Time For Yourself - A Beginner's Guide to Yoga
Jan
30Posted in [12 Days to a Better 2012], [Exercise] By LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir
1/30/2012 8:29 AM
Today’s post comes to us from Flo C. Sheffield, a yoga teacher at Active Sol Yoga in Atlanta, GA. Flo believes in the benefit of a daily yoga and meditation practice in order to maintain a peaceful, happy life.
You’ve probably heard a lot about yoga – but what is it, really? Well, first let’s discuss what yoga isn’t. Yoga is not a religion. Yoga is a philosophy that can be plugged into any type of religion or no religion at all. With its roots in India, yoga is influenced in many ways by Hinduism, so it can be spiritual without being religious. Each Yoga pose is known as an “asana” which means “to take seat.” And each Asana has a sanskrit name typically translated into an English variation here in the west.
But Yoga is more than just asanas. “It is my main form of physical exercise, my spiritual practice, my job, and how I met my partner and mother of my child,” says Chris Cuevas, Yoga Experience Director for the Wanderlust Festival.
Beyond the asanas we also use the breath, which is known as Pranayama. Many of us hold our breath when we are stressed, or we breathe very shallow in our chests and do not use our full lung capacity. In the yoga practice you will begin to see how important watching your breath is. So, a good rounded yoga practice incorporates more than just the physical practice, but the breath and meditation practices as well.
When talking to people interested in trying yoga they typically come up with two reasons they don’t want to try a class: 1) They’ve never done it before and don’t know where to begin and 2) lack of time.
I do recommend finding a good teacher to help you with your breathing, alignment and to answer your questions – but many people have found DVDs and books helpful when they’re crunched for time. Ask any teacher and they will tell you, “Doing a little yoga daily is better than doing a lot of yoga once or twice a week.” Through practice, your body will get stronger and more flexible - but an added bonus is that your mind will become a little quieter.
Chris Cuevas says, “I love the connection you develop with your teacher and the other students, the stillness and quiet in the room where all you hear is the sound of breathing and the whisper of the teacher. Each practice is a moving prayer and meditation and it’s a total workout! You leave feeling rinsed out and energized.”
Tips for starting a home practice:
Step one: Creating a space. Obviously you will need a place to practice. Here are a few tips on choosing a good place:
- Designate an area in your home solely for your practice. It can be in a bedroom, guest room, or living room. Many prefer to have a door so they can close the room off from their animals, children or partners. This ensures you will not be interrupted.
- Make sure you have a wall nearby. If you have difficulty with balance or want to get creative with your practice; the best prop is a wall, and every home has them!
- Yoga mat- you can pick up a mat practically anywhere these days. My first mat was from a large department store. I still have that little pink foam mat as a reminder of how good it was to me for many years! But, if you can’t get your hands on a mat you can use a large towel. However, it won’t work as well because they tend to bunch and move around a lot.
- Props- you can get things like straps, blocks and blankets. Really this is a personal call so do a little research on this before you spend tons of money on items you don’t need. I made my own yoga straps and eye pillows.
Step two: Designate a time. I know many of us are over booked. But, I promise if you make a commitment to yourself for just 10-15 minutes each day, your body will begin crave this time. Personally, I am a morning yoga person. If I don’t get it in before work I will come up with 1,000 excuses to skip over it in the evening. I know this about myself. So ask yourself, “When can I pencil in just 10-15 minutes each day that I know I can truly stick to?” Once you have that set put a reminder on your phone, ipod, whatever you want. Just stick to it!
So now you have a place to practice and your schedule is set. What do you do next?
Really, yoga is about checking in and seeing what is tight or sore today. I like to get on my mat, sit for a moment with my eyes closed and take 3 deep breaths. Then I scan my body to see what’s going on today. Are my hips tight, does my back seem stiff, are my shoulders up around my ears and so on. Then I tend to work my practice around what needs attention.
I realize that when you start out this is not the easiest thing to do. So I’ve done some prep work for you! Here are some simple poses you can start with. Use this as a guide, and make modifications however you’d like. I’ve provided the Sanskrit name of each asana and English name as well. Take some time to look up the postures online. Yoga Journal online is a wonderful resource for looking up postures. Plus, there are many books out there. One book that covers practically all yoga postures is “Light on Yoga” by B.K.S. Iyengar.
