Mothering Forum banner

A New Year of Dedicated Home Yoga Practice: 2014

Tags
fitness
7K views 105 replies 17 participants last post by  SweetSilver 
#1 ·
I know 2014 is still close to a month away, but this week begins one year since I made the choice to practice a small amount of yoga daily. For 5 months I really did do about 20 minutes every day, and then I slacked off but never entirely dropped it.

The fact that is still part of my weekly routine is a huge victory when creating new habits is so incredibly difficult. The rewards are so pronounced that it is impossible to let myself slack off entirely. While long, sweaty yoga classes have their own benefits (sigh....), doing a little bit of yoga, everyday if possible, can make a noticeable difference. I often don't even change my clothes just to do 4 or 5 invigorating sun salutations. 10 minutes of core work and hip strengtheners before a walk help me feel powerful. Lengthening my abdomen and sinking my feet into the roots of the earth helps me stand tall, even when cooking dinner.

For those of us who, for whatever reason, practice at home, or are trying to, this Pokey Little Thread That Could and the folks subscribing to it are here to help. We want to hear your story and encourage you along your way.

So, here's to a New Year and a fresh start, and hopefully a renewed commitment to making yoga a part of your daily life at home, rather than just an occasional visit to a studio. Because yoga doesn't happen out there. Yoga happens here and now. It is where you are. So, bring it home and join us here, too.

Here is the last post in the Fall Thread that I repeat here.

Quote:
So, How do you keep going?

How do you pick it up when it's dropped off?

What time of day is the best time for you to do yoga? A time where it's easy for you to not forget it or be lazy about it?

My yoga is still sputtering in fits and starts. I've gained a good 10 pounds. Ugh. I am having such a rough time. Some of the weight gain, I don't understand. Some of it I do. And even though my yoga has been spotty, I feel this last year has been an overall success. Sure, I did more at the beginning of last year, but I haven't gone a whole week without doing something, and recently it has been at least twice. This morning I knocked out 6 sun salutations and some core work. About 10 minutes total.

Just wondering where all you ladies are at with your routines. Faithful? Is it a long distance relationship?
:p
A temporary separation or a full-on divorce?

I think my relationship is in therapy. Working on it.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
December 5th Micro-blog:

Thought #1 (mainly to myself, but I hope others can benefit as well)

During your yoga routine or any other time, you don't need to stay in the fire if your body is begging to back off. Perfectly OK to slow down, lower your heart rate and keep it there or return to the fire when you are ready. Listen to your body. If it groans too loudly, it's telling you that you're not listening. Give yourself permission to dial it down.

Thought #2

All the crunches in the world are not going to bring you that sleek abdomen you crave. Better than nothing, it still won't be there to support you as you go about your day. If you want the full benefit, you need to lengthen and engage your abdominals as you move through your routine. Really pull that belly button back into your spine to make room for your body as it folds into forward bend. Pull it in and lengthen it while going the other way into cobra or upward dog. Feel it move into that narrow dog's waist in downward dog. Slow down, find those muscles from top to bottom. Make them as supple as a belly dancer, as stretchy as a snake, as relaxed as a bowl of jelly. Feel it rise and fall with your breath.

If you have been to enough classes, there is a yoga teacher living inside you. Listen to her guide you as you work through your poses. That's the benefit of a home practice. Take your time to work through the details. Then, when you are on your walk your body naturally assumes the shape that it has learned through practice. Now it knows how to use the strength it has gained from those crunches.

I hope you can find your own inspiration. When you do, please share. Namaste!
 
