Yoga at Home with Laura, Self-taught Yogi!

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Musing on Yoga Mats - $870 Gucci Mat for Real?

In the above photo I am doing the tailor pose on my "non-Gucci" yoga mat.  Actually, it's a Gaiam mat I bought several years ago for around $30 - no more than that.  And, it has served me well.  I like the hint of Asian decor it gives my yoga practice.  In my yoga book, Yoga at Home:  Gain Energy, Flexibility, & Serenity in 20-30 Minutes a Day, I discuss the various items you need to equip your home yoga "studio." The mat of course is a central piece.  However, it doesn't mean you need to spend $870 on one!

That, fellow yogi, is the price of a Gucci designer yoga mat!  This afternoon I was on a public speaking skills webinar for work.  The main presenter introduced her theme, "authenticity", by pointing out how commercial yoga has become which belies its very essence and purpose.  One unbelievable (at least for me) example she gave was the recent entry of expensive designer yoga mats by Gucci and Marc Jacobs into the yoga marketplace.

Stunned, I did a quick Google search and quickly found information about the Gucci yoga mat that retails for $870.  Except for celebrities and the super wealthy, who  can possibly plunk down such a chunk of change (can you really call that sum, change?) for such an elite mat?  Worse still, however, is the marketing approach that Gucci takes to sell its $870 mat.

Here is the marketing language verbatim, 

"This ultra-cool mat consists of a big candy bar in the middle and some Hershey kiss looking things around it.  It is very cute and masculine at he same time.  It can be used either by a male or female.  The next time you are going to yoga class, think about purchasing a wonderful mat from G, and make all those around you crave for a candy bar while being completely jealous of your fashion style."

I believe that t is important to invest in a good quality yoga mat to enhance and make the most of your practice, that's certain. However, to promote a designer yoga mat because it will make others jealous of your fashion style is laughable and contradicts the entire purpose of a true yoga practice!

Yoga is not mean to "impress" others but rather to "express" oneness of mind, body, and spirit. This whole concept of a $870 designer yoga mat to make others jealous reflects how commercial and too trendy yoga has gotten in some circles! How sad!  Of course, in your home yoga studio, as long as your mat cushions your body, is visually appealing to you, and lasts several years, that's all that counts!

Yours for buying non-designer reasonably priced yoga mats, 

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

Additional tip on doing yoga poses with your eyes closed. This may be obvious, however, since this blog is aimed primarily at yoga newbies, I must emphasize that if you are learning new poses - do them with your eyes open! Make sure your form is correct and then your breathing is in sync with your movements.

Once you have the poses instilled into your subconscious memory and have fine tuned their execution to your satisfaction, then feel free to do them with your eyes closed. Enjoy the enhanced energy and focus!

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Quick Tip-Practice with Your Eyes "Wide Shut"

One tip I share in my book, Yoga at Home:  Gain Energy, Flexibility, & Serenity is to do the neck movements with your eyes closed because it enhances their relaxation effects. I learned this tip from yoga expert and instructor Eric Schiffman in his book, Moving into Stillness.  And, I have followed his guidance for the past 5 years when doing the neck movements.

This morning, the idea to do All my yoga poses with my eyes "wide shut" (as the title of a Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman movie went) came to me and so I followed it.  Here are the benefits I noticed while doing "closed-eye" yoga.

1) It is easier to relax and to focus on what you are doing when you eliminate visual stimuli;

2) It's easier for you to notice and FEEL the stretching and strengthening of your muscles and ligaments that yoga brings;

3) Overall, you may feel more engaged and closing your eyes during yoga is another way of keeping your practice fresh.

I could not do ALL my poses with my eyes closed.  Poses requiring extra balance such as the arm and leg stretch became that much more challenging.  So, I kept my eyes open for those.  When my practice ended, I felt even more relaxed and energized than usual.

Yours for following your intuition to keep your yoga practice fresh,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Constant Practice is the "Secret" of Yoga Success



"Constant practice alone is the secret of success." ~Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Sadly, I hear far too many of my peers (by age) and many younger people lament the various maladies (stiffness, pain, reduced mobility) plaguing their bodies because they're getting "older."  While it SEEMS that the passage of years brings on these unwelcome changes, I agree with spiritual writer, Ernest Holmes, who said, "We are just as old as we think we are, no matter what the number of years may have been that we have lived on this planet."  And, we can at least slow down the negative aspects of aging by practicing yoga.  That's why I say the first letter in the word "yoga" stands for "youthing."

