People have practiced Yoga for multiple reasons. There’s an interesting thread from which we’ve compiled the reasons through 43 Yoga experiences of Yoga practitioners as reported by people on a Reddit Yoga forum. The experiences and benefits of doing Yoga range from recovering from PTSD, better mental health, chronic back pain, neck pain, headaches, and better flexibility. These can provide you with some inspiration for doing Yoga.
Do share your experience of doing Yoga in the comments section as well.
Yoga For Back Problem
Also read – Yoga For Back Pain
Before yoga I had regular back problems. If I stop doing yoga for very long my back goes out on me again. Yoga is mandatory for keeping my back in good shape.I mean, it also feels good and puts me in a better mood. But the back is the main one.
Yoga offers mental health benefits as well that I’m not discounting, but it’s really done wonders for my back health.
Me too. I had sciatica real bad. It’s gone now.
I get back spasms and general achiness, and yoga is a big help, when I make time to do it.
Same, I can feel myself falling apart in the back (and somewhat my shoulders) if I don’t do it regularly.
Pain relief and prevention. Yoga healed my chronic back pain. It comes back when I fall off my practice (and leaves me more susceptible to injury, both times I threw out my back was during times I wasn’t practicing), so I try to keep up with it to keep the sciatica away.
1.to relieve back pain 2. neutralize my mood 3. direct energy in the right direction 4. there is healthy mind in a healthy body 💙💛
Yoga For Neck Problem
Also read – Neck Movements in Yoga – Greeva Sanchalana
Same! I’ve got 5 fucked up discs from my neck to my lower back from my youth. I do like 25 minutes of stretching in the morning and yoga in the evenings and it helps so much. I have only been doing yoga for 2.5 years now and it’s done wonders. All it takes is a couple weeks of being lazy and the severe pain starts to come back again.
I have nerve damage in my neck, and yoga helps with muscle spasms!
Helps with my injuries from ballet, the arthritis in my neck (nondance related injury), and keeps my body from feeling stiff. There are some stress relief benefits but mostly I keep at it for body comfort.
Yoga For Mental Health
Also read
Better Mental Health With Yoga
The Magic of Meditation
Does Yoga Actually Help You De-Stress? Here’s What Science Says
Measure Your Wellbeing Using WHO-5 Wellbeing Index
Yoga For Depression
The following Yoga experiences of people and reasons for starting Yoga are largely focused on mental health. A lot of people have shared Yoga experiences that are focused on mental health.
I started for mental health reasons, mostly to reduce anxiety and release tension associated with cptsd. I was not expecting the annoying lower back pain that I have had for a decade to disappear. It was never debilitating, but it’s sure nice to be pain free!
To settle my mind from anxiety. However when I was going to yoga classes 5-6 times a week I was incredibly flexible (for me) and I miss it.
Yoga helps me look inwards and assess the state of my brain. Quieting down and listening to my body is quite calming and refreshing and keeps me in a good mood off the mat. Or if I’m crying throughout my practice I know to be a bit more tender and loving towards myself.
I don’t get bored with yoga the way I do with other exercises. It calms my mind. When I do yoga I’m in a more meditative state, so I don’t mind repitition. With weights I start to get bored so fast just doing the same thing over and over.
Manage my stress and anxiety, it helped a lot in university and when my epilepsy was really bad. I also like the strength that’s built through practice, both physically and mentally.
Because it healed my mind & taught me true love. It keeps me humble & empowered. It calms my fears & helps me keep my cool in emergencies. It has become a way of being.
To connect to breathing….Anxiety purposes…..stretching feels good I often imagine like an inner flow of air flowing through my limbs. Strong air powerful airbender air. As if it was breath. That is what makes me feel so peaceful and ready to take on another day 🙏🏽💕
It started out as a way to get more flexible, I was a powerlifter and super stiff all the time. Now I need it for my mental and physical well being. I definitely notice when I miss a few days. It has given me so much more than I ever imagined.
I got serious about it when I needed to recover from PTSD. I was really lucky that the instructor I found is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher. That style of instruction really answered a lot of questions I’d had about proper form and alignment that were distracting and confusing me in flow classes. And it turned out to be a safer way for me to approach mindfulness practices at a time when my intrusive thoughts were too persistent and distressing for me to meditate.
I keep doing it now because I can see that my mood is more stable when I practice regularly. Also it turns out I’m trans, and 1 month into T, I really like this approach to building strength. It’s fun to try new things that were beyond me before when I’m actually noticeably stronger each time!
To try and incorporate routine in my life by waking up everyda at 5 for the yoga class. I have depression and anxiety.
did it to improve my mental health. started to branch out to work out from starting it somehow. i owe my better health mentally/physically to yoga
I have severe cPTSD (I only leave the house to go to work and back.). I needed to reduce the anxiety attacks that were happening anytime I had to make a phone call, get my instacart delivery, etc. I’m 59 now and afraid of what it’s done to my body over the years. So 2 years ago I began my journey and now? The anxiety attacks are gone for the most part, my anger has been reduced to almost nothing and I finally myself smiling and laughing a lot more than I ever did. I think yoga literally saved my life. I’ve never been this happy…ever.
