A neighborhood park in Paris (Montmartre).
My New York students may have heard that I was away for a minute. I’m back now. Missed ya’ll! London and Paris were great. It was a total blessing to get to take such a trip, and I aim to post some related pics, recipes, and randomness about my trip eventually.
I know many of you have travels of your own planned and we move deeper into the holiday season. How can we keep our Yoga practices alive during this time? My thoughts:
1. Keep things simple. A few basic poses daily, plus even a minute of meditation can make a huge difference. For example, while I was away, I did the Five Tibetan Rites almost daily. I also meditated briefly most days.
Pajama Yoga, anyone? Here I am on my friend’s balcony in London, keeping my Yoga practice alive.
2. Do what you can to keep the connection to your practice, and yourself, alive. Part of Yoga is flexibility and nimbleness not only of the mind, but of the body. Ditch the “all or nothing mentality.” Instead of locking into a rigid idea of what your Yoga practice “should” be, why not fully focus on a few simple poses daily while away. You can get back to your favorite teachers and lengthier classes when you return.
3. Employ technology. Podcasts, Youtube vids, DVD’s if you’re feeling very 90s. More on some great options below.
4. Know that your practice might improve if you back off a bit. This totally happens to me. For example, my heels are closer to the ground now in downward facing dog than they were before I left. Yes, I was active on my trip, but in different ways, which allowed my body to heal and change in unexpected ways.
Bise wants to know if those are the mountains out there in the distance somewhere. Why yes, they are there, kitteh!
By the way, some of my students have asked me if I have any YouTube videos of my teaching. The answer is, “Not yet. But I am indeed working on that as a long-term project.” For reals.
Meanwhile, here are some tips for Yoga you can do at home, or on travels of your own:
Baron Baptiste in bakasana (crow pose).
If you’re looking for a podcast, Baron Baptiste Power Yoga is a solid bet. I haven’t personally studied with Baron, but have practiced via his videos. Reliably good stuff.
Yoga Today is a pretty cool site. My favorite thing about them is that they practice out in nature, with beautiful natural scenery as a backdrop. They don’t flow as much as we do in most of my classes, just FYI. They offer a free weekly class. Remember, repetition brings nuance, so you could keep things simple by doing the free class throughout the week. More info from their site:
YogaToday.com photo courtesy by Jesse Brown.
Discover a new way to do yoga. Search, stream, and download from our library of over 200 one-hour video classes –in settings that harmonize with the postures and at the level and intensity that’s best for you.
Much more than a convenient practice, Yoga Today is a growing community where you can immerse yourself in a lifestyle of health and wellbeing.
Finally, YogaGlo is a site a few of my students are into. I’ll probably be into it myself very soon. Yes, as a teacher I do my own self-practice. But sometimes you want to be led and inspired by another person 🙂
Yogaglo.com offers a cool variety of classes, including restorative Yoga, which I LOVE!
More on YogaGlo:
Our goal is to offer online classes free of advertising. You get unlimited access to YogaGlo classes with an $18/month membership, the price you would normally pay for one class. You can experience YogaGlo classes with full screen HD or normal quality video. You can sort archived classes according to teacher, style, level, duration and specific use.
I hope this info inspires you to keep your Yoga practice going if you have one, and perhaps to check out some Yoga if you’re curious. It’ll be a beautiful addition to your holiday season and life. Promise!
Let me know if you have any questions, ya hear?
West of Persia 