My Yoga Journey
I have never really talked about my yoga practice on Vegetarian South before but it is a big part of my life. I am not a teacher. I am just a student. Actually scratch that I am not “Just a” anything. I am a yogi. I am working on limiting the word “just” from my vocabulary. It is weak and unnecessary. I often find myself drafting an email at work “I just wanted to check on” but thats not exactly what I mean I don’t need to be polite about it “I want to check on” fill in the blank and it is probably because it has been over a week since I have first asked you for X. Sorry for the side rant.
Because I am not a teacher I have felt nervous about sharing my experience and my journey. I don’t know all of the proper anatomy, alinement, and terminology. I am learning as I go like everyone else. My yoga posts are meant as inspiration rather than education.
I have been practicing yoga fairly regularly for the past ten years. At times in my life I have relied on it more then others. It is a great stress and anxiety relief tool. My body and mind feel better when I practice on a regular schedule. I normally go to classes two or three days at week at the gym I belong to. I have my favorite instructors but I like to try new classes from time to time. What I feel I am weak at is developing my home practice. Sure I can flow on my own but I rarely have the self discipline to make time in my day to commit to my practice. So that is my new goal. To develop a regular home practice and also to take time to read more books on yoga to educate myself.
Eric does yoga too. He started maybe two years ago. He hasn’t been to any classes with me but he likes doing it on his own at home. Eric really likes DDP Yoga. DDP (Diamond Dallas Page) is a former professional wrestler who developed a yoga training system. His videos are a good workout and he tries to make it fun and approachable. The only thing I don’t like (but Eric does like) about the DDP workouts is that he has come up with his own names for the poses. So sometimes Eric and I will be talking about yoga am I’m like huh are we talking about the same pose? Can Opener?
Sunday we did partner yoga together for the first time. It was fun. We just picked a short video on YouTube and tried it out. Then I went to an afternoon class by myself. I like the Sunday class at my gym because it because it has a rotating instructor schedule. You never know what you will get. Somedays it is fast and some times it is slower but I like being exposed to a variety of teaching styles.
Monday we did a different partner yoga video. Still trying to find ones we really like but we have found a few poses are worth trying again.
Tuesday was a rest day. I decided to take it easy because I think I stretched my shoulders a little too much the previous day. My right shoulder blade has been sore.
So today, which also just happens to be International Yoga Day, I went to a yoga class after work and Eric did his DDP yoga at home while I was at the gym.
Tomorrow I am also planning on going to yoga classes after work. Thursday is my favorite day I love the teacher and I do two classes back to back so 45 minutes of gentle yoga and then 1 hour and 15 minutes of power flow.
I don’t have anything planned for the weekend yet so who knows what I will end up doing. I don’t think we will be hiking with all the rain from the tropical storm so who knows I maybe inside doing yoga.
Happy International Yoga Day Ya’ll!!!
