My yoga space has been reduced to a corner of my bedroom since the new tenants stored a few things in my yoga room. That's okay though - soon I'll be practicing in a space smaller than this at my mother in laws in the UK. I just ordered a yoga mat to arrive there before I do, so I can continue this practice I started at the beginning of January.
Half way through - about the 15 day mark - I was fed up. I've been doing the 30 Day 'Flow' challenge on Youtube with my daughter in law - well, texting and encouraging each other, and talking about the practice. Twice we've skipped a day through exhaustion, being too busy, or forgetfulness, and we've encouraged each other to do a 'double', making up for lost time.
That's what a challenge is, we remembered. If we didn't feel as if it was hard at moments, it wouldn't be challenging. But as it went on, we started feeling stronger - a lot stronger. We were doing things we probably would have struggled with at the beginning. I'd stopped practicing yoga since COVID - the lack of studio time had paralysed my practice and my emotion life had paralysed my desire to be on the mat, stuck in my own head.
But now - ooooooh mama, I'm LOVING IT. I'm longing for that twenty minutes of flow, and it doesn't matter if I do it in the morning or just before bed, no matter how early or late, I'm just relishing slipping into that space. And I don't want it to end!
Yoga with Adrienne has done a January challenge for some ten years now, and she's got quiet the fan club. Someone shared this online for us to choose a February challenge to keep up our practice, and my daugher in law are keen to do 'Move'.
YOu know, having done my teacher training and practiced and studied yoga since I was a teenager, I'm quite suprised at how impressed I am with YWA. She's very, very good - and I'm learning from her. There's just certain instructions that have gelled a lot with me. She cleverly gets you to this point without any preaching - and to be honest, it wasn't until three quarters of the way through that she'd been getting us to focus on the chakras without even saying the world 'chakra' - not until much later in the practice.
And I'm much, much stronger - my core is stronger, my arms are stronger. I've really noticed it out surfing too - I feel a lot more agile and capable. Despite the time committment, it has given a lot more than it's taken away - that's this practice for you. It gives so much.
I am beyond happy I'm re-immersed in yoga. I wonder if any of you started this practice or are keen to start it in February?
Here's the 'Move' challenge if you want to do it with me, or you could do 'Flow' if you haven't already. The key is to just show up, every day, and do your best - do them in order, and if you skip a day, don't stress.
Yoga for life.
With Love,
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Yoga is really relaxing I tried it once
I'm trying body scan from a mindfulness buddhsim exercise (from Paulouse ( the course developed in 78 by JK Zinn). I tried Yoga but I guess I'm not that skillful and cannot remember the practices to well....
That's why it's a practice 💚
if it doesn't align with me feeling good and it gets me frustrated, it's not congruent enough for me to try it. If it asks me to stay on a mental 3d more than going from mind to heart easily, it's a construct, not a genuine easy practice, lead by itself to get me there. Nevermind.
Oh, I love Adrianne! She is so inspiring and funny and you want her to be your friend! We had started the January challenge with @fotostef a few years ago, but had to stop it because of an injury. Now, imagine that I can't remember if it was me or Stefanos that had this lower back issue, but we both stopped and I guess this is the proof of how important it is when you have a companion, how encouraging it is. Well done to both of you for staying consistent to the challenge, you are almost there! The important thing, I think, is when you stop seeing it as a challenge and just anticipate for the next session as you described you do :)
I would happily participate now knowing that you will be there as well, that would be great, but I don't think my body can take it - I have started pilates and lifting some weights and I am not sure I can handle more.
So happy for you getting stronger every day!
Pilates and weights is great! I have some arm weights I use too and surfing. So I'm pretty tired at the moment but my arm muscles are getting better! I'm not Pop Eye but I can lift a giant zucchini no problem 😜😄😄😄
I've been meaning to start yoga again, this might be a good way back in.
Yes!!! It's a perfect in!
Well, I still haven't started watching videos since last time. So now I've taken the next step and put the videos in my "watch later" playlist.
But I just came across this:
Haha, I hope to be able to do this in 30 days 😉
No way. Thirty years of yoga and I still can't do crow. I was just discussing it online. Many of us can't!
Hehe yes I can imagine and I want to believe it. I was mostly saying that as a joke because while recording videos in my youtube, I came across this thumbnail and it had made me smile 😜
Best I can do atm is start the exercise class at the Senior. It was all I could do to get through it this morning. But it will build as time goes on. It’s 3 days a week, and I’ll be lucky if I can manage that. That last Covid kicked my butt…