#3 ·
So, I am at CD 18 (3DPO) and have done 13 days of am yoga or tai chi and 9 days of pm yoga/ meditation. I *should* be happy with all I've done but I am feeling down.. It feels great for a while and then I start thinking I should feel better. (Again with the *shoulds*!) Does that make sense? I start feeling irritable and my 3yo DS and I have a bad day, (as in, first thing in the morning he screams that we haven't nursed when we did, extra long even though I am so over the whole nursies thing,-it was a dream he says- and then, after gymnastics he kicks me in the face as I'm trying to buckle his car seat and I get a mouthful of sand and I am furious and spitting sand and cannot let go of that feeling of intense anger for a quarter of an hour and the whole day I think maybe this is not my path, maybe I shouldn't have more children, maybe I don't "deserve" more children if I am unable to be calm when faced with just this one, I even go to "maybe I am just a bad mom..." ) and then I feel like what is all this yoga and meditation doing after all?
headscratch.gif


I expect miracles. I get a month and a half in and the super good every day feeling wears off and every day starts to feel like every day and I start thinking why am I doing this again? Sorry to be a bummer but that is the place I am in. I am still trying to be there every day (or every other day) but it is not feeling good right now.

Thanks for starting a new thread SweetSilver! Love the "Pokey Little Thread That Could" vibe...

I am feeling you on the weight thing, it is so hard not to have the "comparing mind," all the time I wonder why I am so heavy, people (my mom) don't help by telling me how crazy light they were after every baby, I really never lost any weight after my baby, and am constantly trying to let that go, my weight is just a number, and I truly feel comfortable where I am am right now, but the notion that I am pushing the boundary of overweight on the BMI chart really wears on the edge of my mind. I am working on the idea that I am okay the way I am, right now, living in this place, time, body..., but it is not easy when there are so many external ideas pressing in about what is right for me- how much a person this height should weigh, how busty I should be, what my waist and hips should be, etc, etc,... am I healthy or am I a little dumpy? Am I muscular or unhealthily thick around the mid section? What is up with these hips and thighs?!?!

Anyway, I am doing about 20-30 minutes most mornings during my DS's TV time, (trying to let go of the guilty feeling about putting a full hour of TV time in the AM in the schedule, hey it's PBS, that's got to be good right...?) and 15 -20 minutes in the evening (which is not as soothing as it could be since my DS is there). The morning is 5 minutes of Kriya exercises (Chakra Vrksasana, Hip Circles, Stretching the sole, & Neck Rolls), 10 minutes "Moon Salutes" (umm, wow! Sweet Silver, I get through two full-- meaning two on each side-- moon salutes in ten minutes, it is amazing to me that you can do 6 and then some core work in the same time!) and then 5 minutes of legs up, Chakra meditation, and 5 minutes of either svasana or sitting meditation. And this is where I feel I fall apart. I know I should (again with the *shoulds* arrgh!) spend some time in svasana but this is the most challenging place for me now. When one has so little time how can you make time for just being?
shrug.gif
The evening is 5 min kriya (again the above from the Fully Fertile book) 10 min De-stressor with Rodney Yee and then 5 min legs up or 5 min svasana or both if there is time and my DS is not being too demanding...
 
#5 ·
I don't feel guilty about svasana. I do a quick "namaste" standing right before I roll up my mat. I save something so decadent as svasana when dh has the girls distracted. I received some excellent advice from my mom-and-baby yoga instructor years ago, when dd1 was tiny. (Wouldn't it be nice in every area of life to have one piece of advice serve you so well? Pardon me a moment while I dream about that.......... sigh............ okay, thanks!) Sje said that svasana with kids around is not going to feel the same as it did before. It's going to feel more like a state of attentiveness. And it does! "Hey.... there's a toddler climbing on me! Hey! There's a baby yanking my hair. Countdown 10 seconds, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4.... oh well.... mama's done"
:p
).

I hear you on the irritation and the miracles and the shoulds. I am not a particularly calm mother, though some people say I am (really??). The first thing in the morning screaming is something I don't miss. I am totally a fan of morning TV. You do yoga in the morning? And again? And you wonder how I fit stuff into a pathetic 10 minutes 3 times a week? You are a powerhouse! If I spent 10 minutes doing 2 salutations, I might really get to doing some real yoga instead of hurrying my way through it. I am still in the "just do it anyway" phase.

