Matt Heath: Doing 30 minutes of yoga every day has changed my life

Yoga has a long list of mental and physical benefits. Photo / File

OPINION

I have done half an hour of yoga every day this year, and it’s changed my life. It’s easy to start and stops you grunting like a pig every time you get out of a car. According to Healthline, yoga improves our flexibility, stress levels, mental health, inflammation, strength, anxiety, immunity, balance, cardiovascular systems, sleep, self-esteem, bone health, posture and brain functions. It can also deliver you a rocking bod. That’s not a bad list of positives.

Each year I set a daily challenge to test my discipline. In the past, I’ve given up booze, potatoes, haircuts and ran 5k every day from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2020. That one was bad. It turns out 365 days of running, rain or shine, injury or fine, can damage your left foot terribly. This year it’s yogi23. A minimum of half an hour every day. So far, so good. There’s only been one near miss. A few weeks ago I was at a bar when I suddenly realised it was 11pm and I hadn’t yogered yet. In a wild panic, I jumped in an Uber, got home at 11.28pm, and pounded out a wobbly 30 before midnight, fell over during vrksasana or peaceful tree, and eventually went to sleep in shavasana or corpse pose, but I got there. Yoga practice is meditative and spiritual. Yoga creates harmony between body and mind. It doesn’t work 8 pints deep.

Like many New Zealanders, I have been slipping physically over recent years. We are becoming stiff, weak and flabby. In 2018 comedian Kevin Hart told Basketball legend Charles Barkley, “You’re shaped like a bean bag that got sat in”. That was me. It may be you too. Other parts of my body felt like Weet-Bix. Brittle, dry and ready to crumble. Three months of downward dogging, extended child pose and baby cobra, and I feel like the love child of an eel and a snake. Strong, flexible and sexy. I sleep like a baby, drop things just to pick them up, and watch TV in the lotus position. The worst lotus position you have ever seen. But still, lotus.

Fearful of humiliating myself in public, I have been doing my yoga at home with Texan instructor, actress, and entrepreneur Adriene. She’s funny, charming, encouraging, and performs a mean, one-legged King Pigeon. Her Yoga With Adriene YouTube channel has had billions of views, making her two million a year. She has dozens of 30-day beginner programs posted with names like Motivate, Center and Celebrate. If, for some reason, Adriene doesn’t do it for you, there are thousands of other courses online you can train with. No one need know what you are up to until you are ready.

Tonight after months of incognito yoga, I come out into the open for my first public class. For some reason, I am terrified. My main concerns are splitting my shorts, boredom, flatulence, visible incompetence and the creepy moustache I am currently growing for a concurrent challenge. The thing slug doesn’t look good. I presume the class will be predominantly female, and I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. I’ll report back after the class and tell you how I went.

It’s 8.46pm, and I’m home from yoga class. There was no reason to be scared. Of the 30 participants in the studio, at least a third were male - many my age. There was even an ex-All Black there. In 60 minutes of practice, there wasn’t a second of boredom. The hour flew by; I made no weird noises or smells, my shorts held up, and no one noticed my humiliating facial hair. Three months of practice with my beloved Adriene paid off, and I had no problems keeping up with the moves. I walked home from the yoga studio tonight feeling euphoric. Yoga online is good, but the communal experience with a real-life instructor in the room is something else.

Time marches on, and before you know it, another year will pass. We can continue to let our joints, muscles and mind deteriorate, or start a practice today and feel amazing by May. Yogi23. Namaste.