For this season of Yoga and Meditation, I had a knee injury which my doctor told me to stop high-intensity sports such Muay Thai. He recommended continuing Yoga as it will be easier on my knee. My injury started around the end of October and fully healed by the end January. When I had the injury, it would hurt to even sit down on a chair. I realised that by doing Yoga it really helped my knees become stronger. I used the progression of the healing of my knee as a measure of how I was doing in Yoga.

I think that these 3 yoga poses left the most lasting impact on me this season:

• Headstand was the hardest pose for me as I feel that it requires a lot of self-confidence to do. I could only do half a headstand and even that was hard. It made me realise that confidence is key to taking risks and doing things outside of your comfort zone. This applies to trying new yoga poses that look intimidating.

• Tree pose was the most beneficial to me since the physical aspect was bending our knees. It hurt at the beginning and it was hard to maintain for a long time but eventually, I built endurance and it stopped hurting. Since I was breathing and focussing on a point on the floor it was easier to forget about the knee pain which I think helped a lot.

• Pigeon pose was definitely more hard to do because of my knees. I couldn’t bend them much or else they’d hurt. But eventually, I gained endurance so it eventually hurt less.

 

For this season, I found it a lot harder to do meditation. This season I noticed my mind tended to stray a lot more into things I’m stressing about. This was very strange and upsetting for me since I could concentrate during season 1. I’m actually quite surprised that I only fell asleep once in the past 2 seasons since I was tired most of the time. My favourite meditation from both the seasons was: ‘The cottage in the snow’. It was very calming and it used more of our imagination so it stimulated my brain and kept it engaged since it was fun.

 

These are the breathing exercises that I’ve been using even now:

• Alternate nostril breathing: I use this breathing technique for when I have a blocked nose. It’s quite annoying when I have a blocked nose and this breathing exercise helps clear my nose. It’s also calming.
• Kapalabhati (Breath of fire): When I can’t sleep I do this technique since which makes me tired. It’s also good as a stomach exercise.
• 7-2-11 breathing: This is my favourite technique and I use it the most frequently. This is the one I use to calm down in public spaces such as before giving presentations. It’s definitely the most beneficial in that way since it works.

Overall, I identified that I need to improve in concentration and confidence. I think that my concern from season 1 (flexibility) eventually was forgotten about and replaced with healing my knee. I found the activity enjoyable, and I’m happy that I’ve been able to apply and use these skills further outside of the activity.