You've reminded me to research moon salutations.

And I'm going to seem pathetically ignorant when I ask what the "CD 18 (3DPO)" is. ?

P. S. When feeling like I still impatient and angry and hotheaded, I like to remind myself what I would be like if I didn't give some effort into my yoga and walking meditations. I'm pretty sure I'd be a whole lot worse. Little kids are hard, and some are harder and I got the harder ones and sounds like you did too.
 
#6 ·
Hello ladies!

Long time no see!

Thanks for posting this new thread SweetSilver!

I haven't done anything since... August. And by nothing it means no exercise of any kind (just thinking that I used to exercise an hour a day last summer tires me!). And my body and mind is screaming to get some!! Also gained weight... 7 lbs.

So right now, anything is better than what I do now. I am not setting goals until I start something. Will get back with y'all Monday! It is a rendez-vous :)
 
#7 ·
Great to see you again, Jaxy!

I thought I's give a run-down of what amounts to a 10-minute yoga routine. Being mindful, of course, that this is not ideal.

Lie down flat, lengthen abdomen, squeeze legs and engage as if lifting

6 or so legs-up crunches

Quick "desk" pose

Forearm plank pose

Side-arm plank pose on forearms, one on each side.

Fire-building Sun Salutations, (with modified breath)

Mountain pose

Breathe in-arms up

Breathe out forward bend

Breathe in look forward

Breathe out jump back to plank

Breathe in

Breathe out push up pose

Breathe in cobra or up-dog

Breathe out downward dog

(Optional extra round of breath)

Breathe in look forward

Breathe out jump up to forward bend

Breathe in arms up

Breathe out Namaste

Repeat.

Looks like a lot, but actually easy to fit all this into 10-15 minutes, but it's not always ideal. I really should linger and make myself stay in poses for 5 breaths or more, change it up a bit.
 
#8 ·
Timed myself to see what I could do in an unhurried 10 minutes. I fit in those core exercises, plus 10 sun salutations (with breath as posted above) plus a crescent pose, and pigeon pose on each side and about 5 breaths in cobbler's pose.

I did this at 9:30. Morning is not my time, so that fact that I do a vinyasa-style routine for even 3 minutes is amazingly out of character for me. What I really need is an afternoon session, when my body is at its best. Then I can find my poses and create fire in a whole different way. I cannot do that in the morning-- though I never thought I could do what I do now in the AM, so maybe that's a goal as we move through the year. Teach my body to be more of a morning person, if not fully embracing the busy bustle that dh does. I will never be *that*.
 
#9 ·
I really love this thread, i want to be part of it! I am 4,5 months post partem with my beautiful ds but I am stressed out, 60lbs overweight and really miss yoga! I really miss having time for myself enough to do like, 2 sun salutations. I miss ashtanga yoga so much it hurts. My body is obese, I am massively sleep deprived and my entire body feels like it has fallen apart. I did yoga daily for almost 3 years before being pregnant and after some gnarly sciatica, just stopped. Reading these posts inspires me to just do a few things on the mat while my son flails around in his playgym. Maybe I could find myself again.
 
#10 ·
Sooo didn't do yoga yesterday but got to walk to and from work, then more walk today and a 20 min yoga session (the first in months!!) with DS running around (I put the macbook in his crib so he couldn't reach it and he was throwing megablocks at it ahah, that made me laugh). It was good to get back to it, I want to get a full length session soon!
 
#13 ·
Welcome Actiasluna! Those first 6 mos PP can be really tough! I hope this thread helps you get back in the yoga groove, but even if you can't find the time for a whole sun salutation, I find that sometimes just taking three breaths in a tree pose or doing a couple cat-cows before bed can make a big difference. Good luck regaining your zen (and something like your pre-baby figure, although I think it's best to go easy on yourself with that one; Mommas aren't Maidens and we shouldn't be expected to look like one!)

