Tag: free inquiry

Well, this is my last inquiry post for EDCI 336! Overall, my inquiry went really well. My question (will doing yoga for 15 minutes daily help my mental health/anxiety) was pretty much answered. Doing yoga daily did not provide me with quick/right after benefits like I had thought it would, but rather provided me with a more lasting effect that made my overall mental health better in general (but not particularly right after doing yoga).

The best part of my inquiry is that it helped me to prioritize self-care during a busy semester of school. Without this inquiry, I likely would have continued to do my workouts, but I would not have really done any other form of self-care. 15 minutes was a reasonable amount of time to take out of my day to do the yoga, and it was obviously worth it (as it definitely helped with my mental health throughout the semester). Doing yoga also comes with benefits not related to mental health, and I have definitely experiences some of those over the last few months. A list of benefits to doing yoga can be found here.

One thing that did not go as well with my inquiry was that I felt like I didn’t always have much to say each week. Most weeks seemed to be about the same, until a few weeks ago, when I realized that my mental health was improving as a whole. Even after that though, all I had to say in my post was that I was feeling good and yoga was helping. If I repeated this process again, I think I would do updates less often, and only post when something changed or seemed worth it to mention.

I loved the format of this inquiry, as it gave us a ton of freedom and thus we could all choose topics/questions that we are interested in. I will definitely be using inquiry projects when I am a teacher. Depending on the age and the students, some student inquiries might need to be a little more guided by the teacher, but regardless, I enjoyed having the freedom in this course. I will definitely be incorporating inquiry based learning when I’m a teacher!

Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels.com

This week’s yoga sessions went well. Most days I felt good mentally, but I felt like my body was carrying some stress. My muscles felt tight and sore throughout the week, but I always felt better after my yoga sessions. On Tuesday I followed a Youtube pilates video, and while it felt intense to do that and then yoga, my body felt good. It felt pushed in a good way. I was worried that I would feel really sore the next day, but I didn’t!

For the few days when my mind felt anxious and stressed, the yoga didn’t really help. I still find it strange that I don’t often notice a change in anxiety level following my yoga sessions. Yoga is well known to help with anxiety, so I am very surprised that it hasn’t helped make me feel better mentally right after doing it. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I do think my mental health is better in general, and that is likely from doing the yoga. So although I thought that yoga would give me some quick and maybe short term benefits, I have found that the benefits from yoga are more general and long lasting. My overall mental health is generally strong, and I believe that is from doing the yoga (as I have not changed anything else in my life, and I am still crazy busy).

I have heard from many different people that anxiety is often stored in our hips. I found a yoga video that is specifically for anxiety, and it focuses on opening up the hips. My goal for next week is to try this video and record how it makes me feel! This is the video:

What yoga videos have y’all tried and liked? I am always looking for videos that others have found helpful!

I finally did a morning yoga session and followed an energizing yoga session from YouTube! The video I followed was called 15 Minute Energizing Yoga Flow. I really enjoyed it, although my body still felt quite relaxed after doing it. Despite the fact that I didn’t feel exactly energized, it was nice to have a routine to follow along to. I always find it little bit challenging to follow a yoga session for the first time, as I am always a little confused about what moves I am suppose to be doing and when. Next time I do this routine I know it will be easier to follow.

All of my other sessions throughout the week went well too. I ended up doing my yoga sessions later in the day (either before bed or after working out) for the rest of the week. Similar to last week, I have found that yoga definitely helps my body to feel less anxious and more calm. My mind after doing yoga usually feels similar to how it feels before going the yoga, but sometimes my mind feels a little more calm after. I often try to meditate during my yoga sessions, but I find it especially difficult to meditate when my brain is busy or anxious. I’m practicing it though, so hopefully I will get better at it. I think focusing on practicing meditation (in a addition to practicing yoga) might be helpful in reducing the anxiety I feel in my mind.