How yoga helped me turn off Instagram
My experiment with promoting yoga classes on instagram has been the perfect example of applying yoga in my daily life. Observing the impacts of social media on my mental health has given me the ability to clearly see what I need to do.
“Yoga citta vritti nirodhah” is one of the core tenants of yoga mentioned in the Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras were written by Patanjali and are the earliest text dedicated to the practice of yoga. Patanjali teaches that the path of yoga is about learning to eliminate fluctuations of the mind that hinder clear thought and objective understanding of reality.
“Yogas citta vritti nirodhah,”
Translated: “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.”
- Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 1.2
For years I have had an “on-again, off-again” relationship with social media, specifically Instagram. I thought I could promote my yoga classes and Felton Community Yoga and avoid getting sucked in. Spoiler alert: I drastically underestimated the power of the scroll.
Social media is designed to engage us. More and more over the past few weeks I found myself reaching for my phone and scrolling. I started noticing a buzzing feeling in my mind. My ability to focus and sleep started suffering. Finally, I observed increased anxiety about checking my phone. It turns out, I am not strong enough to resist the algorithm.
“I started noticing a buzzing feeling in my mind.”
Yoga is about seeking clarity of mind by observing the mind and body. Our asana practice is a mirror into our mind. If our mind is unsteady, our asana practice is unsteady.
By practicing yoga, we learn to listen and adjust in order to steady the mind. Each yoga class is a controlled environment where we are able to practice for applying these skills so that we can use them in our daily lives. We use meditation, movement, and breath work to learn to observe the fluctuations of our mind so that we can become better at quieting them.
“We use meditation, movement, and breath work to learn to observe the fluctuations of our mind so that we can become better at quieting them in our daily lives.”
My experiment with promoting yoga classes on instagram has been the perfect example of applying yoga in my daily life. Observing the impacts of social media on my mental health has given me the ability to clearly see what I need to do.
I’m changing my strategy for Felton Community Yoga’s growth. I’ve deleted Insta from my phone. I’ll be posting on our blog and focusing on building an audience there and with our mailing list. I may post using the IG website, and see how that works out. I hope you’ll follow along here and join our mailing list to keep up with all the latest classes and updates.