Yay Jaxy! Glad to see you back here and back in practice! I often have my DS as company while I practice, especially for my evening practice. It was a big adjustment at first, and I still sometimes get snappy with him if he is running under me while I am moving from pose to pose, mostly because I am scared of losing my balance and hurting myself or him, but now that my practice is getting pretty regular again he is mostly down with the routine of it and even asks about it/ looks forward to it. He is my little reminder now and is actually helping me be more committed and regular.
:love
 
#14 ·
Sweet Silver, Wow you always have so much good stuff that I respond to... I've been paying more attention to pulling in the belly and I already think I see a difference.
:)
Svasana as decadence-- I LOVE it! "Decadence" is one of my favorite words, mmm, feels delicious on the tongue, doesn't it? And the forbidden, the sensual, the truly decadent, is even more attractive, (to me at least) so I think since you wrote that I've been thinking of svasana less as a tiresome chore at the end of practice and more as a special treat. It makes all the difference... even if I do 5 mins sitting or 5 mins legs up the wall instead of true corpse pose I am loving it more than I was before and appreciating it in a new way. Thanks for that change in perspective.
:blowkiss


Yeah, I would probably be (okay I am) a total OGRE if I don't get some kind of exercise or peaceful mama time on a regular basis. On a similar note, my DS is totally high energy, precocious, "quite contrary," yup, he also has "a little curl in the middle of {his} forehead" and the rest of that rhyme is equally true... I often think "Thank the Great Goddess that I did all that meditating while he was in utero or who knows what kind of monster I might've birthed..."

Sorry about the whole CD (cycle day) DPO (days post ovulation) thing. I keep track of my yoga/ meditation/ other exercise/ neti etc.. on my cycle chart because that seems most convenient and we are getting ready to try for another baby ASAP. It is actually really helpful to see where I practice diligently (the week before and after O) and where my practice falls off (end of menses and just before menses) during my cycle, and it is handy to have a place to record my exercise habits but you are right to call me out, 'cause this forum probably isn't really a place for sharing CDs. Still, since I keep track that way, this last cycle (29 days) I did some yoga or Tai Chi (either AM or PM) on 20 days, and did both a morning and evening routine on 11 days. That leaves 9 days of total miss which is pretty good for me, maybe the best I've done in months, and like I said those tend to be bunched during the latter part of my menses or directly pre-menstrually (when I probably could use it the most...)

I still think your 10 -15 min routine sounds crazy awesome. I breathe so slowly (like I do everything else) I just can't get much in to a 10 minute practice. I think about all the poses I'm missing out on (basically everything not in my daily moon salute, sometimes I find time enough for ONE other asana each day) and I really miss the variety but I am kind of working on coming to terms with my slow-pokiness. Not just in my practice, but also in life in general. Finishing school at slow-pokiness pace, getting married later than my peers, having babies at slow-pokiness speed. My yoga practice is just one more place where I wish I had time to do more but have to learn to feel okay going my own very, very slow speed.
:W


Anyway, what I really got on here to say was, wow, is anyone else struggling to keep up with their practice when there is so much shoveling (for us in the North) and holiday stuff (for everyone) going on? Things were really getting very routine for me before all this snow and wrapping and packing and x-tra time to warm up the car and bundle my DS & etc, etc, etc happened. I am a morning person but my morning practice has really fallen off this past week. Still getting in some time most nights but it is a struggle not to pass it up for an extra 30 minutes of wrapping/ packing/ online shopping/ decorating/ cleaning up the mess a 3 yo can make when you turn your back for one minute with the ribbons, paper, tape...

Happy Holidays to you all if I don't get back on in the next week or two!
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by MsBe View Post

Anyway, what I really got on here to say was, wow, is anyone else struggling to keep up with their practice when there is so much shoveling (for us in the North) and holiday stuff (for everyone) going on? Things were really getting very routine for me before all this snow and wrapping and packing and x-tra time to warm up the car and bundle my DS & etc, etc, etc happened. I am a morning person but my morning practice has really fallen off this past week. Still getting in some time most nights but it is a struggle not to pass it up for an extra 30 minutes of wrapping/ packing/ online shopping/ decorating/ cleaning up the mess a 3 yo can make when you turn your back for one minute with the ribbons, paper, tape...

