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| yoga art by Gosia Janik via Tudo de OM |
Unlike bad habits, good habits are easy to abandon. I used to do yoga daily when I was a late teen, inspired by my mum, her sporty youth and her yoga books. I learned most of the poses from the books, and practiced them in my room. Mum helped me with the harder ones, and showed me how to breathe into the stomach and extend the breath into the very top of the lungs. It took me about 2 years to do a decent headstand but I did it. Then I abandoned it as a practice, probably not seeing it as something I wanted to pursue. And also there were a lot of parties to go to suddenly...
Doing simple stretching and some form of a backward bend should be part of daily life, to balance out all that hunching, slouching and slumping we do. It'd solve a lot of my problems (ie. forever tight shoulders and sore neck) if I did just the one proper backward bend every day. So I decided I'll do yoga in my room again, like when I was a teenager.
There's a helpful site I found with full descriptions of the poses that will help refresh my yoga memory but will help beginners too - there's also a handy sequence builder.
dear aniko,
ReplyDeleteit has been a while! how are you?
this post really made happy.
that your mother inspired you with her training again gives me hope regarding how we can influence the people around us and once we have children, how it becomes a part of bringing them up. that we can give them so many great habits from start! and then, how she helped you with it, beautiful! is she still training yoga? i tried for a long time, off and on to do yoga for myself at home, and i am still searching to find a base sequence that i can add to or subtract from, that i could do at home. being a dancer and being used to the framework of training and someone 'whipping' me to do so, i find that my discipline is quite low when it comes to keeping those habits for myself. just like meditation...so this inspired me a lot!
thank you!
and i got carried away with a lot of words...
xxx.
It's lovely to read your comment as always Sara!
DeleteI don't think my mum does yoga anymore as a practice. But she used to be very sporty, playing football in a woman's team, running in the forest and then the yoga too. Now she 'just' cycles a lot, as a mode of transport :)
It's lovely to know that the post inspires you!
Ohh the time when I gave 3 classes of BodyBalance a week and practice in between… …It felt all so easy back then and I got paid to do this. I wish I had the discipline to keep it up. Maybe I need a group of people to be there at a certain time to depend on me to teach :-) Not to mention a paycheck afterwords:-) Love this post!
ReplyDeletethank you Carol! you seem very sporty still - all that training and teaching must have payed off! it seems that a lot of people find it easier to stick to a routine when they have someone to report to about it, or in your case other people depending on them - interesting! xx
Deletehaving yoga lessons is jumping as an idea in my head from time to time...
ReplyDeletebut they are a little bit expensive too...
i was thinking about pilates too.
maybe alone practicing for a start is a good idea : )
i feel the same way Evdokia - I'd love to go to classes to do yoga in a group and make some yoga friends too, but at the moment i can't quite justify paying for those classes...pilates is good too, but same issue... well, just doing 3 little poses a day at home will help to set a little routine, and hopefully the bigger picture will grow from there! :)
DeleteWhen I was a kid, I was also fascinated with yoga. Too bad that most yoga classes here are populated with weird people. Serioulsy. But I truly admire people who have control over their body like that, it's awesome! Way to go, girl! =)
ReplyDeletehaha! that's too funny Anja, i guess for some i could totally count as one of those 'weird' people; i get competitive sometimes and try a bit too hard...and make jokes about bodily functions if i find it fit to ease up awkward moments, which might not agree with everybody at said yoga classes haha!
Deleteit'd be nice to have all that flexibility though. then my weirdness could be part of my star-quality, not just plain weirdness... :)
This is awesome - I love yoga (even though I've succumb to bad habits and stopped doing it, too). I have a girlfriend that is a yoga master - SO inspiring!!!
ReplyDeletePS- I wanted to say thank you for joining in my link up. :)
hi Wendy! i could do with a yoga master friend at the moment... always finding it difficult to judge the trickier poses, if i'm doing them right or not. it's nice to have someone to correct your postures and motions. lucky you!
DeletePS - looking forward to the next one! thanks for hosting!
My hubby and I were talking about the fact we need to lead a healthier lifestyle... So HARD
ReplyDeletei agree... it's like swimming against the current, and trying to turn the tide most the time... it takes a lot of time and thought, but after all it's worth it. but it's hard. I keep trying, and lots of times failing a bit, but decided that I just keep trying and every little change is good even if our lifestyle is not as pure and reformed as i want it to be. babysteps... :)
DeleteI love the fact that yoga is something I can learn in a group, but practice on my own. At least, that's my perception of it? (That posture looks like something my body should be doing right now.)
ReplyDeleteI've been giving yoga a lot of thought. The one thing keeping me from joining a class is my exercising-in-public anxiety —something I'm yet to overcome...
i relate to your excersise-in-public anxiety, i think we introverts are riddled with it...! it takes a lot of sustained discipline to keep going but I guess the key is a small group with people who are similar to you or at least not too competitive... too many variables already, I admit, I guess that's why I stay at home and excersise out of sight :)
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