Tag Archives: Yoga

What I learned from a month of daily yoga

yoga mountain pose

There are two people I need to thank at the very start of this post. The first, is the incredible Cassey Toi. She invited me to a yoga challenge at the end of last year, a month of daily yoga for January of 2017. I was honestly skeptical – I’ve never been able to stick with yoga, it has never gelled for me, and I didn’t know if I would like the woman making this series of videos. But I said yes, and I feel like my life is forever changed as a result. So first things first, hugest of thanks to Cassey for inviting me to join the #YogaRevolution – I never would have done it without you.

The second person I need to thank doesn’t know me and will probably never read this blog. But Adrienne’s series, Yoga Revolution, has helped to reshape my body and mind. Her emails were warm and inviting, filled with the deepest insights paired with the worst musical theater jokes. Her videos were the same, and exactly what I needed for each day of the journey. I have learned so much by doing yoga every day, and it’s a daily practice that I plan to continue for the foreseeable future. But why am I so grateful to these ladies? Well, my body and mind have changed so much in the past month, and it’s mainly thanks to the things I’ve learned with yoga. Here are just some of those things. Continue Reading

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You can’t suck at yoga

suck at yoga

At the time of writing this, I have done 15 consecutive days of yoga. That is more than I’ve ever done before; I usually got bored and abandoned the daily yoga idea after a few days or a week. I find it so helpful to have great emails sent to me each day – a new routine, a new focus every day. It’s about more than the physical; the emotional and cognitive journey has already been profound. Even so, I was wondering if I’d stick with it once the month was over. Would I continue to find videos? Would I keep enjoying it without the daily changing routine? Parts of it are still so daunting. I struggle with many of the regular poses (like downward f-ing dog) and finish the 30 minute videos dripping with sweat. With some poses that I can only do while heavily modified, I sometimes feel like I’m not strong enough, not flexible enough.

I recently caught up with my friend Sadaf, and she commented that she saw that I was doing yoga now (she has for years). A part of me didn’t feel like I was good enough to be considered in the same league as I imagined she was in. I replied, “yeah, but I sorta suck at it”. She laughed and made the best possible comment. You can’t suck at yoga. It’s only once it came to the West that we started making it a competitive thing somehow, trying to be able to push ourselves into ever more complicated poses, outdoing the person on the next mat. It’s not about getting into the “perfect” tree, chair or crow pose, something that is mirrored in what the woman running the #YogaRevolution often says. Continue Reading

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Thoughts after a week of daily yoga

daily yoga

I have done yoga now and then, but never really managed to make it a part of my daily life. I’d get into it and enjoy it for a time, but then lose interest or focus on other things. Usually, my issue was boredom – how many sun salutations can you do before you’re well and truly sick of it? Of course yoga is more than that, but I’d usually find myself doing a set yoga routine for a short while before becoming bored and moving on to other exercise, which is why I’m so surprised that I’ve stuck with the daily yoga and really found myself enjoying it.

As I mentioned in my New Year’s goal post (heh, goal post), Cassey invited me and some awesome mommy bloggers to join her in a #YogaRevolution. It’s quite a cool concept; the woman organizing it has a yoga YouTube channel and this year for January she is doing 31 days of yoga. But it’s not just about the yoga, it’s also about boosting a mind-body connection. She sends daily emails to explain the videos as they come up, and each movement is beyond the pose, beyond replicating what we think it should look like, but really finding what feels good and works for ourselves and moving from there. It’s more introspective and enjoyable, while still obviously helping to tone, stretch and feel good. Continue Reading

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