Happy Holidays to you all if I don't get back on in the next week or two!
I have a hard time choosing yoga as a way to spend my time any time of the day. Our schedule actually slacks of this time of year, so despite the business of the season, my time is generally more spacious. Other times and for other reasons, yes, I am terrible at skipping the yoga. I am not a morning person, and yet that's the time of day where I've carved out something that can be called "me" time to do it. When dh gets home in the afternoon, I am more likely to strike out on a walk, alone, all by myself in the quiet of the forest and the hay fields than stay in the house to do a yoga routine. So, morning it is. Until, well, it isn't
:p
.

And a two-week reply would be lightening speed for this thread!

Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas!

ETA: I'm glad viewing svasana in a new light has helped. I, too, enjoyed the choice of "decadent", but after the fact. "Decadent" comes from Middle French/Latin and means "to decay" and literally "to fall apart".
 
#16 ·
Happy Holidays to all!!!

Haven't done any exercise since I wrote here... Best friends came and stayed with us for a few days, then my parents for a week... They are still here and leaving Monday morning, so I want to get back to practicing this week. I need some running shoes so I will buy that with the money they gave me for Christmas!! Yay! Otherwise, I'd like to try a new yoga video. I know most of y'all don't do videos... But any "easy" yoga videos you recommend?
 
#17 ·
I love love love Yoga Burn with Rodney Yee, a few years old. I judge my long workouts by how easy downward dog feels at the end. It's not a pose I can relax into easily, but with the right kind of session, I feel like I could hang there all night. The video is very slow, very, very nice. Highly recommended.

I *thought* about doing yoga a few times over Christmas
:p
. Tomorrow begins a more easeful schedule, and I will prioritize *some* morning yoga. I am still getting in a few moderate walks. Still not my intense walks, but I'm thinking I might be ready to do one tomorrow. Maybe.
 
#18 ·
Hiya Yogis!

Jaxy- Hooray for new running shoes and visitors we love!
:joy
(And for their eventual departure and life returning to "normal.") I do a video almost every night. Like SweetSilver I am a fan of Rod the Bod. (Hehehe! Last time I visited my acupuncturist he called the esteemed Mr. Yee that silly name and ever since I can't get it out of my head. It makes me giggle.) My evening routine is usually about 20-25 minutes and in the middle (and maybe the feature attraction) is the 10 Minute De-Stressor with Rodney Yee. He does it with a chair, I don't; the forward bends are super relaxing either way. It came in a 2-disk set, and on that disk there is also a 10-Minute Energizer with Murial Hemingway and a 30-minute Core Workout with the two of them (Rodney says some of the goofiest things during that session, I really wish I could hug him). But that workout (30 min Core) and the 50-minute one on the other disk are NOT what I would call low-key or easy-going. However, if you are already running, they are certainly not out of your reach.

SweetSilver- Hmmm, "decadent..." after reading your explanation of its origins, I wonder why I still find it so appealing? I read the bit about your walks (alone!
:)
) through "the quiet of the forest and the hay fields" and I thought, "wow, where does she live? That sounds lovely". So I looked up the Chehalis River. I've never been to Washington (at an age I could remember; my younger brother was born there), and it is definitely somewhere I'd love to visit. I recently read The Orchardist and was completely enamored. Wish me one of your walks some day.

Thanks for sharing Yoga Burn, never heard of it, but may try it out. I mean, assuming I ever have time for a long practice again. It may just happen yet, I have been moving up time-wise: I can sometimes stretch into a 30-45 minute practice what used to be almost strictly 20-25. Baby steps, baby steps.

