Here's Why I Won't Stop Doing Yoga Ever In Life

I am Megha, 24 years old, dentist, dog lover, yogi, currently living my good life. Now. Because I’ve found a hack to this very prevalent and annoying condition me and many like me have, PCOD (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome)

Let me take you through the journey of what was a major hormonal and health havoc. PCOD is one of the very common conditions to have. One in every 4th female has PCOD with more than 1 Million cases in India every year.

What is PCOD?

Polycystic ovarian disease/syndrome a hormonal disorder causing enlarged ovaries with small cysts on the outer edges. Symptoms include abnormal or irregular menstruation, absence or heavy menstruation, obesity, acne, infertility, dark patches of skin in folds and creases, depression, inappropriate male features, loss of scalp hair, or excessively hair in abnormal places. No joke right?

The thing about conditions and syndromes is, even though they are medical conditions, they cannot be treated. They can only be managed with the help of medications.

Medicines can help you control your PCOD but never fully treat it. It’s a condition you live with.

The ordeal of living with PCOD

I got diagnosed with PCOD at the age of 16. Not knowing what PCOD meant, I still remember the shock I felt when I googled my symptoms online. I wish I knew that is the worst thing to do but I didn’t.

My symptoms ranging from weight gain to excessive and abnormal body hair. From susceptibility to diabetes to complete sterility, I felt my whole world come down crashing.

My trips to the doctor had me convinced that I was going to gain weight and would face a lot of problems in the times to come. My PCOD manifested itself as very irregular periods and major hormonal imbalance. Not to forget the acne. All these symptoms together, desperately had me looking for ways to treat it. My medications included hormonal contraceptives for keeping my menstrual cycle regular. Here’s where things started to go downhill.

I struggled with hormonal pills

Hormonal pills are the worst. No exaggeration. Being on these high dose hormone pills, I was on a PMS that lasted 25 days a month. It changed me as a person, as the most common side effect of these medicines is mood swings as depression.

My definition of mood swings entirely changed when I saw what real mood swings look like. I didn’t know what depression looks like until I saw it myself. Waking up with no enthusiasm for life. Not looking forward to anything in a day. Breaking out in tears ten times a day, yet being numb to emotions. Not having the will to do anything, go anywhere, talk to anyone, I saw the extent to which depression consumes you.

Lucky for me, I recognised that something was very wrong. It couldn’t have been all me. To blame it on the hormonal imbalance and the medicines for it, I felt I wouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone. And it was so.

My family and friends found it difficult to believe how one teeny-tiny medicine could have such a huge effect on me. It took me a while to get to a point where I had to choose between my mental health and my physical health. I chose my mental well being over my PCOD. I stopped my medicines and already started to feel more like my older self.

As I was getting out of the ill effects of the medicines, I found my PCOD symptoms return. Avoiding it forever was not an option. The medication wasn’t an option either.

I was in a fix as to how to fix myself physically without deteriorating my mental health. I went back and forth about six times over a period of five years where I would mentally prepare myself to withstand the side effects of the pills, but end up giving it up after a month every time.

I tried changing the time I costumed them to changing brands, it was all the same. I had exhausted my options. This was when I decided to stop trying. I decided to let myself be. My frustrated self threw away all the medicines and let go completely.

This is when the best possible happened to me. YOGA.

Yoga to the rescue

In an attempt to keep my PCOD in check, I decided to try my hand at yoga. It was the best decision ever. This is something I can say now.

Back then, I couldn’t understand why anyone would pick up such a slow and boring form of work out. I found yoga to be a form of work out for the elderly. It didn’t make sense to me.

I tried my hand at it and realised how stiff and rigid I was to even consider something like yoga as a form of workout for myself. That’s the tricky part about Yoga. You have to give it time.

I ended up doing the same, unintentionally. I started accompanying my friends to a government-run, free of cost yoga class. There was no looking back since. Not only did it take my mind off maintaining a balance of both my physical and mental health, it actually became essential to me. As I continued Yoga, without many expectations from it, I began to see what it really is.

Not just a workout

Yoga is so much more than a form of work out alone. It’s a medium to ensure your complete physical and mental well being. It’s an ancient and meaningful art that facilitates health as a whole. My journey of practising yoga started as someone who thought it wasn’t meant for them to someone who taught yoga to a class of forty people for a year. In my time spent doing yoga, I realised how yoga isn’t a form of workout alone. It’s a way of life.

It’s a slowly progressing patient act of being, that allows your body to push your limits comfortably, one day at a time.

Yoga doesn’t need loud music or heavy equipment. Nor does it require you to compete with others by doing that one extra rep. Yoga only asks you to complete with your own self. Everyday.

Every day, to be better than yesterday. Exactly what I did. With every passing day, I saw myself get better at the most basic things you practice in yoga. Inch by inch, every day, I found a reason to invest self-growth. It wasn’t for the body that I kept coming back but the newfound peace of mind.

With every passing week, I felt kgs worth weight lifted off my mind. I felt lighter and happier. I no longer found myself wanting to find enthusiasm for life. Because I had too much of it myself. Mornings seemed brighter, the food tastier, the sleep sounder. The food tasted better and my heart more content. It may be difficult to believe how merely exercising can be life-changing. But it’s true. It was a soul and body upgrade altogether.

From learning Yoga to teaching it for free

Once I realised the power of yoga and the impact it has on the mind of the body, I didn’t let go. My PCOD symptoms went back to being negligible and my mood constantly uplifted. I started staying back after my classes because I wanted more. I stayed and practised the same asanas a hundred times a day only to be better by an inch. The slightest improvement felt like a huge victory. I felt extremely driven to just be better than before. I spent extra hours practising everything that I thought my body wasn’t capable of. Day after day, I kept improving. I doubled up my practice time.

Looking at my interest in yoga, I found myself lucky to be undertaken by a yoga guru as his student. He began showing me how advanced yoga can get. From headstands to the toughest breathing exercises. None of it was easy. But I never said ‘No, I can’t’. I tried even though I would end up making a fool of myself and failing at it. I tried and tired for weeks at times. Getting it right that one time, was worth every bit.

Thanks to it all, I began practising advanced level yoga. I substituted my own teacher in the very same class for months. Once I learnt and accumulated the confidence to teach, I moved on to running my own classes, free of cost, for a year.

It’s been 3 years and I haven’t had my PCOD trouble me the way it would. I am no longer on any medicines, nor is my menstrual cycle screwed as it was. Yoga has a lot of exercises that target the pelvic area and conditions like PCOD, which by the way are way more common than you think.

Yoga was and has been my saviour throughout these years and I swear by it. I wish more girls and women out there give it an honest shot.

Give it time and patience. Like a garden, you’ll have to give it your time and effort. You’ll have to take care of it, water it daily, to watch it blossom. Your mind and body is your garden, take care of it. During all of it, remember to be patient with yourself.

To read about more people like me, who dealt with their medical issues like PCOD and more, log on to our Yoga & Meditation community at SHEROES. We would also like to hear your stories on how Yoga has helped you overcome a lot of health problems if any.