If you have decided to begin a yoga practice and plan to do it in the morning - here's one practice that I have found helpful. It's not essential, but experiment to see if it makes a difference in your personal practice. This is it - I take a cozy warm shower before I do my gentle yoga practice and follow it by smoothing Neutrogena sesame body oil all over my body and then spraying just a bit of my favorite perfume.
If you begin your yoga practice within a few minutes after you awaken you may find it more dificult to do the poses, even the warm-ups, because you are naturally a bit stiff after hours of sleep and little movement. A warm shower helps warm you up so you can more easily do your yoga warm-ups!
Because the kind of hatha yoga I do and advocate in this blog is a gentle, slow motion form, you do not work up a sweat. Thus, you won't have to take two showers! Taking a warm shower before yoga practice helps awaken my body-all my muscles, tendons, and joints. Smoothing the sesame body oil over all my body makes my skin feel very silky and spraying a tiny amount of perfume add a touch of sensuality to my practice. These several steps create a multi-sensory esthetic ritual that boosts my enthusiasm and anticipation for my practice.
Although on occasion, I do yoga before my shower, 95 percent of the time or more I take my shower first which also makes me feel clean, fresh, and pure for the practice. Another side benefit I have noticed from taking a shower before yoga is that my hair comes out much better - it seems to more volume to it! So I have fewer bad hair days! Not a bad side benefit!
Yours for taking a warm shower to ease you into your yoga practice,
Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the beginners' yoga at home coach with heart
Comments