Yoga Every Damn Day Challenge

A couple years ago I offered up the 30 Day Yoga Challenge. Well, a couple of it's videos are missing, and it's been a while - so here's a new fun current challenge being offered up by someone else.

The 2013 Yoga Challenge : Yoga Every Damn Day

Click through for Rules/Details and to Join on the the ChallengeLoop page.

by 1Shot Photography - via Tumblr

From the Description:
The #yogaeverydamnday challenge has been ongoing since January 1, and it's open to all. Every month we have had a new twist (to bring gratitude into our daily lives, to meditate etc) but there will not be a twist this month. I want us all to go back to what's at the core of any yoga practice: to practice every single day. I want you to find the joy of living your yoga, on and off the mat, and to remember that yoga is not a pose but a practice! This does not mean you have to take a full sweaty 90-minute class every day (feel free if you like!), but that you incorporate yoga into your life somehow, every single day of this month.

This is just an excerpt, so head on over there to learn how to join and share your practice progress.

Last I checked there were just shy of 5,000 participants!
There are even prizes - Yoga Every Damn Day tanks from yours truly (creator Rachel Brathen) and @seasonfive

via Yogaholics

Navel Gazers

from CrimesAgainstHughsManatees

Are You Sleeping Through Your Life?

Via Sylvia Mordini - on her Twitter

New experiences are easy to find. You can create them at any moment. In small ways or big ones. In your yoga practice they may look like a new studio, a different teacher, a new location in the room, a pose you've never tried... music, mats, outfits, friends to practice with, chanting... 

All these things create a slightly different experience. Some of these are small things, but they are the same small things that people fight against as if they were epic monsters. They actively avoid placing their mat in a different place in the classroom. The front row is pretty unpopular. 

Your comfort zone can become like a prison if you move in full time. Your ego may try to trick you into believing it's not worth the risk. Remember that feeling when you first tried (and loved!) yoga?  

Try something new this week! Don't sleep through your life.

Sometimes You Suck

Sometimes yoga is all about aiming for perfect alignment and holding a solid pose for ages. Other times you just want to get out of your head and into the flow. Sometimes you need to expand your horizons and try a new pose.

When you're in the flow - channel the breath and let go of expectations of perfection. If your practice has been slipping - your poses may not be as easy or pretty as they once were. When you're trying something new you have to get comfortable with the idea that you'll probably suck at it. You might fall on your face, your ass, and your ego. Even poses you've done a thousand times can surprise you on a bad day. Some days you will suck. And that's okay.

For teachers - sometimes your students will not be any good. Maybe they're doing their best but they're new; maybe your class is too fast-paced to get all the kinks worked out in each pose. These things can be fine. There's a place for the single beat pose class and the beginner's flail. Take care of your students, help them out, keep them safe but as one of my teacher trainers told us - Sometimes you just have to let them suck.

Shake Up Your Downward Dog

Downward Facing Dog is a classic. It's featured in almost every class and people usually love it or hate it. It's a nice hamstring opener, but it can open up more in your legs than just that main corridor down the back center if you get creative.

Throw in some goofy-footed dogs. Seriously. Try it. Especially if you've been doing calf work or you wear heels often. Take it slow and pay close attention to knee/hips/ankles - just in case. Hold for 5 - 10 breaths.

Simply by turning the angle of your feet completely changes the feeling for your legs. Keep the rest of the pose the same as usual.

Toes in, Heels out.

Heels in, Toes out.

In general, this sequence is for anyone, but please don't try this sequence without speaking to your Dr. first if you have any medical/physical problems (Especially knee/hip problems). Seek Peace At Your Own Risk! 

Wanderlust Squaw Valley 2012 Recap

I'll try to keep this short : This was my 2nd non-consecutive year at Wanderlust Festival in Squaw Valley and I loved it. Learned all sorts of new things and tried all sorts of new teachers. Naturally, I also attended concerts and took classes from long-time-favorite teachers. In addition to all the sunshine there was lots of yoga, dancing, hoop dance, slacklining, music, art, shopping, and of course - hugging. Sometimes you just need to get away and play.

