#mypractice

Most New Year’s I resolve to have a daily yoga practice.  I’ve had a regular yoga practice, but my daily practice has come and gone with my discipline and motivation.

This year, as I contemplated resolutions (which I didn’t make any, whoops. . ), I realized that I have had a daily yoga practice pretty much since a week or so after I gave birth to my son.  Even throughout pregnancy, I practiced more days than I didn’t, and it had nothing to do with discipline OR motivation.  I’ve practiced regularly out of want and need for it, never really having to drag myself onto the mat to “get it done”, as sometimes a run or workout video may feel like.  No, my yoga practice has been more special than ever lately, and I am kind of amazed that I’ve made it a part of my day, everyday, without really intending to.

May mat is usually surrounded by my dogs, covered in their fur, and sometimes Parker will lay under me while I’m in downward facing dog, making it very difficult to step through to Warrior 1 without kicking him.  Sometimes I will place Dylan in a Boppy pillow at the top of my mat, and he loves when I come in to forward fold or chaturanga dandasana and tickle his tummy or give him a kiss.  Other times he is napping while I practice, either with the sound turned way down on the class that I’m streaming online or I’m simply doing my own flow to the sound of my breath alone.  I am usually in the bedroom, with piles of laundry nearby, or downstairs on the hardwood floor, between the couch and the TV stand.  I can’t pretend that I don’t miss the ambiance of a studio, with Buddha statues, the small of incense burning, and the sound of my classmates’ ujjayi pranayama to remind me that I, too, should be using my ocean-sounding breath, but I make do.

The other day, I put on a 45 minute YogaGlo practice that ended up taking about 2 hours due to two diaper changes, a nursing break, and having to let the dogs in and out a couple of times.  But, when savasana came and I brought Dylan up to my side to snuggle and the dogs curled up by my head and feet, I wouldn’t have traded that practice for a traditional studio practice one bit.

Yesterday, as I moved through a modified Ashtanga yoga practice, Dylan was wide awake and had to be placed by my ankles in every posture so that he could play with the hem of my pants.  He hated when I took 5 breaths in downward facing dog at the opposite end of the mat when he was up by my hands, but he loved when I placed him under my head during prasarita padottanasana A, B, C and D, so he could tug on my hair as it brushed over his face.  I nursed him through the janu sirsasana’s and a few other seated postures that didn’t require too much twisting and folding (okay, so I just sat there for a while, because these all involve some sort of twisting and folding!) and held him on my hips for bridge instead of taking full wheel for my backbend.  It may not have been the most structured Ashtanga practice, but it sure was sweet.

I don’t know about you, but I am inspired by the “yoga selfies” that pop up on Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds.  Maybe that has been my reminder to get on that mat recently?  I see a friend busting out a beautiful mermaid pose on a SUP board and it makes me crave yoga, like TV commercials of juicy burgers make you want to run out to the nearest fast food joint (strange comparison, I know).  My point is, I consider these selfies to be inspiring, and although there is an equal amount of backlash against the yoga-selfie-takers for being too naked or too advanced or wearing too cool of yoga pants, I don’t want it to stop.  So I started taking pictures of MY PRACTICE, which is obviously not that glamorous.  You won’t usually find me in dancer pose in a bikini on a beach with the waves crashing by my sun-kissed ankle (but you bet you would if I found myself in that situation!).  You probably won’t find stacks of beautiful mala beads on my wrists (because Dylan would love to chew on them, I’m sure) and my Lululemon pants are definitely victim to my rubbing thighs, but I think there is something beautiful about a yoga practice, no matter where you are, what you are wearing, or what pose you are doing.  Will you help me keep the yoga selfie alive and maybe slightly more modest?

Take a photo of yourself with friends at your favorite studio, dripping with sweat after that heated vinyasa flow, or in tree pose on a stump while you were hiking and were inspired to bust out some yoga.  Have your husband take a picture of you and your baby both doing happy baby pose, or take one of those fake-sleeping-selfies before or after meditation (not DURING, obvi. . . ) to inspire someone else to sit quietly with their breath for a few moments.  I’m going to jump on the hashtagging fad (that I’m about a year late to, apparently) and start hashtagging #mypractice and it would be super sweet if you did too.  Let’s make it a thing, shall we?

