One thing I love about yoga is that it is full of pleasant surprises. Even after practicing and teaching yoga for many years now, I still find this regularly! There are unexpected good consequences that suddenly just appear. Many people turn to yoga to generally get fit and healthy, and what they find is that there are often many more delightful effects that they just didn’t see coming! I’ll often hear things like, “I tried yoga to get more flexible, and as a perk, my mind is so much calmer too!” or even “I just needed a new hobby and as it turns out, my nagging backaches went away unexpectedly!”
Yoga is basically experiencing the opposite of Murphy’s Law.
As you may know full well, in the military community we sometimes (OK all the time! And especially during deployment!) experience Murphy’s Law – the idea that anything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong. There are unlimited potentials for things to break, accidents to occur, basically any epic disaster you can think of! And lots of times, we can experience a lot of them, and they tend to come one right after another!
But what if I told you this…
What if there were potentials for a ton of things to go… RIGHT???
What if you could create an environment for unexpected… GOOD THINGS… to happen?
Yes, I said it.
Yoga creates a context for these hidden positive potentials to take place. If you decide to try it for ANY reason during deployment, here are some of the sneaky good consequences that may happen when you least expect it.
Yoga provides the potential to make more friends, feel connected, and build a community.
The most amazing thing about the military community is the people in it. And going to some yoga classes can seriously help you find your people! Group yoga is very community-oriented and is a great way to meet new people, even if you feel a little out of your comfort zone at first. Especially if you love to pursue a healthy lifestyle, finding a crew of regulars at yoga is a great way to connect with others who share your interests and will keep you accountable! Yoga friendships are rooted in something special, and a deployment yoga buddy… you know that bond is for life!
Yoga provides the potential to sleep better.
Nights during deployment can quickly fall into the “worst moments” category! Not only is it lonely, but sometimes it’s just hard to sleep without your partner around. And don’t even get me started on those racing thoughts! By having a consistent movement and breathing routine, you are setting yourself up for success at bedtime. If you’re able to find a gentle or restorative style class to help calm your system in the evenings, you might find it really helps with getting restful sleep!
Yoga provides the potential to have an overall more positive outlook on life (AND deployment).
And wouldn’t we all benefit from that! I remember in my early yoga days when I was still a little ball of stress, all it took was one yoga class to put me in a completely different headspace. I was just more pleasant to be around – I knew it and people around me knew it too! When we take time to ourselves to move and breathe, it is an amazing act of self-care, helping us to feel better immediately. Plus, the tradition of yoga is filled with all kinds of beautiful teachings. These focus on how to reduce our suffering and live a better, happier life. Often yoga teachers will drop little tidbits into class to encourage you start to think differently, in a way that better serves us. Once we get used to doing it on the yoga mat, we’re likely to notice it happening throughout regular life, too.
Yoga provides the potential to reduce stress.
One thing yoga can help us to do is SLOW DOWN. It gives us a break from the hustle and bustle of our crazy lives and can be super useful in reducing stress. If we’re practicing with a great teacher, they’ll be able to help us relax muscles that are tight from stress, and breathe in a way that helps our nervous system to chill out. We can all benefit from a little extra stress reduction!
Yoga provides the potential to know yourself better inside and out.
Deployments are a freaking weird time. Not only are we doing everything alone, but we can get really caught up in taking care of everyone else’s stuff. Especially our spouse, both sides of the extended family, kids if you have them and pets too. We can easily lose ourselves. Practicing yoga can help you to understand what’s going on in your body through the physical postures. But it also helps you to get to know your mind. When we allow a little bit of stillness and quietness in, we are faced with our thoughts. It can reveal how things are REALLY going for you, and give you the opportunity to take care of your body and mind from a place of better understanding.
Yoga provides the potential to take better care of others.
When we take great care of ourselves, we have the opportunity to take great care of others. And if I know one thing about military spouses and partners, it’s that they are ALWAYS thinking of those around them – family, friends, and their spouse. Filling our own cup in a really nourishing way like practicing yoga can help set the stage for us to feel fulfilled enough to REALLY help others. Imagine yourself so full of joy and ease that it can’t help but overflow onto everyone around you!
So go ahead… Say goodbye to Murphy’s Law and hello to the potentials of yoga!
While this list is not exhaustive, it gives you a good sense for some great experiences you might have that go beyond just getting fit (which is also an amazing result, of course!).