Incense and white sage

I loved slackline yoga so much that I bought a slackline so I can work on it anytime.

Adam was good at the knee balancing thing. I was not.

Self massage class - and an altar decoration made of records. There were lots of altars.

Slacklining over a pond - this was fun to watch.

KK Ledford's Honey Hearts class was awesome... me on the left.

Yoga Teacher Barbie

This is so weird. I'm simultaneously disturbed and thinking I want one. I love it, I hate it, it's stupid, it's cute...  This is ridiculous and why does she have a chihuahua? Clearly I'm conflicted. Thoughts?

available at Target

A Practice - Unlimited

This kind of creative practice is only limited and squashed by mats. Just saying. It's super fun. Full disclosure - I become insanely jealous watching her practice videos. My only consolation is that I notice it and I can work on that.

 

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Adventures in Picture-Taking

If you keep up with my Flickr page at all - then you might know I posted a handful of new photos this weekend. I try to do that about once a month. Sometimes you don't realize how much your poses have grown until you compare pictures that are a couple years apart. Anyway, today I wanted to show a few of the pics that didn't make the cut for one reason or another. Bloopers, out-takes, whatever you want to call them - here they are.

And one ridiculous bonus pic where I look scared of the hoop.

Still Hooping

It's been forever since I last wrote about hooping. Some of that is because I didn't really do it much for a while, but it never completely went away and I still love it. In fact, this winter I've finally gotten a decent hold on some things like shoulder hooping that I'd been struggling with for what felt like an eternity. This year for my birthday I ordered a new lighter hoop that hasn't quite arrived yet and a pair of mini hoops. Mini hoops work a lot like spinning poi which you may recall I tried and hated a couple years ago. However, spinning mini hoops is about a million times more fun for me than spinning poi. I'm having a blast. Occasionally hitting myself in the face with something has never been so fun.

I've been spinning pretty constantly lately. Since the mini hoops are new to me my hands get pretty bruised up from playing with them for too long, but it's not too bad. When I get too bruised up I just take a day or 2 to play with my big hoops more while I heal.

Hooping "blasts 400-600 calories per hour... and has been proven to shed as many calories as cardio kickboxing." - says the postcard I got with my minis.

These days hoop dance is my accidental cardio. I've decided that while I do enjoy running - My body doesn't recover from it as quickly as I'd like and I'm just not gonna do it anymore. It interferes with my yoga and yoga comes first. I found a hoop dance class at a nearby studio. I hope to attend one of these days and see what the hooping class is like.

This post is rambling and not all that coherent, but I just wanted to say - Hey, I'm still hooping.

Aerial Yoga Review

So I mentioned it was my birthday Saturday, and I thought it was the perfect day to try something new. I recently found that Boise has Aerial Yoga classes, so I signed us right up for a one hour class at Ophidia Studio. Us = Me and Adam.

Ultimately it was not quite as much yoga as aerial, but I was fine with that. It was still super fun because there was enough flipping and monkeying around to keep me happy. I'll be going back for more and I'd suggest it for anyone to try. At first it's a little awkward, but overall it's easier than you'd think. A lot of it seemed to rely mostly on how much you were willing to just go for it. It was a nice workout for grip strength and confidence.

After class the instructor Katie Ponozzo graciously took a few pics for me. We also did a fun little backflip thing that I really liked, but I decided against asking for a video of it out of respect for her time.

Yoga Flash Mob - Yoga Stage

Here's a video of the kind of fabulous marketing I would love to take part in. Public displays of yoga draw in yogis and newbies alike. This flash mob by Yoga Stage takes their passion for yoga to the streets!