I had a baby very late in life (44) and I want to stay healthy and fit so I can keep up with her for many years. I used to run marathons and I was constantly plagued by injuries, and I originally switched to yoga to help with some of my nagging pain. I found that yoga not only helped my hip and back issues, but also got me more physically fit than running ever had. Also, I deal with a headstrong toddler every day and yoga helps me to stay very calm and even when dealing with her crazy tantrums! I’ve been doing yoga for several years, but tomorrow marks one year of daily practice and I’m certainly more flexible and calm than I have been in years. I am the annoying person that tells everyone that will listen about how yoga changed my life because I feel like everyone can benefit from it.
Mental health truly one of the best foundational practices I’ve found for keeping myself happy 🙂 throughout every extremely hard time in my life yoga has been there for me and helped me through it.
Was and is central to recovery from severe spinal injury among many other injuries from the accident. Nineteen years on it’s become far beyond asanas for me now, the inward journey, pranayama to kriyas and more drives the practice onward.
Mental health. I have bipolar disorder and have been practicing since my initial diagnosis 12 years ago. I’ve also gone further in training (I don’t teach, simply for my own personal growth and knowledge) to hone in on it for mood regulation and management.
It started off as fitness and flexibility thing. Then the mindfulness caught on and I got super into meditation.
I have always practiced at home, and knew nothing of kundalini when mine first began to rise. Yoga kept me grounded through my awakening experience and helped me get home. And it continues to do just that.Now I guess if I were to summarize I’d say I do yoga because it enables me a deeper and more enriching life experience.
Yoga For Flexibility
Also Read – Top 50 Yoga Poses, Breathing Exercises and Benefits
When I first started practicing yoga, my heels never touched the ground in downward facing dog. Now they do automatically. I love to see the difference in what my body can start to do with just a little bit of daily practice.
Mental health, mobility, and the fact that I see a lot of people 60 years and older in class that are still moving so well. I’m in my 30s and just want to be able to move normally for as long as possible. Mobility is a privilege.
I’m a hairstylist/barber who is several years into my career and it’s starting to take its toll. I was having a hard time even picking things up off the floor at the end of the day. I’m in my early 30’s and knew it was too early to be having those problems! Once I started I loved it and have never gotten bored with it. I was happily surprised how well it is for my mental health as well. I can touch my toes for the first time in my life and now I’m all stretchy without any back pain
I’m a dentist, been practicing over 10 years and it was getting to the point that by the end of each week my back was screaming. I’ve been practicing a few months now, and the difference is amazing. For example I’m at work today, it’s Friday after a VERY busy week, and my back feels great!
Yoga helps me with my back and leg pain (I work as a designer so I sit all day long) and anxiety, plus I can do it every day without straining myself too much because I work from home and I need to exercise daily in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I can’t do anything too intense because of sarcoidosis (any stress can cause it to worsen), plus yoga is incredibly fun so it’s a win win.It even helped me with gallbladder pain when I had this issue
Most often because I’m stiff/sore without the asana practice. Also for a creative & emotional outlet. My “highest” reason is that it’s my spiritual devotional practice, part of my daily rituals and routines to come closer to my true nature. 🙏
Staying flexible/increased range of motion, clearing my mind, and supplemental physical activity. I also frequently treat my vinyasa style flows as core workouts.
I started yoga, so i can be flexible during sex and do more positions. But I continued it because it calms me in a way and it’s never boring for a workout. Plus, feeling stretchy afterwards is so satisfying
Relieving tension and stress in my body, to help with lower back pain, flexibility and mobility!
Yoga For Headache
Also read – Yoga For Headache
Yoga For High Blood Pressure
The 4-4-8 Breathing Exercise Works!
Yoga makes my sciatica, tension headaches, and shoulder bursitis go away.I swear it also helps some minor tummy trouble, too, which one instructor told me she experiences the same the g.
Yoga To Quit Addictions
Yoga helped me quit drinking. and now it has replaced drinking as the thing that reliably makes me feel physically good.
I had tried to quit smoking more than 10 times. I used smoking as a way to deal with my stress and anxiety so I needed a different outlet to deal with all those emotions, so I started doing yoga to help with this.
Yoga For Shoulders
I work in front of a computer all day and have repetitive stress syndrome on my shoulders and wrists. Occasionally, I’d get massive stress knots in my shoulder and neck that would last 2+ weeks. It was so bad I wouldn’t be able to turn my neck or lift my arms to shoulder height. The doc’s recommendation was always to get a cortisone shot into the knots but those hurt even more and are not always effective. Ever since starting yoga 4 years ago, my body feels more limber and if I ever do feel a knot, I can pretty much undo it with one power yoga session – warm up the body and stretch out the knot. It’s really strange but I can feel the knot dissipating. Plus, my repetitive stress syndrome has disappeared.
Yoga For Feeling Good, Confidence
Hmm. I started yoga because I’m chubby and I thought that it will be good choice. I mean – to increase my flexibility before I go to the gym. I have gentler migraines, my back problem is less severe and I get some inner calm in me, I mean – I lost it and yoga help me get it back. Highly recommend.
After ruining my entire spine from powerlifting and dealing with the pain for years, gradually gravitated towards yoga. I also now think it makes you more flexible mentally not just physically. It’s also just fun some times, majority of people I know cant even touch their toes
edit: feels good, stress management
Yoga Experiences and reasons for starting Yoga
The objective of compiling the Yoga experiences of people and their reasons for starting Yoga is to also inspire others who might be facing similar issues to try Yoga. A lot of the experiences are now today being backed by science. There’s growing scientific evidence of the physical and mental health benefits of Yoga (also read – Hatha Yoga Health Benefits ).
Your Yoga Experiences can also help get others involved and experience the benefits of Yoga. Do share yours in the comments below