This course was a great experience
for me because it taught me a few life lessons. I had no expectations going
into the course but I was firmly against trying new things. This all changed the
first day of class when we did yoga. I willingly tried yoga for the first time
in class and it was amazing. Overall, this class has made me more open minded.
I had very
little knowledge of other religions besides the basic history behind them. Once
we dove into the different religions and practices around the world, I was
shown life lessons that have forever bettered me. The first idea I learned was
that life is all about the decisions we make. We are affected by everything
that surrounds us but we chose what defines us in the end. The path we follow
is full of choices, both good and bad. I have to admit that I have made some
bad choices along the way but Buddhism taught me a way to release myself from
those burdens. Once I realized that suffering is all around me, I was able to
define the specific suffering in my life and how to end it. This was a big
lesson that I could only learn because I was open minded and accepted the
teachings of others.
I personally
don’t practice any religion in my life so I was curious to find out how other
religions worked. Every class seemed to be a new life lesson and a new
experience. Although I don’t plan on following any religions learned in class
in the future, I took the core principles to heart. I treat others with more
respect than I ever have and know that my decisions have consequences. The main
tool that was used to experience these core principles was the weekly challenges
presented. I have to admit that it was easy to pretend to have done the challenges
but I am proud to say that I never faked any of my journals. The challenges
that stood out the most for me were the Sun Salutations and the nature walks.
Yoga was a
very interesting and fun unit once I accepted it. I found myself having better
days both physically and mentally when I performed Sun Salutations twice a day.
I am very physically active throughout the day and that tends to take a toll on
my body from time to time. Instead of learning a way to remedy this problem, I would
simply ignore it or decide to rest the following day. When doing yoga, I was
able to release the physical pain from my body and go on being active. This was
huge for me since being active is such a big part of my life. As for mentally,
the stress of college is immense and nothing seemed to relieve it for me. Performing
yoga somehow calmed me down and removed a lot of the stress of my life. I'm not
really certain how this was achieved but it was directly caused by doing yoga twice
a day. Once the challenge ended, I was ready to stop doing yoga because I had
to, now I can do it because I want to. I’m astonished that I was too hard
headed to try yoga before this class. Now that I have, I am forever grateful
for the experience.
The second challenge that changed me for the
better was the nature walk. To this day, I take five minutes out of every day
to stop and appreciate the world around me. This has turned into a sort of daily
meditation for me. I know that we were only supposed to perform this challenge
three times a week for the purpose of the class but that wasn’t enough for me. Normally,
I am not much of a “nature guy” but these walks allowed me to slow everything
down. At this time in my life, everything is happening so fast and requires
split-second decisions that decide the rest of my life. I am happy to say that
these decisions are much easier after taking the time to slow down, even if it’s
only for five minutes a day.
Overall, I
loved taking this course and the experiences I've had were great. I can’t
express fully the affects this class has had on me because they are still so
fresh but I am confident in them.
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