I recently heard this bit in the Mindfulness Meditation lecture series I've been listening to about both vice and virtue, the good person and the evil one, being built just "one drop at a time." Often now when I am trying to convince myself to do something that I believe will bring me closer to the person I believe I truly am (somewhere, deep down…) I remind myself that even these little seemingly pointless choices, doing 5 minutes practice on a busy morning, spending an extra 30 seconds to sweep out my bed, having another cup of tea during that stressful part of the evening when I really want a glass of wine, these things are adding up, like drops of water (inner voice: Aaarggh! What's the POINT!? That'll take a lifetime to add up to something meaningful! {smaller, much quieter inner voice: oh yeah, that is what I've got…
shrug.gif
}) Doesn't always, or maybe even often, work (yet!) but I figure even thinking it counts as a drop, right?

AFMy Practice, I missed 6 days in a row. No morning routine. No evening routine. The 21st through the 26th (also CD3-8 of a particularly long period
:irked
). But two really great realizations came out of this hiatus: #1) I haven't missed even 5 days in a row since early October, #2) (and even better) I managed not to feel badly about it. That feels like a real victory for me. Maybe that's what I needed most out of this practice right now.

A close friend I hadn't seen in over a year came to visit for Christmas. Early on I resented the extra work she would create for me a wee bit. The woman is high maintenance: "What's for breakfast/ lunch/ dinner/ snack/ dessert?" "What are we doing/ where are we going next?" "Take care of me/ Entertain me…" Worst of all, she is a night owl and I am easily influenced and here I am now: overtired, staying up late, and struggling to get up in the morning. That's always a bad thing for this farm girl, even in the winter. Don't get me wrong-I was still crazy happy to see her-but I really felt like I needed a very calm and quiet holiday because I am caught up in this feeling of needing to move forward… in solitude. I mean as solitary as I can get living with DH, DS, and my mom.

But then, when my practice began to look unrecoverable, (oh, how easily I despair!) she suggested we do some together. We haven't done any yoga together in years, at least 4, maybe more.

My yoga room is really small. But I couldn't imagine setting up anywhere else. (I am incredibly grateful that I have a yoga room!
:love
) This is the south facing upstairs room where the roof slopes sharply, it is where the plants winter, the floor barely fits two mats so there was only about two inches between them and we had to stagger ourselves and still our fingertips brushed the wall. But it was really fun. An invigorating change. In the last three days of her visit we did two a.m.'s, two p.m.'s (both on the first day). And I learned that I really do have a routine. We did it all, the weird cleansing exercises, the moon salutes, some Rod the Bod, some meditation. Interestingly, when doing these new moon salutes I have always kept the book right in front of me and referred to it often. When I suddenly was faced with giving up the book, and leading someone else, I found I didn't need it anymore.

So, all in all, my practice is feeling pretty good again. On the down side: I have been getting aches and pains in my back (my mom says it's stress, I'm considering visiting the chiropractor), my house is a mess (this occasionally makes me want to run away screaming), and in a couple of weeks we go to visit the in-laws in FL…

Life is good sister yogis.

:namaste
 
#19 ·
I haven't had a chance to read this thread but I subscribed a few days ago and thought I better post before the new year rolls over!!

I'm a SAHM to 2 boys. ds1 will be 6 on Friday and ds2 is almost 8 months.I haven't practiced yoga in over a year.After baby #2,I have had a hard time getting back into well..life..I suffer from OCD and know that when I practiced yoga,it always made me feel better!!So,here's hoping that I'll get back into it and get more fit physically and emotionally!!

Thought I'd say hey :)
 
#20 ·
Awesome thread, subbing! Going on my run right ATM but will BBL to read the rest of this thread
coolshine.gif
. Hi MsBe!
 
#21 ·
Hello...

One of my new years resolutions is to add some yoga to my life... a LONG LONG time ago, I used to do yoga as in could follow along with a video/teacher kind of thing. I loved it, but then I had kids and ...well... you know how that goes.