As popular as yoga has become, at the last official count 16 million Americans reportedly practiced yoga, it's not clear to me how many people are reaping the full benefits. I'd love to know what share of those 16 million Americans practice it daily or at least 5-6 times a week.  I personally know few people who look and FEEL their personal best because they practice yoga consistently. 

In my experience, the more constant (consistent) you are in your yoga practice, the more of yoga's "youthing" rewards you will reap and the more success and enjoyment you will gain. I know individuals who report the increased flexibility they gain from the once or twice a week yoga classes they take. And, granted, yoga done once or twice a week is better than yoga done zero times a week. But, I don't think it's enough!  Even if you are practicing 90 minutes a session! I am may be supremely biased, but I just know that long-term rewards come from constant or daily practice.

We've all heard about the weekend "warrior" syndrome - people who live a sedentary lifestyle all week and then go gung-ho playing 4-5 tennis or racquet ball matches or taking in several 90 minute power yoga classes.  What happens?  Their bodies, unaccustomed to the sudden intensity of their weekend only exercise, rebel. These individuals often have to rush to the emergency room or experience other mishaps. 

In contrast, when you practice yoga daily, the chances for injuries naturally plummet.. because your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones have grown accustomed to doing yoga. Your body memorizes the poses and their movements and suppleness is instilled into your very being.  I agree with the quotation at the beginning of this post.  "Constant practice alone is the secret of success.  And, as a result, you may well find yourself enjoying "youthing" rather than aging as the years roll by.

Yours for "youthing" with daily yoga practice.

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Stay lighthearted in your practice!

 

I love the following quotation, "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."

The author is unknown, but he or she truly captured one of the principal benefits you can gain from a yoga practice - the flexibility you gain on the mat should spillover onto your life off the mat. You should be able to roll with the punches and stresses of daily life more easily. I have no doubt in my mind that without my daily yoga practice, I would have totally lost my cool this morning when my almost 15-year old son was acting quite out of hand (major understatement)!

However, that said, there are no guarantees that you won't get bent out of shape when "life happens" if you take your yoga practice too seriously! At least one reader of this blog has shared with me several stories about drill sergeant-type yoga instructors who push their students to do more and chastise them if they prove incapable of contorting themselves just so into a yoga pose.  And, several years ago I shared the story of a work colleague who once had a yoga instructor who not so tactfully encouraged her to quit the class because she just didn't quite measure up to that instructors' standards.

My point here is not to bash yoga instructors!   Not at all.  What I do want to impress upon you is to keep a light-hearted approach every time you practice.  Yes, you can have goals and intentions to master poses if you like.  Just don't berate yourself if you can't bend as far back as you'd like or hold a new pose more than 5 seconds.  Especially at home, no one is watching you so there's no need to get stressed about your limitations.  Crank up the music that suits your mood, cup your hands over your heart, make an intention to relax and give your practice your all, and just enjoy  whatever unfolds.  Smile and keep it light! 

Yours for keeping a light-hearted yoga practice,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

 

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Accept Where You are When You Begin Yoga

Almost two weeks ago,I pulled a back muscle or otherwise threw something in my lower back (sacrum area( out of whack.  I had walked barefoot for too many hours on concrete in a waterpark where I also managed to fall on my butt as I tried to get up after sliding down a scarily steep slide.  The result was that after those events and a 9- hour drive home on Interstate 95 from South Carolina back to Maryland, my lower back began to rebel.

When I was 25, I couldn't move my neck from side to side for 3 days after spending a full 8-hour day at the keyboard (actually - I think it was an electric typewriter back then!) without getting up to stretch. Well, this time my lower back became immobile and super stiff.  I had to cut my yoga routine in about half because I could barely get into the plough or the shoulder stand. I could not even sit in the half-lotus or child pose because moving into those poses led to shoot pains. 

What this episode taught me were the immense challenges yoga neophytes must face if they have done little if any exercise in years.  I appreciated how uncomfortable it must feel to be so taut and tight! it also impressed upon me once more of the importance of taking baby steps and going only as far in a pose as you find reasonably comfortable. 

In the photos above, I demonstrate a couple of the key steps of the backward bend.  If you are a yoga newbie, you might not be able to move beyond what is shown in the first photograph. You may  not even be able to do that!  It could take you days, weeks, or even months to achieve the final part of the pose as shown in the second photo. I am here to remind the beginner-just accept where you are when you begin your yoga practice!  You may not like how little you can do but take heart and know that it doesn't matter where you start, it's where you intend to go with your practice that counts the most!  With consistent practice you will go far.

Yours for accepting where you are right now with your yoga practice,

 

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez