Don’t we all want to sleep better, find relieve from stress and live a healthier happier life? The need to take care of our physical and mental health has nothing to do with being a man or a woman. It has to do with being a human being living in the busy, hectic and sometimes scary age we live in.
So why are men so reluctant to try yoga?
“I slept so much better!”
I was lucky to try yoga for the first time at work. Working in engineering means that 85% of my coworkers are men. So when my employer provided yoga classes at the office once a week, although I wasn’t too sure about “this yoga thing”, I didn’t feel the pressure of doing yoga for the first time AND being the only man in the room.
Let’s be honest: every yogi probably started with the thought “I’m not flexible enough and I don’t know what I’m doing, so I don’t want to be judged by others in the room”.
So I can understand the pressure of going to practice yoga for the first time and being surrounded by women who are naturally more flexible and most likely not newbies.
I felt that pressure when I started practicing at Luna! Out of 20-30 yogis practicing, there would rarely be more than 2 men, including me. I could barely sit cross legged for 2 minutes before my legs got numb and I had to ask the teacher if I was sitting properly because it hurt my feet… take that ego!
But I have some good news for you men out there:
I’m seeing more and more men in yoga classes, so don’t worry, you won’t be alone.
Nobody cares how flexible you are or if you can sit cross legged properly… true story.
All the benefits I was getting from my practice outweighed any pain my ego felt from not being able to do some of the most basic poses (sitting for crying out loud!!!):
I slept so much better
I felt less stressed, anxious and angry and that showed in my overall health
My body was getting stronger and more flexible at the same time
Put all those benefits together and I was just feeling happier overall.
So whatever has been keeping you away from your first yoga class, set it aside for just one class. Try once and you’ll see what I mean. It took me only one try to change my mind and 5 years later I can finally sit cross legged for a good 10 minutes :)