Maybe this little hashtag exercise will encourage you to get on the mat a little more frequently.

Or, maybe it will encourage someone else to!

Follow me on Instagram (mindydefelice) and make sure to tag me when you post your #mypractice yoga selfies!!

Namaste, my yogis! And Happy New Year!

As Long As I’m On My Mat

Thirteen days.  That’s how many nights we stayed in hotels, living out of our suitcases and whatever was in my truck while the rest of our belongings remained locked up in the moving truck.  Two (and a half!) humans and two dogs, one suitcase, one duffel bag, one laundry basket filled with a random assortment of shower stuff, hoodies, towels, and water bottles, and a yoga mat.

Thank goodness for that yoga mat. . .

Surprisingly, I felt pretty great throughout the trip from North Carolina to Colorado.  I was worried about having to drive, since usually Dave takes the wheel for the majority of our trips up and down the East Coast.  He actually likes driving long distances.  I don’t mind it either, but I much prefer to have my feet on the dash, knitting needles in hand, and a neck pillow for naps whenever I feel like it.  This trip, however, Dave had to drive the big moving truck towing the Jeep while I drove my truck with the dogs in the back seat.  But, it wasn’t so bad.  Before the trip, my midwife advised me to stop every hour to stretch my legs and to drink plenty of water, which were both easy to do because being 7 months pregnant, my bladder encouraged me to stop every time I saw that blue rest area sign from the highway.  The dogs were motivation to stop as well, seeing as though we’d be on the road for about 4 days and they were used to daily hour long walks and lots of yard-playing time.  So, we stopped plenty, and while Dave played catch with the dogs at the stops that had nice, big, open fields, I used that time to get in a few downward facing dogs and standing pigeon variations – not really caring how silly it might look to passerby’s.  It felt GOOOOOOODDD.

Once we got to Colorado Springs, our new home, we were still hotel-bound until our house was ready for us to move in to.  To pass the time and keep the dogs happy (as well as explore this amazing mountain city) we went on a new hike almost every day!  Both the excessive movement and the stress of the unknown and the in-between called for plenty of hotel yoga sessions.  Again, thank goodness for that yoga mat!   Since I had no internet besides my smartphone, my practice looked something like this:

Put Krishna Das Pandora on phone

Easy seat with pillow under tailbone with palms facing down for grounding – I needed that badly.  Deep breaths in and out.  Start moving when all of the “I wonder where we’ll put the couch” and “I wonder how far the closest yoga studio will be” and “I need to stop spending so much money” stopped crowding my overwhemled, over-excited mind.

Side bends, neck circles, trunk circles, wrist circles – basically move anything that aches a little.

Move into Table and do some cat/cow stretches, then get creative and move the spine however felt good at the time – side to side, circular, combination of all of those movements in a way that I probably looked possessed by the devil or a belly dancer on hands and knees.  Whatever, it felt good and I needed it.

Down dog – aaaahhhhhhhhh 🙂 Stretch out the calves, go high up onto toes and stretch the feet, sway hips side to side.  Feels.  So.  Good.

Walk feet up (and out – belly’s getting in the way!) to hands, then place hands on two bottles of water (didn’t have blocks, had to get creative) and stretch tailbone way back and chest way forward for awesome hamstring stretch otherwise known as preggo-Uttanasana.  Stand all the way up – check to make sure not dizzy from altitude – one hand on heart, one over baby D kicking up a storm in my belly (he either loves or hates yoga because he’s always moving when I practice) and breathe for a few.

Few modified Sun Salutations – I miss jumping up and back and getting really deep into upward facing dog, but I have my whole life to do those things.  For now, Sun Sal’s include Chaturanga’s from my knees and plenty of Child’s poses.

Low lunge with both hands on the inside so belly has room.  Maybe a little twist.  Maybe grab the back foot for a quad stretch.  Definitely some hip circles and then straighten front leg for a nice big hamstring opener.  Yes.

Warrior I.  Shorter stance than usual due to some round ligament pain, but I’ll take it.  I’ll either do Eagle arms, Gomukasana arms, or simply interlace my fingers behind me for a shoulder/chest opener here.  I’ve been told to keep the upper back and shoulders in good form now, because when I’m breastfeeding and holding the baby all of the time these areas are going to get TIGHT!

Warrior II.  Reverse Warrior to Side Angle, back and forth, back and forth.  This makes me feel strong and graceful at the same time, which is something I haven’t been feeling much throughout this pregnancy.  Also, it feels REALLY good to stretch the side body.

Triangle.  One of my favorites, pregnant or not.  Sometimes I’ll go into Half Moon from here, if I’m feeling stable enough.

Goddess Pose – another one that makes me feel really strong.  I’ve also heard this is good for positioning the baby.  To keep my mind off my burning legs, I’ll do one of those arm stretches that I mentioned in Warrior I that I hadn’t done yet. 

Wide-legged Forward Fold with arms way out in front so it is more like a wide-legged downward facing dog than anything.  It’s nice to hang out upside down for a while, since I haven’t been practicing inversions too much.  It’s not that I think that it’s going to make my baby turn upside down or that I’m scared to fall, it just hasn’t felt good while pregnant so why do it?  I’ll just hang out here in this downdog/forward fold combo pose.

Sometimes I’ll balance in tree or dancer.  I try to fit a squat in there, too.  Sometimes I’ll do some other variations from Warrior I or II, but generally I’ll just go to the floor from here.

PIGEON!  Hell yeah.  The best.  There’s usually pillows stuffed under hips and one in front of me to hug while I chill out there for a bit.

Bound-Angle with heels way out in front.  I hardly come down at all, but it still feels great.

Wide-legged forward fold on the ground.  This is one of my favorites since being pregnant!  I don’t know why, but I love it, and I need it daily.  I’ll usually stack pillows in front of me and rest there for a while.  I should really invest in some bolsters. . . .

Some sort of seated twist here.  Gentle, of course.  No squishing baby D!  Then I’ll sit for a bit in easy seat, with one hand on my heart and one on my belly, feeling the kicks and turns and hiccups, and reflecting on how good I feel now that I’ve practiced and why it’s so important for me to get on my mat every single day.

Savasana that looks much more like “sleeping on my side snuggling with 5 pillows”.  I’ll take it!

When the pups come over and start licking my feet and/or face, I’ll slowly get up, turn Krishna Das off, roll up my mat, and give myself a pat on the back for practicing.  Go me.

As soon as the Comcast guy left after hooking up our internet, I unrolled my mat in the huge master bedroom next to the window that overlooks our backyard so the breeze was coming in.  I placed my Mac in front of my mat, logged into my YogaGlo account, picked a new prenatal class with Stephanie Snyder, and did a 45 minute practice.  Today I plan on checking out a prenatal class at this baby store nearby that sells wraps and diapers and other fun crunchy baby things.

My practice is needed more than ever when I’m in a state of change, whether that change be a trip (vacation or otherwise), a move across the country, the physical change of starting up a new activity that might leave you sore or just changing the intensity of that new activity, or the physical change of growing a baby!  Or, in my case, all of the above.  It helps to ground me when I’m feeling misplaced, and it helps to uplift me when I’m feeling bogged down and stressed.  It always reminds me that I’m exactly where I need to be, as long as I’m on my mat.

Studio vs. Home Practice

I love yoga.  In fact, I even wrote yoga a thank you note after a much-needed class recently.  It went something like this:

Dear Yoga,

Thank you. . .

Always & forever,
Mindy

and it got 9 “likes” on my Facebook page, so clearly others feel the same way.

The class that inspired the note was on a day that was particularly stressful.  Now, I lead a pretty chill life, and despite the fact that my husband is in Afghanistan, I don’t really have much to be stressed about.  However, sometimes things creep up, and sometimes I take on the stress of others around me more so than I should allow, so that day I found myself a little too wound up, clutter-brained, and negative, which are all feelings I don’t do too well with.  Usually, when I find myself in that state, the last thing I want to do is yoga.  I know, I know, most people go to yoga primarily for the stress reduction aspect of it, but I find that a long run, a boxing class, or a really tough WOD clear my mind more efficiently than a yoga class does.

Or so I had thought!