More about YogaStage:

YogaStage is a new networking site for yoga teachers, students, and the places they gather.
For practitioners it provides one central location to find classes, studios, festivals, etc in your area or wherever you want to go. For teachers they provide job-search options with listings from studios, festivals, and quick Yoga Press Kits (YPK's) to market your teaching. Finally, if you own a studio or coordinate a yoga event of any kind you can put out calls for teachers and market yourself to students. The entire yoga community will be meeting at YogaStage. Check it out so you don't get left out.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Out on the Edge

This picture is from http://coffeeandyoga.tumblr.com/

Beginner's Mind - Like a Fish

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking (and even teaching a little bit) about things I'm good at. I don't talk much about my weaknesses. One of my biggest weaknesses that I'm reminded of every summer is swimming. It's not like I can't swim, but I'm not even remotely a strong swimmer.

I can do challenging yoga for like 9 hours a day, and I can run for at least 5 miles without much work, but swimming in freshwater around 80 feet is HARD. I was at the lake yesterday and practicing maintaining my composure in water maybe 10 feet deep. I was swimming the length of the dock (80 feet or so) and then swimming back. I do this for cardio and for general practice. Ya never know when you're gonna need to swim. Every year I have to re-learn all these skills and work back up to being comfortable in deep water... then work on basic swimming skills... then on stamina and ability to hold my breath. It's crazy. It's humbling. I can outrun Adam by distance a thousand times, but he swims like a fish and I swim like a clumsy rock.

In Yoga we're supposed to at least attempt to always come at our practice from a space of being open and listening. Not cocky, not like we already know what we're doing. We're still supposed to take the time to quiet the mind, open to grace, feel what's going on and what can shine brighter. When you're just as open as a fresh newbie at her first class with no expectations and the willingness to try - This is beginner's mind.

What brings you back to beginner's mind? For me it's swimming. Definitely.

Kathryn Budig Beat Me

I've had a post on Vashistasana B planned for like, a while... and I guess I sat on it for too long because Kathryn Budig totally beat me to it.  It's one of my top favorite poses, and I think everyone should learn it. She did a fantastic job of it and all while wearing the LOVE tank I included on my Yogi Gift Guide, so please please please go learn this pose From Her Post over on Nectar at Yoga Journal.

Call it a Christmas present for yourself - learning something new. If you think it's beyond you - work on the prep poses (and your confidence) and by next Christmas you'll be able to fly with us.

P.S. For those of you that had the pleasure of knowing the Late Great Corwin - today would have been his 6th birthday. Take some time today to eat some butter, yell at people you don't like, and be generally adorable in his memory.

top photo source: totally snagged it from the YJ Blog Post.

How Many Yogins Does it Take...

If you've ever checked out my profile page - you've seen that I follow a lot of blogs. One blogger whose posts I rather enjoy is fellow yogi/teacher Jennifer Waters. I pulled today's post directly from her. I only pulled pieces, so if you want lots more silly yoga lightbulb jokes - you'll have to Go To Her Blog to get them.

How many Anusara teachers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Four. One to hold the bulb, one to outer-spiral the ladder to screw in the bulb, one to say what a great community light-bulb changing creates and one to clap when it is over.

How many Bikram teachers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three. One to preheat the new bulb, one to screw it in and one to remind the light bulb changer to “Lockyourknees Lockyourknees Lockyourknees!"

How many Karma Yogins does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two. One to screw the new bulb in and one to help surrender the fruits of the old bulb’s illuminations.

How many Bhakti Yogins does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. They just learn to love darkness.

How Many Power Yoga Teachers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three. One to reach for the bulb in utkattasana, one to sweat profusely and one to turn up the volume on the sound system.

How many Ashtanga Yoga teachers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Just one, except it is done while ujjayi breathing at 6am holding mula bandha with one leg behind the head.

How many Kundalini Yoga Teachers does it take to screw in a light bulb? None – they don’t change it, they just revive the old bulb with ‘breath of fire’.