I'd like to add in just 10 minutes a day, a few days a week to start. Anyone have a good starting place? Can you do this stuff from a book, or is a video the way to go? I'm not a total newbie, but I may as well be since its been forever since I did any of this stuff... How do you start if you don't have time for a class??? Any ideas? (I'm kind of out of my element here... I always did yoga by joining a class and then finding a similar video to do at home in between sessions... but I just don't have that kind of time)
 
#22 ·
I'm in.
joy.gif


Long time yoga enthusiast who is so out of practice, esp. after DD figured out the joys of crawling under mama during a downward dog pose or a bridge pose
eyesroll.gif
but jumping in again now. I can commit for 20 mins of yoga practice, this time with a prenatal yoga DVD by Shiva Rhea.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by crazytownmama View Post

How do you start if you don't have time for a class??? Any ideas?
I started with 1 sun salutation. I'm not kidding. Yesterday I did 2 because I was feeling groggy before going to work. You'd be amazed by that comment if you knew me. TWO!!!!

I like checking out a stack of Yoga Journals from the library and adding one pose or a sequence to try new things. I might follow the sequence until I know it, then I like to let it flow into my routines spontaneously. I do like videos, especially when I am feeling like pushing the length of my practice or I'm feeling particularly uninspired. But I love doing yoga on my own and learning to tune in to what by body is craving. I don't spend as much time doing it (10-20 minutes), but there is an attentiveness there that is missing in classes and videos and following sequences from magazines or the internet. I highly recommend others give it a try, too. It's yoga without a net!

Another video recommendation for Jaxy and others with little kids: YogaKids ABC's is actually a really nice video, even for adults. I'm always feeling tall after that one, and being a kids' video the intensity is low and silliness is high. My oldest has enjoyed it since she was 2 and we still put it on regularly 7 years later. Rodney Yee also has a family yoga video they have always loved as well. DD1 named her toyhouse dolls after the kids.
 
#24 ·
Thanks so much for recommending a kids video!!When I used to do yoga,ds1 always tried to get on my mat with me lol Might be time to get him his own mat and start a practice together!!And maybe we can add ds2 to our practice!!Any tips on practicing with baby?I know by the time I get my mat out,he'll probably be squalling!
 
#25 ·
I did ditch my yoga practice for a long time because it seemed like it was the signal for the girls to melt down. I felt like my attention and focus was needed elsewhere than the mat.

But what worked a little was not having an idea that your practice should be a certain length, or with a certain outcome. Obviously, that didn't work for me all the time, but it might work better for you. Certainly, we did manage to start doing some yoga again, at first together along with videos, and then I could do it on my own while they played. Took years for me, but I think my girls' neediness and my inability to ignore it made it more difficult.

A more difficult video that I have loved was Shiva Rea's Yoga Trance Dance. I have to be careful to not overdo the sequences (I tend to push myself too hard), but dd1 loved the dance sections, and since I love my yoga to move, I do to. We add some ribbons and long scarves to the dance. Fun! (There is a preview for another, crazy DVD, that is cool to watch but insanely impossible. We never skip past that ad.)
 
#26 ·
Ok, so just caught up on this thread and good on ya ladies for getting it in where you can fit it in
thumb.gif
. That's what I'm doing lately and my oh my does it make a huge difference! Something MsBe said really resonated with me, about how she would diligently use her book but when it came time to lead someone else she found she didn't need it. That's so how things tend to flow with me. I'm really working the drop-by-drop and letting go of my more perfectionist tendencies with things as this really keeps me from doing anything at all if I can't have it "just right" and that's just
nut.gif
. My DS1 (7) and DS2 (3) emulate the poses and chants and that makes me so happy that they can find joy in this thing I love so much. My life is super busy and what I tend to do is just stop in the middle of going from one task to another and do a Wheel or a Downward Dog or a Rocking Bow or whatever I can fit in. Love releasing the disappointment of not being able to get through a whole anything of what I want to do yoga-wise. Instead, I am here, right now, and do my best to honor wherever that may be, even when I fail
orngbiggrin.gif
. Working on getting in some Moon Salutations this week
blueman.gif
.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top