I had been dealing with a lot of stress this past winter, with the upcoming deployment plus the unknown of where I’d be and when over the next few months, year, two years. . . . and I was stressed because I didn’t have a good outlet.  I wasn’t running much because I was having some funky foot pain, and I wasn’t doing much CrossFit because I was working at the gym and teaching yoga there, so any other time I had, I didn’t really want to be at the gym!  I was trying to keep up with my home yoga practice, but I would find that I wouldn’t find my flow, I would get distracted, or I would find another reason to stop.

The dogs need to go out,

I should make more almond butter,

My internet connection is slow so the streamed class is freezing and it’s not helping me get zen,

I’m hungry/thirsty/hot/cold/bored/etc.,

Dave’s home, I should spend as much time with him as I can before he leaves,

Is that dust under the table? I should probably clean my whole house instead of do this,

I don’t like this teacher/class/DVD/website,

I don’t like thinking up my own practice,

I wish this room was heated,

. . . . and last but not least, I wouldn’t like where my mind would go sometimes when it would be working toward getting quiet.  All of my thoughts that I would push down all day long – my fears, my worries, my stress – they would all of a sudden come to the forefront of my consciousness and they were uncomfortable to confront.

So, I bailed on my home practice.

Once or twice I did make the trek to a studio that was over a half hour away from me, because it had heat, an instructor, and a community of fellow yogis.

It made a world of difference. . .

Now that I am up north, I have had more convenient opportunities to practice in studios, and I don’t know if it is the sweat, the group environment, or having an instructor right there leading you through a class, but I am completely able to drop in and receive all of the awesomeness that is a yoga class.  I would chose a studio class over a home practice ANY day.

However, there are many benefits to a home practice, and some may do better on their own than in a class environment.  Here are a few examples of someone who might want to give a home practice a try.

-Do you push yourself beyond limitations to “show off” or just because you are inspired by the group setting? To be honest, I’m a sucker for this is in any other setting, but for some reason I do alright in a yoga class.  Maybe it’s because yoga for me is to heal my body from the beat-downs I give it elsewhere, but I don’t feel the need to push or compete in yoga.  In CrossFit on the other hand, I need to learn how to listen to my body better, and not worry about how much weight is on the other girl’s bar.  If you can’t help but glance at the person on the mat next to you and if she’s standing on her head, you bet your butt you’re going to give it a try. . .a home practice might be a safer environment, because you won’t feel that need to go above and beyond and potentially hurt yourself.

-Are you a dude? Sometimes, guys don’t feel comfortable in a class setting because they might be the only guy, or they are worried about how much they are sweating, or the teacher might be super cute and they don’t want them touching their sweaty, smelly feet.  If THAT is what is holding you back from taking a yoga class, PLEASE try some home practices, because you shouldn’t feel intimidated by yoga just because of the people around you.  However, once you feel comfortable, please come take a yoga class at a studio.  Guys doing yoga makes me so happy, and as an instructor, I promise you that no one cares how sweaty you are, or will think any less of you because you can’t touch your toes.

-Is there something you hate about typical yoga studios, such as the music, incense, chanting, being touched/adjusted, hearing other people’s loud breathing, etc.?  Maybe incense give you a headache, or the music distracts you, or maybe you’ve had a bad experience where you passed gas in class, or fell onto your neighbor trying to do a headstand.  At home, you can be as flatulent as you want, and topple over without fear of injuring anyone around you.  You can also chose your own tunes, light your own candles, Om or not Om.  You can make up your own practice, watch your favorite DVD, or maybe stream an online class where you can pick from a 15-minute slow flow to a 90-minute challenging sequence.  Maybe you just want to meditate, or lay down with your legs up the wall for 20 minutes?  With a home practice, you have more freedom. 

Now, at different times of my life, a home practice has been wonderful.  When I can’t afford to go to a studio, or my schedule doesn’t allow me the time, or maybe I’m just not feeling like being around other people but still want to do yoga.  I love that the option is always there to practice at home if I chose to.

So what do you prefer?  What have been your experiences with home practice vs. studio classes (or even classes at the gym, which have a totally different list of pros and cons!)?  If you are new to yoga or have never tried, which do you think you would feel more comfortable doing?

Whether you are getting on your mat in your living room or at your favorite studio. . . . keep it up!  Namaste 🙂