Practice Response 1

Surprisingly, the first day of class was my first time being exposed or introduced to yoga and its philosophy.  Although yoga is often referred to as a common practice in today’s society and is known as a popular form of exercise, I had never practiced it before. As a result, I decided to enroll in the course. The yoga poses that we learned in class were definitely unique - especially the walking dog. The poses forced me to empty my mind and concentrate solely on the movement at hand. The various poses required balance, stretching of the limbs in ways you wouldn’t normally, an open mind, and the willingness to push yourself in order to reach complete solidarity. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about yoga and being introduced to the yoga sutras. It was somewhat weird because for the pass few years I have heard a lot about yoga and have been asked by several of my friends to participate in a class, but I was always busy or simply unable to attend. Also, I enjoyed the discussion on the reading prior to class practice because it allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of what the sutras were trying to convey.