Five years ago, yoga, meditation and veganism were amongst a range of things I was highly sceptical about the benefits of. However, during 2018, I decided to try all three in an effort to live a healthier and happier life. Today all three still have a presence in my life, albeit to varying extents.
Yoga has been the one thing I’ve adopted which I would thoroughly recommend to others. My previous scepticism was due to a lack of understanding of what yoga actually was. I thought it was all about holding positions for minutes on end and breathing deeply, and was surprised when I discovered how much variety there is within yoga. If you think yoga is little more than light stretching, try some power yoga to see how wrong that can be. It has done wonders for my flexibility and core strength, has made me more resistant to injuries and has helped me recover quicker when I have encountered an injury. And most importantly, I’ve enjoyed it. Without that enjoyment, I’m not sure I would always make the time to do a session, and I’m practicing virtually on a daily basis now.
Meditation is also something I do on an almost daily basis, though I sometimes have to talk myself into doing it. I meditate before going to sleep, and sometimes if I’ve had a long day, get in late or have to be up early in the morning, it can be tempting to skip meditation. In these situations, I have to remind myself that investing time in meditation will save me time later. That’s because whilst meditating doesn’t guarantee going to sleep quickly, if I don’t meditate it always seem to take an age to get to sleep, and my sleep doesn’t feel as deep either. So, I meditate because I know it’s what’s best for me, even if it’s not always what I want to be doing.
Then we come to veganism, which is something I wanted to work towards yet never really got very close. The 12 in 12 Challenge has taken a lot longer for my body to adapt to than I anticipated – arguably I’m still adapting now – and adapting to a radically different diet (I also tried to go gluten-free) was a step too far for me. I’d started eating meat again by March, and once I moved in with my parents in May, insisting on vegan meals wasn’t something I was interested in.
Instead, I’ve continued to try some different vegan or gluten-free foods to get a better idea of what I like and don’t like, whilst trying to eat more vegan meals than I did previously. I’ve enjoyed this approach a lot more than I enjoyed trying to maintain a vegan diet, so even once I’ve completed the 12 in 12 Challenge, I’ll probably just look to increase the number of vegan meals I eat rather than completely committing to that diet. That being said, given that 5 years ago I never anticipated doing yoga, meditation or trying a vegan diet, you never know what the future holds.
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