The Start of Yoga

Yoga. It all started with seeing cool pictures & attempting those poses, just because. Then it furthered when my sister & I began challenging each other, "can you do this?" " I bet this one is too hard for you!" "here, try this one..."! I continued to perfect those certain poses and grew to love the practice more each day. This led to researching yoga in general, poses and different flows, watching others improve their yoga through social media (mainly Instagram), & more daily practice!

^^^^^

4 weeks progress!

A lot of people keep asking what program or class I use, but the truth is, I'm completely self-taught and do it in the privacy of my living room! I do not prefer classes and honestly don't have the time or money for it.  So what does my daily practice look like? A little like this: During the kids nap time, I usually pull up several charts from Pinterest and follow one or two flow charts, holding each pose at least 15 sec. (recently I started following a video app to have a reference point for those that ask - FitStar Yoga or SworkIt),  I also use poses I already know to create my own flow, feeling whatever comes naturally! Then I do a timed 5-10 min core/ab workout to help improve my inversions (inversions take a lot of core strength), and I conclude by practicing those inversions multiple times, holding each pose longer every time. I've come to see that yoga is all about practice! Practice, practice, practice! Even if it's as simple as stretching for 10 minutes a day, the littlest amount really does help improvement! Once I saw little amounts of progress happening and noticed how I felt after my workout, that is what really kick-started my drive & passion!

Yoga has helped in so many simple ways that I never thought possible. It has strengthened my body in ways I didn't think it could. I had the miss conception that yoga was all stretching, but it has helped strengthen muscles I thought were only possible with high-intensity workouts (which I can not perform bc of health). It has helped with stretching and loosening muscles to improve simple daily skills, like carrying my kids around or bending over to pick up something heavy without back pain, etc. It has given me a new drive & motivation I was lacking. And it has also given me more energy! Which I found this last thing the oddest because exercise use to always wear me out & exhaust me, but yoga has done the opposite. It has rejuvenated me and given me energy which has been life changing on its own! Not to mention, it has also been a great connecting point with friends, growing several of my relationships even closer!

(Current inversions I'm practicing... 

headstand variations & forearm stands)