Beginner Poses
- Adho Mukha Svanasana: Downward-facing dog. From Tabletop position (see above,) begin to curl your toes under and push your hips to the ceiling. You may need to walk your feet in towards your hands a bit. This typically looks like an inverted V. In Downward facing dog take 5-10 breaths. You can bend one knee then the other as you warm up your hamstrings. This is a great stretch to do daily. If you have a dog, you’ve seen that they do this after a long nap.
- Balasana: Childs pose. From downward facing dog slowly drop to your knees. So once again if you have knee issues grab that towel or blanket. Roll the towel up place behind the knees to create space in your knee joints. Once set up appropriately begin to drop your hips to your heels and move your chest to the floor, eventually resting your forehead. Sometimes keeping your knees wide helps for your chest to reach the floor. Take 10 breaths here.
- Savasana: Corpse pose aka final resting pose. This is a relaxing way to end each practice, you should never skip this pose. While lying on your back, take your legs out the width of your mat. Place your palms by your sides face up so that your shoulders roll down your back. Relax your neck and gently close your eyes. From here just breathe. Feel your breath come into your body and leave your body. Try not to create a “to do” list while in this posture. Try to be on your mat with your breath for a minimum of 2-3 minutes. Music can help with this post, it’s nice to listen to an instrumental piece that is about 3 minutes long to time your savasana for you. Feel any tension in your body melt. And breathe, breathe, breathe. After your 2-3 minutes, roll to your right side hugging your knees then gently push yourself back to a seated position. It is ideal to end practice the way you began with 3 deep breaths.
- Siddhasana: Sit comfortably on a blanket or block (make sure your hips are higher than your knees.) Take 3 deep breaths in and out through your nose.
- Siddhasana with side bend: Inhale bringing both arms overhead. Exhale and drop your right fingertips to the floor next to your right hip as you reach your left arm towards the right. You will feel a deep stretch on the left side of the body. Stay here for 2-3 breaths then repeat by inhaling both arms overhead and dropping your left fingertips to the floor next your left hip while reaching the right arm over towards the left.
- Marjaryasana and Bitilasana: Cat and Cow pose. Come to all fours on your mat. Make sure your shoulders are over your wrists and hips are over your knees. Inhaling, gaze up while rolling the shoulders down the back and your hips move up as well as you being to take a tiny backbend. On the exhale tuck your chin to your chest and hollow out your belly. Pushing the floor away and rounding your spine. Keep going for 4 more breaths. Inhaling your open your chest and exhaling you round your spine. End in a nice flat back position, this is known as “tabletop."
- Adho Mukha Svanasana: Downward-facing dog. From Tabletop position (see above,) begin to curl your toes under and push your hips to the ceiling. You may need to walk your feet in towards your hands a bit. This typically looks like an inverted V. In Downward facing dog take 5-10 breaths. You can bend one knee then the other as you warm up your hamstrings. This is a great stretch to do daily. If you have a dog, you’ve seen that they do this after a long nap.
- Balasana: Childs pose. From downward facing dog slowly drop to your knees. So once again if you have knee issues grab that towel or blanket. Roll the towel up place behind the knees to create space in your knee joints. Once set up appropriately begin to drop your hips to your heels and move your chest to the floor, eventually resting your forehead. Sometimes keeping your knees wide helps for your chest to reach the floor. Take 10 breaths here.
- Savasana: Corpse pose aka final resting pose. This is a relaxing way to end each practice, you should never skip this pose. While lying on your back, take your legs out the width of your mat. Place your palms by your sides face up so that your shoulders roll down your back. Relax your neck and gently close your eyes. From here just breathe. Feel your breath come into your body and leave your body. Try not to create a “to do” list while in this posture. Try to be on your mat with your breath for a minimum of 2-3 minutes. Music can help with this post, it’s nice to listen to an instrumental piece that is about 3 minutes long to time your savasana for you. Feel any tension in your body melt. And breathe, breathe, breathe. After your 2-3 minutes, roll to your right side hugging your knees then gently push yourself back to a seated position. It is ideal to end practice the way you began with 3 deep breaths.
After you do these practices for a week or so begin to explore and incorporate other postures into the sequence. I hope this will help you to find time for yourself in 2012.
Photos courtesy of Flo Sheffield and The Wonderlust Festival.
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