Chloe's Blogs

A blog used for EDCI 336

Tag: inquiry

Week 10 Inquiry

March 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I felt pretty good this week! Most days I felt good both mentally and physically. Even when I encountered car problems (on Thursday), I handled it well and my mental health was still strong. Like I mentioned last week, I think my mental health as a whole is doing better because of my daily yoga sessions.

I had a particularly good and helpful yoga session on Saturday, as I was feeling down and then doing yoga made me feel better mentally. I made note that I was not anxious, but rather feeling down. I wonder if yoga improves my mental health more when I am feeling sad, rather than when I am feeling anxious. This would be a surprising finding for me, since I started this yoga journey to help specifically with anxiety (and not sadness or depression).

I found a super interesting and informational article that talks about how doing yoga might help reduce depression and sadness. According to the article, because depression/sadness and stress/anxiety are closely related, things that are good for one are likely good for the other.

Next time I am feeling sad, I think I will try following a yoga video that is geared toward reducing sadness and depression. Hopefully it will help me to feel better after, like it did on Saturday. There are a few to choose from, but this is one I would like to try in the future.

Now that I am thinking about it, have any of y’all used yoga to help lessen depression or sadness?

Week 8 Inquiry

March 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Photo by Prasanth Inturi

Over the reading break I had enough time to watch and follow along with a new YouTube yoga video. I chose to try Short Wake Up Flow By Yoga with Adriene, and I really enjoyed it. This yoga session video made me feel more energized in my body and mind!

I skipped my yoga session on Friday that week, as I had a busy day spending time with family and friends. Surprisingly I didn’t feel guilty about missing a session. Although I didn’t take care of my mental health by using yoga, I strengthened my mental wellness through social interaction. As I’ve said before, the whole point of this inquiry is to improve my mental health, so I am not going to stress myself out over missing a day of yoga, (especially if its just because I had fun plans and was busy).

Over the last couple weeks, I have been noticing that my overall mental health has been really good lately. Looking back at my tracking document, I definitely can see that I have been feeling better mentally more often than before. This is the case even when looking at how I feel before doing the yoga. So although the yoga sessions don’t always make me feel way better mentally right after, I think they might be making me feel better in general.

Lastly, I talked to my learning pod this week and everyone’s inquiries seem to be going well! Michael finished reading a book on talking to strangers, and it sounded very interesting. Rick and Emma’s inquiries also sound like they are on track!

Week 6 Inquiry

February 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Photo by Elina Fairytale from Pexels

This week’s yoga yielded very similar results as last week. After almost every yoga session, my body felt very relaxed and calm. This is not the case when I do a workout and then my yoga session right after though. This pairing, when done back to back, usually makes me feel more energized than calm. Regarding my mental health and the yoga, sometimes after doing yoga I feel slightly better mentally, but not every time. In addition, sometimes I find that meditating during the session helps me feel better mentally, but I am still not very good at it, (and so even when I do it, it doesn’t always help). I find that it is easier to meditate when I don’t have very much on mind and am not very anxious. When I am very stressed or anxious, it feels almost impossible for me to meditate, and then I don’t feel any benefits from it. Obviously when I am anxious is when I would benefit most from meditating, so I’ll just have to keep practicing.

I haven’t been able to follow along with a yoga video this week, but next week is reading week so I know I’ll have more time for that soon. I think I want to watch a different video from the last one and see if I can find one that I like even better. Some options that I think could be fun to try next week are Fill Your Cup Yoga by Yoga with Adriene, Short Wake Up Flow by Yoga with Adriene, and Morning Miracle Flow with Jessica Richburg. I think all of these videos would be great options for me to try in the coming weeks.

Week 4 Inquiry

February 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Inquiry by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

This week of yoga went well for me. I found time to do it every day for at least 15 minutes, and I enjoyed it most days. I know I wanted to try watching and following an energizing yoga session this week, but I ended up doing my yoga before bed or after my workout everyday this week. So it just didn’t work out. I will try again next week for sure! As I did my night time yoga sessions, I felt very relaxed after each one. My mental calmness/anxiety before and after the yoga sessions were usually similar, but my body always felt more relaxed after.

Also, I did yoga after my workout on Wednesday and thought it would energize me like it did last week, but instead I ended up just feeling tired after that session. I am curious now about whether my hypothesis from last week was correct or not. I am not sure if doing yoga after my workout actually does energize me…I will do it when I can, and write down how I feel after. I’ve been keeping track of my inquiry process by writing in a journal how I feel before and after my yoga sessions. My journal entries can be found here.

My Friday session was a notably good session. I went into it feeling anxious, but came out of it feeling quite a bit better after. I tried meditating during my session since I was stressed and overthinking, and I felt better both mentally and physically after that session! I think I will start doing that more and see if that helps my mind feel more calm.

Unfortunately I had to skip my Sunday session because I was sick. I started to feel disappointed in myself about missing a session, but I reminded myself that I am only human, and life happens! Hopefully I will be able to get back to it soon.

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