Wellness Day Reflection

I chose the topic of yoga because it has always been something I have been interested in. My freshman year I started doing yoga and I absolutely loved it. At first I started out doing Vinyasa or flow yoga. I found that it was a great way for me to stretch and increase my flexibility. When I did yoga in the mornings, I found that it really helped to wake me up and energize me for the day. Eventually, I started to hot yoga. I found this to be a bit more challenging due to the heated environment and quicker pace, but I really enjoyed the workout I got from it. In addition from the physical benefits that I received from yoga, it also helped me to destress and relax. Yoga is a very fun way to exercise while relaxing and clearing your mind at the same time, that is why I thought it would be the perfect for my Wellness Day.
While preparing for this presentation I discovered all the fun different types of yoga that there are. I had always known about aerial and even tried it a couple times myself. Another type of yoga that I discovered while doing research for this project was acro yoga. This is a combination of acrobatics and yoga. In order to do any of these poses a partner is needed, and a very strong one at that. Another funny type of yoga is called doga, or yoga with your dog. This has helped people to create harmony and form a greater connection with their dog.
Yoga is very important topic for health and wellness because it has so many benefits, both physical and mental. Some of it's physical benefits are increase inflexibility as well as balance. In addition, it also helps to strengthen your muscles and promotes blood flow through all the movement that is done in a yoga class. Some mental benefits include mindfulness through meditation and your breath-work. Another mental benefit is relaxation responses that are shown to help relieve stress and even reduce symptoms of depression.
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate our presentation a 9. I believe that we had a good balance between lecturing and educating the class on our topic while also demonstrating different yoga poses and walking the class through a basic yoga sequence. I also believe that we were able to keep the class engaged and interested throughout our presentation. I hope that the class was able to take away something from our presentation.
Another thing about this topic that interests me is pilates. There are many type of pilates such as traditional pilates, that include the use of a special apparatus, mat pilates, that includes the exercises being done on a yoga mat, and hot mat pilates, where the exercises are done in heated room of about 104-105 degrees. Pilates incorporates many aspects of yoga, such as poses like downward dog and the importance of flexibility. I have always liked pilates because while it has some aspects of yoga in it, I find that it provides me with a more intense workout than yoga gives. I do also find that I receive a lot of same mental benefits that I receive from yoga, such as relaxation and mindfulness.