Yoga is often thought of as postures and asanas and sometimes just meditation practice. But it is a world beyond that. Yoga is all that we do in our day-to-day lives and how we choose to live it. Yoga and sport have always been an integral part of my life.
This beautiful quote that we learned in yoga school from the Bhagvad Gita resonated with me –
karmaṇye vādhi kāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana।
mā karma phalahetur bhūrmā te saṅgo’stvakarmaṇi॥ 2-47
This beautiful shloka has so much depth to it, especially for any sportsperson to fall in love with the process and not pressurize oneself to reach one’s end goals. It’s about enjoying one’s journey and staying present in that moment.
Almost all sports athletes like cricketers, footballers, swimmers, and tennis players practice some form of yoga. They meditate daily to relax their mind & visualize their end goal & asanas to help them focus, build strength & balance mentally and physically. They follow this with true dedication and discipline which is one of the true forms of yoga.
As mere mortals, we cannot reach that state but by devoted yoga practice to attain vidya or awareness about ourselves, mindfulness in everything that we do. By making meditation a part of our routine to channel in all our energies, it will help us move forward & not feel stuck in the moment.
This is similar for any sportsperson; they need to keep themselves motivated every single day, even on the days when they don’t feel their best, but they still rise enthusiastically as if nothing affected them. Consistency is key here. Even Yoga teaches us that right? Where do you think that arises from? Chanting mantras, speaking affirmations, and gratitude prayers are a part of their daily rituals too. If you read autobiographies of some of the best athletes in the world, these are some of the things common amongst them.
I’ve been a marathon runner for 12 years now & I grew up learning yoga from my father but at the same time had a love-hate relationship with it because school made it the most boring subject where we had to close our eyes & relax.
Whether it was being the chess champ of Mumbai or playing handball at the state level for my school & college, as I grew up running became my thing & it grew on me. It gave me space & energy to think & be creative without all the chatter & chaos of the world.
Little did I know I was already practicing yoga in my way through each of these sports but running felt like my calling.
Waking up at 4 or 5 am to a routine of meditation, mobility, and speaking my affirmations helped me stay consistent especially on days when I did not feel like waking up or questioned myself why I am doing this or can I go back to sleep.
Pranayama’s helped me improve my breathwork, closing my mouth & breathing on a run is the ideal way I learned. Breathing through the diaphragm while running & not clavicular or shallow breathing which most of us do when we slouch in long-distance running, gets us tired quickly as we are compressing organs so obviously, we cannot use them to their best. Kipchoge uses his diaphragm to breathe as well so we have all got a long way to learn that.
Sitting upright with your spine erect and breathing truly changes the way you think. It made sense to
much later because I did not realize what a difference it makes just by breathing correctly.
When I come back from my runs, I do Jalneti to get rid of all the toxic pollution I’ve inhaled through my run or sometimes do it pre-run, so it helps me breathe smoothly.
Mantra chanting on my runs helps me keep faith that I will complete the distance especially on days when it is above 30kms. It helps me overcome any kind of anxiety, especially during a race. Yoga taught me to stop competing or comparing myself with others & this is my journey.
The yogic scriptures say the simplest way to fuel our bodies is ½ with food, ¼ with water & leave ¼ empty. I have followed this for a couple of years now & can vouch how it makes you think differently, feel amazing. Fancy fad diets catch up somewhere with you in the long run but a sattvic diet will only make you sensible, stronger, younger & feel powerful.
We take such small things for granted in our daily lives like the food we can taste or smell. I have lost both since I had covid in April & I am still struggling with fatigue on some days.
Whether fit or not it’s how your body fights it physically and mentally. There was a point where I was perpetually sick, but I’ve worked on it over the years mentally and physically. Running beyond 5k’s currently has been a challenge physically but I am getting there slow & steady & while doing so also listening to my body. Yoga has kept me mentally and physically going whether it is reading books, journaling, or getting on with my day-to-day activities.
Quoting Brene Brown “One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through, and it will be someone else’s survival guide.” I hope one day it will and I can pass on all this knowledge.
If running taught me discipline, yoga made me humble, if running made me physically stronger, yoga made me mentally powerful.
Yoga taught me how to be gentler with my body, love myself. So now when I know my body can’t take the run, I listen to it I don’t give up, I rest it out, recover & come back stronger.
Running is divine to me, it’s my way of saying Thank you to God every single day for my body & all that it does for me. Running is my meditation, it’s a sport that lives in my heart, but yoga will always be my mind & soul.
