Jessica Itabashi

Jamie Chandler
HLAC-1057-008
April 21, 2015
Yoga Final Reflection
1. Do you feel like your yoga asana and meditation practice has helped your level of wellbeing? List three effects and which practice(s) helped you for each.
I feel like Yoga asana and my meditation helped me to be more cautious about how I treat
myself, and as a result affected me to improve on my life quality and well-being.

Yoga breathing practices- I have gained a greater lung capacity where I dont have as
much shortness of breath as much.
Asana poses (back stretching) - my spine tends to get a lot of stress on it so it pops when
it stretches. By doing some asana poses that focus on my back, I have not been as
poppy whenever I move throughout the day.
Meditation- I meditate in the morning before I start my day, and it has helped me to
become more focused and awake earlier on in the day.

2. Have you noticed that your stress levels have been easier to control as a result of your
practice? Please explain specifically what youve done to control your stress, and how the
practices have helped.
I realized that right after I do Asana poses, although I am a little physically tired, I am energized
to do more things. I usually get stressed over the amount of things that I need to accomplish, and
how I am too exhausted to do any of it, but by spending 15 to 20 minutes before I need to do
homework or go to work, I am less stressed while doing these tasks.
3. Has your physical health improved during this semester as a result of your practice?
How and in what ways? Be specific.
I have become more regular in my digestive system. I realized that I have a constant schedule
for my bathroom visits, and it is much more comfortable that it was before.
4. Has your emotional health improved as a result of your practice? How? Are you less
reactive? What happened in those specific situations?
I have become more emotionally sensitive, meaning that I feel like I am more able to understand
others and connect to them with empathy. For example, I was talking to my friend about how she
was sad about her dog passing away several years ago, and I began to cry, which is something I
would have not done before. I have realized that I have become less likely to get angry at the
little things as well.

5. What effects have the yoga practices you've learned and practiced had on your energy
levels? List the three most important and state why you think they helped.

More energy- I have been able to stay active all day with less fatigue so I have been able
to keep doing activities with better quality
Early start- I noticed that I have been able to get going sooner than I usually do in the
morning, or before I begin something. I have the tendency to drag on and procrastinate
beginning something, but lately I am doing better with switching on and off quickly.
Not as tired- I would be exhausted at the end of the day regularly, but now, although I am
tired, I can keep going until it becomes time to sleep.

6. Have your relationships to family, co-workers, and others changed as a result of your
practices? Explain how. Please be specific.
I noticed that I do not get as angry with them. When I have conversations with my family,
especially my grandfather, I usually get frustrated because we cannot understand each other. I
have learned that we need to be more aware of what we say and how we listen to communicate
more effectively, so I have been more careful to how I react before I actually understand what
they have said.
7. Has learning about basic nutrition changed the way you select food, or changed the foods
you eat? In what ways?
I always have had a good understanding on nutrition ever since I was little. I grew up in Japan,
where they emphasize on the education of people to be nutritionally aware on a national scale.
However, even with this knowledge I have kept choosing the things I know will have a negative
effect on myself. With the knowledge I have gained from yoga that it will affect not only my
physical state, but spiritual and emotional state, I have begun to drink more water and when the
option is presented I choose the items that will benefit me better than the others. I have also
significantly cut down on soda and late night snacking.
8. Is taking better care of your physical body by consuming more nutritional foods
contributing to your overall health and well-being? If not, why not? What specific things
have you noticed that are improvements?
One thing that is clear to me is that by consciously drinking more water and cutting out soda, I
have become less reliant on external factors for my state of mind, such as being stressed because
of the lack of sugar, but rather not crave things at all so I have less needs to satisfy my emotional
state.
9. Do you feel like you think before you speak more often? Has what youve learned about
ahimsa (non-violence) helped you be a kinder person? Why or why not?

I do think for a second about what the other person has said, or if it is appropriate to say
something before I do express it more often. I try to not cause any conflict on a regular basis
because I know that if I cause others pain it negatively affects my overall emotional state too.
10. Do you look forward to your practice, or struggle finding time for it? Why and how has
it been a pleasure? Or what do you think are the real reasons behind your struggle?
I usually am excited to do yoga, but also have a hard time finding the time in my schedule. I have
very little free time, so I tend to do meditation in the morning and asana in the evening, or
sometimes during the day. I always feel empowered after I do yoga, so I look forward to practice.
11. In what ways has learning about the Kundalini Yoga system and the energy body
complemented your yoga practices or your understanding of yoga practice in general?
Knowing that I can improve not only physical aspects of my body, but also target specific
qualities, such as having better memory and speaking more efficiently, it motivated me to do my
best and search for more poses that might benefit me.
12. How has learning about the energy/astral body and the chakras changed the way you
think or feel about yoga?
I used to think yoga was all about being fit, calm, and having a thigh gap, but now I know that
its more like a way of life. People know and evaluate their life by analyzing their chakra and
they constantly try to improve on it through yoga, which I think yoga is all about.
13. Is yoga more than just a physical exercise for you? Explain why or why not.
I always have a lot of things to be thinking about through the day. But when I do yoga,
surprisingly I am almost always just focused on what I am doing at that moment. This makes it a
little more of a mental break for myself, so its not only a physical experience for myself.
14. Explain the most profound or important insights that you have realized from your
meditation practice.
I found that I have issues with believing in myself. Im not sure if this is something I found
through meditation but, when I dont meditate regularly, I am somewhat ashamed of myself,
constantly beating myself up for mistakes, and always not satisfied with what I accomplish.
15. Have you found yoga to be a deeper or more interesting study than you thought it was
when you first started class? Why?
My first intentions when I entered this class I was hoping to just get more flexible and hopefully
loose a few extra pounds. So it has definitely been an eye opener throughout the class learning
the diversity and complexness of yoga.

16. How will you integrate or use what you've learned about the yoga practices as you go
forward on your life's path?
I will probably continue to practice asana poses and meditation on a regular basis because I
thoroughly enjoy it. And I might keep in mind the idea of karma so I will try to be a better person
in general so those around me will benefit, and I can benefit from it in the future.