collected lifestyle than the one I live today.

As you might have noticed, the title of my post is a word I'm sure none of you have seen. You might have googled it in order to enlighten yourself with it's meaning, and if not, thats okay too, because I am going to explain it right here. As I mentioned earlier, yoga is a Hindu practice, so the words and phrases mentioned in yoga classes are typically from Sanskrit. So, for each blog post, I am going to title it with a different Sanskrit word, with the definition of the word relating to where I am in the process of becoming one with the techniques of yoga. For this first post, I chose the word Surya, which means sun. I am at the beginning of my journey with yoga, as my only knowledge is a couple basic poses.  The sun rises at the beginning of each day, shedding light on the endless amount of opportunities that day has to offer. As I begin this journey with yoga, I hope that I am opened up to an endless amount of enriching opportunities yoga has to offer.

Namaste.