Readers, you know how you always have that one friend who is an avid advocate for yoga?  “Yeah, yoga changed my life.  My essence has been transformed since I started taking yoga seriously.  You should totally join me; let’s get this Zen.”

Well, maybe you don’t have that type of friend, but BOY, I absolutely do.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m supportive of my friends and whatever they choose to spend their time doing (too many people are judgmental these days; support your friends!), but I’ve never really gotten into yoga.  My goal right now is to do a little research, find out what’s so good about yoga from the perspectives of others, and then I might dabble in the art form.

Let’s (TED) Talk!

To start off my research, I watched a TED Talk that caught my eye.  If you haven’t heard of a TED Talk, I have to say, you’re missing out entirely.  I started with the TED Talk called “Yoga and its connection to mental health” by Nikolai Blinow.

~ Differences ~

As a yoga teacher and mental health counselor, Blinow examines the similarities and differences in the way that mental health counseling and yoga treat people.  What I mean by this is for mental health counseling, “We focus on what’s going wrong with people instead of what’s going right.”  When Blinow made this statement, it struck a chord with me.  How could something that is such a vital form of health care sound so cold?  In my life, I know a few people who attend such counseling sessions, and now I wonder how productive these sessions truly are.  This statement illuminates the idea that maybe there is a different way to approach the feeling of unhappiness.

Blinow continues and explains that yoga takes a slightly different approach toward people; yoga seeks to help people “learn strategies to treat the root of unhappiness versus just treating the symptoms.”  Although this seems intuitive, to treat the root cause of a problem, it can often be overlooked.  Attempting to reach the root cause can prevent or at least lessen the degree of effect that a certain feeling can have on a person.  It’s important that we take care of ourselves, and it can be hard to find or admit the root cause of our unhappiness but admitting to the cause is the first step you need to take.

~ Similarities ~

Yoga and mental health counseling, here we’ll specifically look at cognitive behavioral therapy, do share traits.  Cognitive behavioral therapy is broken down into four sections that are intertwined: behavior, feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations.  Each area is treated in a different way, but when looking at the makeup of the ideals that are encompassed by yoga, yoga attempts to treat the same sections as cognitive behavioral therapy.  Although yoga technically involves more components and is made up in a linear model, the components from mental health counseling and yoga overlap.   Since yoga and mental health counseling are both trying to reverse and be proactive about feelings of unhappiness, yoga doesn’t seem so much like a “status” activity; yoga is much more about personal health and well being.

All right, I think I convinced myself; I’m going to try and get into a yoga routine.  With the differences and similarities between yoga and mental health counseling all weighed out, I am going to try it out and see how it goes.  Check back with me next week to see my flexibility progress.  Who knows, maybe I’ll become the next advocate for yoga!  If you have a favorite yoga pose, drop a comment below, and I’ll try it out!