I still vividly remember the first yoga class I ever took 15 years ago…

When I was really struggling with my eating disorder and my relationship with exercise, I randomly decided to try a yoga class, thinking that this might be a better alternative to my obsessive workouts at the gym. I also was looking for a new routine / activity to fill my after-school time.

I didn’t know ONE yoga pose and couldn’t even come CLOSE to touching my toes!

The entire class, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It was all kind of confusing and a little overwhelming. BUT, there was something about this new-to-me form of exercise that had me intrigued enough to continue coming back.

A decade and a half later, yoga remains an integral part of my life. Not only have I seen tremendous gains physically, but also in my relationship with exercise and my body. Not to mention, stretching and sweating (I especially love hot forms of yoga) feels absolutely amazing! I always find going to a great yoga class to be a helpful physical and mental “reset.” My body is sweating out all sorts of toxins, I’m focused physically, and my mind and emotions tend to settle by the end of the class.

(Note: when I talk about yoga, I’m simply referring to mindful stretching and breathing. I don’t personally engage with the religious elements found in some forms of yoga. I’m a Christian and see mindful movement and breathing as another way to connect with God and be more present with myself.)

I recommend yoga for EVERYONE, but especially anyone struggling in his or her relationship with exercise / body image. I’d love to share with you 6 reasons why!

6 Reasons Why Yoga Can Help Improve Your Relationship with Exercise & Your Body

Yoga can increase your ability to focus on the present moment.

If you’re like me and many of my clients, maybe you struggle with staying in the present moment. I tend to obsess and worry about the future, having a hard time containing my thoughts.

Yoga encourages staying focused on the present moment — this one breath, this one posture, this one flow. When I’m in a yoga class, my mind is centered on the pose we are doing RIGHT NOW. I’m not stressing about the next flow, or what difficult holding postures may come. I’m right here, in the moment, feeling the power of my physical body, feeling my toes on the mat, feeling my hands grip the floor.

Instead of obsessing about what you ate yesterday / are going to eat tomorrow, fretting about whether you can fit your workout in later this week, or wishing your body were different than it is now, yoga invites us to tune into our present experience.

Yoga encourages accepting yourself as you are, each day.

Something that I absolutely love about yoga is how it allows you to simply BE as you are, right now. In yoga, there’s no “doing it right,” shame for being “worse” than you were last week, or anything that “should” be happening. However you are showing up on your mat, right now, TODAY, is perfectly fine. Even if (or especially if!) you feel like a mess!

Accepting yourself as you are right now doesn’t mean “liking” everything (or even anything!) about yourself. I think it’s great to like certain things about yourself in a healthy, humble way. But with acceptance, I’m talking about allowing yourself to be, to exist, to take up space. Not feeling a need to urgently and catastrophically FIX EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW OR I CAN’T COPE. 

The irony is, when we practice acceptance, we are more likely to be able to move forward with positive small steps that build over time — whether that is improving your downward dog, your relationship with food, or your physical health.

Yoga discourages comparison to others.

It can be so easy to fall into a debilitating and unhealthy comparison mindset with exercise… comparing your running times, exercise routine, weight-lifting capabilities, muscle tone and definition, sport-specific stats… the list of possible comparisons goes on. Yoga can offer a breath of fresh air when it comes to doing a form of exercise that is inherently NOT focused on comparison to others. In yoga, the pressure is OFF to be the best or to perform to a certain standard. We are encouraged to be present in our own experiences, not distracted by what the person next to us is doing.

On the other hand, being consistent with something like yoga can be an amazing way to see an aspect of self-improvement over time. Just like in recovery, “small steps over time” really do add up to amazingly tangible progress as weeks, months, and years go on. In my own yoga practice, I’ve gone from barely being able to bend over to reach my knees to having much more flexibility.

This was NOT a result of me shaming myself about my prior inflexibility or obsessively fixating on a need to be more flexible ASAP so I better get it together NOW. It was a result of self-acceptance, inherent enjoyment in the activity, and small consistent steps building over time. Focusing on the JOURNEY, not the desired outcome.

Yoga (classes) can help loosen control or rigidity issues with exercise.

If you feel overly rigid when it comes to exercise, attending a guided yoga class or watching a guided yoga video online can help with gradually loosening this rigidity over time. By rigidity with exercise, I mean feeling like you HAVE to do your workouts a specific way in order to feel okay with yourself. Feeling guilty or not good enough because of a certain workout not going how you wanted it to (or not completing it to the extent that you wanted) is a sign of an unhealthy relationship with exercise.

When we let someone else guide our exercise, this is by nature a form of letting go and loosening control. Sometimes a yoga teacher might cue a more restful class than we were hoping for or anticipating. Sometimes we might stay in uncomfortable postures for longer than we’d like. (Including the discomfort of being still, sitting, or lying down). While you are always free to do whatever you’d like in a yoga class (such as relaxing in child’s pose the entire time!), in general, having an instructor cue a class can be a helpful way to practice becoming more (mentally) flexible and less obsessive in how you approach exercise.

Yoga can be as gentle or invigorating as you’d like it to be.

There are many different types of yoga, vastly ranging in intensity. AND, even within a specific class or style of yoga, (as mentioned) you are completely free to take breaks, rest, and relax as much as you’d like. For those in recovery from an eating disorder, I generally recommend gentler kinds of yoga, focused more on gentle stretching and slower movement. This slowing down can be not only good physically, but also mentally, if you feel overly attached to or dependent on high-intensity exercise.

Yoga can help with decreasing anxiety, obsessive thinking, and stress.

Deep breathing and focusing on a series or repeated flows and postures are two strategies that can help with reducing anxiety, obsessive thinking, and overall stress. Deep breathing helps to activate our parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems, which in turn helps with reducing mental/emotional/bodily stress. In yoga, the idea is to take significantly longer breaths than you would normally take, in and out through your nose. The breath is the baseline. If you are breathing too quickly, this is a sign to slow down and reorient yourself physically to a point where you can breath slowly through your nose.

With obsessive thinking, having something concrete to fixate on — such as your breath or the posture you are in — can be helpful for settling overly urgent and intrusive thoughts. When your mind starts to wander or feels out of control, the idea is to gently focus back on your breath and your movement. I oftentimes struggle with this and will find my mind “over-thinking” throughout the class (as I am prone to do in general) — again, yoga is a practice and a helpful tool, not something to perfect or “get right.”

A couple of things to keep in mind: 

• • Every yoga class, teacher, and studio is going to be different. If you try one class or studio and don’t like it, I’d encourage you to continue trying other options until you find one that is a good fit for you. The music, vibe of the studio, and teacher make all the difference! Personally I’ve tried probably at least 10 studios in the Ann Arbor area that I don’t particularly enjoy, and finally found a studio that I love about 25 mins away. Even within this studio, I really enjoy certain teachers, and others not as much. If you are interested in trying yoga, I’d encourage you to keep this in mind and not get discouraged too quickly.
  • I am working on a subscription-based online yoga video library geared towards those in disordered eating recovery. This is a resource that you can use on your own time, from home. Be on the lookout for how to access that in the coming months!

Wishing you a wonderful rest of your day!