Yoga and Finding Balance in Motion
I still remember the first time I tried yoga. I thought it would be simple: stretch a little, breathe a little, maybe feel calmer by the end. Instead, I found myself shaking in poses I could barely hold, impatient with my own limits, and oddly emotional when the class finally ended. It wasn’t just exercise, it was a mirror.
That’s the thing about yoga: it shows you what’s happening inside. When your mind is racing, your breath shortens. When you fight against your body, the tension only grows. When you soften, even for a moment, you realize just how much weight you’ve been carrying without noticing.
In therapy, I often hear people describe themselves as “disconnected.” They might be successful in their careers, active in their relationships, and busy in their routines—but there’s a sense of being out of sync. Yoga, at its core, is about reintroducing yourself to yourself. It’s a practice of alignment, not just of the spine, but of attention, awareness, and presence.
One of the most powerful lessons yoga offers is patience. In a world that rewards speed, yoga asks you to slow down. It doesn’t matter if you can touch your toes today. What matters is noticing where you are, staying with it, and giving yourself permission to breathe there. That practice carries over into life. Suddenly, the meeting that runs long or the traffic jam on your commute feels less like an attack and more like another place to practice patience.
And while yoga often begins as a personal practice, many find that the deeper gift lies in community. Moving together, breathing together, and sharing space with others reminds us that healing doesn’t have to happen alone. There’s something profoundly grounding about hearing a room exhale at once, or exchanging a smile with the person on the mat beside you. Those small moments of connection echo far beyond the studio.
So how does this support mental health?
LEARN: Yoga teaches you to pay attention: to your body, your breath, and your thoughts. You start to notice the small signals of stress before they become overwhelming.
GROW: Each time you return to the mat, you build resilience. Not just in your muscles, but in your ability to stay steady through discomfort and uncertainty.
CONNECT: Yoga reconnects you—with yourself, with others who share the practice, and with the simple rhythm of being alive in the moment.
You don’t need to be flexible. You don’t need the right clothes or the perfect studio. You only need curiosity and a willingness to begin. Start with five minutes of stretching and breathing on your living room floor. See what shifts. Notice how your body feels after, and how your mind softens too.
Over time, yoga becomes less about the poses and more about the space it creates, the space to listen, to release, to reconnect. It’s a reminder that balance isn’t a destination. It’s something we practice, over and over, with each breath—sometimes alone, sometimes together.