Yoga therapy

One of my favorite things in Yoga is learning from different instructors. 

My favorite instructor, Erin, is very high energy and radiates confidence and a sense of peace. She brings something new to class each week. I can't predict what she will do. I always feel like I learn something about Yoga beside the positions. You can tell she loves what she does and believes in it. Her passion for yoga spreads to everyone in the class. She never hesitates to give individualized advice. She's corrected me many times. Even getting down on the floor to show me what to do. Her class is very challenging for me and I thrive in challenge. I also thrive on unpredictability. She is by far the best fit for a yoga instructor that I have ever had. I get bored easily. I like Yoga fast, diverse and high energy! 

In the other yoga studio, Jeff, taught me the most about what benefits Yoga has on my body. How each positions impacts my health. Compressions massaging my inner organs or glands and inversions bringing blood to my brain and helping with depression. He also stressed strengthening my back muscles. Since taking a month of weekend classes with him, I can lay more comfortably on my stomach than I have been able too since before I had children.

I took another class with a woman named Lauren. She really got into the perfection of singular positions. Her words to lead with my heart, really helped me feel how to hold my body when standing and how to ensure better balance for standing poses. 

Each instructor has a set of phrases that they use to vocalize a way to move or be. It is through their varieties that I am able to translate these words into a better understanding of Yoga--of how to hold myself, of how to breathe, of how to heal and think and respond.

Yoga is much more than tying yourself into knots. It is the peaceful connection between the body and the mind, about taking time to reflect, accept, heal and celebrate oneself. And so, how one impacts the world around them. It's inviting in peace. The movements are an expression of the mind's desire to be balanced and healthy. The movements help me focus and release tension that my mental state puts into my physical being. A stress free body, allows me to put my attention on my mind and sort through stresses there. 

Obviously, I love Yoga. From my first class doing it in the winter of 2007 through to River's birth. Over the long hiatus when time and money were too short to support me continuing it--I missed Yoga. Now, doing it again, I realize how vital it is for my health. 

Yoga is my therapy. 

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I want to share my favorite vinyasa on this blog. I can't help but feel both soothed and energized after going through this pattern of movements a few times. Forgive my ineptitude, because I am hardly a yoga master. 

1. swing your arms up while you take a nice deep inhale

2. give yourself a nice little back bend and listen to the popping of your spine

4. exhale as you fold forward over loose knees letting you head, neck and arms sag.

5. Inhale into plank position

6. Exhale as you lower (hint: keep your elbows tucked into your sides!)

7. Inhale into up-dog position

8. Exhale into downward-facing-dog position

9. Inhale your right leg up into three-legged-dog position

 10. Exhale as you pull your right leg under your body to rest between your hands 

11. Inhale yourself up into a lunge.

12. Repeat steps 5-11 but use your left leg for three-legged-dog and lunge. 

13. Swing your arms back up as your rise on a big inhale.

14. Exhale to prayer pose and rejoice in the feelings rushing through your body from a job well done.