Just Breathe

Breath. Essential life force. Always present, sometime ignored. Our yoga can be our breath.
What if we just pay attention?

Stop for a moment, sit up tall wherever you might be.  Roll your shoulders up towards your ears and set them gently down and back.  Soften your eyes, and breathe (in and out through the nose if you can, if not gently in and out through the mouth).  Inhale think "peace" and exhale think "just let go".  Inhale peace and exhale just let go.  Inhale peace and exhale just let go.

Don't you feel wonderful?  When stress or life starts to get the better of you, just pause and breathe.

Here is a meditative flow which might be fun to do.  Let me know how you like it.

if video doesn't work properly, click here to go to youtube.

your pose is your pose

OK, so we all look different in our yoga poses. And that's OK. Really. I'm serious, don't worry about what you look like in your pose. How do you feel? Is it a good stretch, is it good work? Does it feel tight, blocked, sticky? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves. Explore.

I'm not saying that your pose should not change. And I do think alignment is very important, we need to practice our poses safely. Let's protect our knees, ankles, hips, and shoulders. We want to continue to practice another day so we should practice safely today. Find a good teacher for you, someone who gives you the basics of the poses so you can get into and out of them safely, but then let's you be. Allow yourself to feel wonderful in your yoga pose, to feel the work and change happening in your body. When you settle into the pose, embrace it. Practice your yoga for you, for the body you are in today. It is called a yoga practice, not a yoga perfect, or a yoga just like the person next to me.

Let's work towards the safest strongest pose for our body that day. As we gain experience with the poses and knowledge of how our individual bodies need to move we can begin to refine our poses.

Let the refinement of the pose come from within. Think energetically, pull in the belly and allow or encourage the energy to spiral out. The energy can lengthen the spine and strengthen the legs and arms and maybe make the pose more comfortable. When you find the place of comfort within the strength of your pose, your pose is your pose! Enjoy it, enjoy being you.

The video today is my interpretation of Paul Grilley's yang sequence The Flying Dragons. It's a somewhat challenging vinyasa, but that's OK. Watch the first round once, you'll be intrigued. Get out your mat, start back at the beginning and enjoy. You can do it, make it yours. I'm Audra, the ordinary yogi enjoying my poses.

if video doesn't play correctly, click here to go to youtube.

Yoga is for Every Body

Yoga is for EveryBody. You can do yoga, I’m serious.  It doesn’t have to be that hard, or that serious either. It really doesn’t matter how big or small or how old or young you are. Your journey is to find what yoga works for you. I’ve been teaching yoga for ten years and I don’t think that I’ve ever had someone say to me after, “well, I wish I would not have done that.”

Your quest, if you choose to accept it (and I really hope you do) is to just start.  You don’t need to get in shape to do yoga.  Just get started.  Find a book, a DVD, a youtube video (check out audrayoga) go to a class.

Yoga doesn’t necessarily need to be right, it just needs to be right for you.  And the only way to make it right is to do it.  I think the most amazing thing about yoga is how amazing you feel after and often during your practice. I remember my very first yoga class and the neat feeling I had as I was leaving.  I wondered if what I had just done was “exercise” and then I decided it didn’t matter, as what I was feeling was wonderful and I wanted to feel it again.

So, it began, my absolutely awesome journey with yoga. If you have not yet begun, start now (if your already on your journey even better). My journey continues to this day. Travel with me, the ordinary yogi and find out how extra-ordinary it can be.