6 men share how yoga influenced their mental health

In connection with the week of mental health, we asked 6 men how Yoga and mindfulness have affected their lives and their mental health. The mental health of men was pressed under the carpet for too long, and these 6 have learned in the hard way that a strong man is needed to be soft and hear inwards.

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My practice has developed over the years, as well as the way it has influenced my mental health. When I started yoga, I first used it to bury emotions. Every day was a way to desensitization and I used philosophy to punish me and my behavior. While it controlled my emotional state, I couldn't feel anything. My motivation was driven by a strict daily practice and a very strict personal ethics. I was unhappy. I was still at risk of suicide. I had fenced a lot with a cape of mysticism and physical skills that kept people away.

by Forrest Yoga I was encouraged to log and explore these sensations and rules with which I had chained myself. Through this work I could clearly see that I used yoga as a punishment. I strived for cleaning and the liberation of death and played the long game without or with little attention to my own well -being, my health or my personal enjoyment. Against this background, I started to change my practice every day. This became a practice that was memorized to a practice that was motivated by my own needs to get excited about challenges and to feel an entire spectrum of emotions. Every time I wrote a diary, I was able to write my story, and this finally said my story loudly. Every time it is written, every time it is spoken, it changes in the face of new information and more time to explore the nuances. This has brought me a lot of clarity about how I react and how I navigate in the whirlpool of emotions while I still feel under control.

mindfulness has strongly influenced my life through the implementation of yoga and martial arts from the beginning of 20. I hadn't returned from my service as a royal marine in Afghanistan for long before I came to the fire brigade in early 20s. Like many others who served, I had seen some things that were difficult to understand, and as men there is a cultural tendency to lock trauma in a box and convince us that these experiences will never affect us again. The truth is that they always do it somehow. In the following years I was lucky enough to be exposed to a series of practices that would really help to unlock these boxes.

2 years after my first Yoga Asana class, I attended teacher training at Samahita Retreat in Thailand. After 3 weeks of contemplation, Kriyas, Pranayama, study and daily asana, I finally realized that I kept things (sh * t things) and a lot of it. I think this was the first day on which I opened the box and started to deal with earlier experiences.

Personally, I found great importance in these practices (in their entirety) that helped me to recognize more about our collective existence, the way we think and that "we are not our thoughts or actions".

acceptance, understanding and understanding have helped me to calm this constant internal dialogue over the years and to build a positive relationship with everything in my past. Of course there are many other methods that can help, but for me they have changed my life for better.

In recent years I was very lucky to share these teachings with others who have had similar experiences, and I am very grateful for that.

yoga is an accessible everyday practice to support your mental health. Take your time to take care of your personal well -being, has enormous advantages in dealing with the everyday stress of life. The nice thing about the practice is to know that nothing is expected, and it is simply an opportunity to move away from chaos and take the time to slow down, calm down and set priorities.

Michael James Wong, founder of Boys of Yoga, and just Breathe have developed a simple meditation app for everyday use to support their mental health and well-being in the real world. available for both apple and Android.

My yoga practice and the subsequent search for my meditation practice have had a positive impact on my general physical and mental well-being. They allow me to take a step back and to find a perspective on things that are going on in my life. As someone who loves to move, my physical yoga practice nourishes me and is one of my preferred methods to find distraction through concentration and take the time for me. My meditation practice reminds me that this life is a gift to enjoy experimentally and to find gratitude for all aspects, not just for the open "positive", and to accept that all things change. When things are challenging, I know that they have won. “Be so forever. I try not to strive for the not sustainable ideal of happiness, but to return to a state of satisfaction through meditation so that I can appreciate happiness when it comes.

yoga influenced my mental health more than I would have ever thought possible. I would be the first to tell you that I started practicing for physical reasons, but the mental aspect tied me up and brought me back again and again.
If I look back on my life before yoga, I have the feeling that I was angry and stressed out most of the time and because of the ego and a pre -conveyed idea of ​​masculinity with myself. soften, be friendly to myself. I realized that I can be calm and sensitive without being less a man. That changed my entire attitude and attitude to life for the better.

Many people in the West make yoga to keep fit physically fit and reduce stress, and I was too. However, my initial “addiction” for yoga poses decreases-my motivation has changed! What was a practice of physical stability has become an integration of important lessons on certain principles such as friendliness, truthfulness and self -discipline. Lately I have developed a feeling for yoga community, purpose and self-fulfillment in my lessons to maintain emotional health. I have recognized that "connection" is the opposite of "addiction" that has only created isolated behavior patterns in me. I am now striving to create a yoga community, more accessible and including , regardless of gender, age, current degree of flexibility or fitness or relationship with spirituality-my new intention of reason: people and places, always with intention.