At Home Yoga with Laura

Hatha Yoga for Beginners: The Value of Taking it Slow...

Except for one Vinyasa yoga class a few years ago at my office, my yoga practice has been limited to hatha yoga.  I enjoy the slow movements and static poses of hatha yoga. Some athletes might find them boring, and unchallenging.  I rarely break a sweat doing hatha yoga.  And, that is fine!  My hatha yoga practice complements my aerobics routine on my mini-rebounder.

Even though I speed along throughout my day on my trek to and from the metro station from house or buzzing along the hallways of my office, I love setting aside a time during the day to relax and go into slo' mo' by doing a hatha yoga practice. But, this is no ordinary "slo mo.'  The slow motion behind hatha yoga is strategic because it's a scientific system designed to stretch and massage the muscles, tissues, nerves, glands, and organs of your body.  By so doing, you become aware of the unity of your mind, body, and spirit and you awaken yourself to the wonders and beauty of life.  You are no longer sleep walking your life away.

One of my first yoga books, Yoga for Beauty and Health, hammers in the importance of doing yoga poses as slowly as you can, in dreamlike fashion (assuming your dreams are in slow motion).  I believe you should take in slow in yoga for the following reasons: 

1)  Moving in slow motion as you enter and exit hatha yoga allows you to fully focus on your movements and how your body feels.  Try it right now.  Lift a hand above your head first in normal or fast speed and then repeat but this time move it ever so slowly above your head.  Didn't you pay more attention when you moved your hand slowly?  

2)  When you intensify your focus more during slow hatha yoga movements, you will more likely deepen and elongate your stretches, thereby stepping up your progress and mastery of the poses.  Slow movements when you exit the poses give you essential recovery time, and enhances the benefits of the poses.

3)  You will be better able to synchronize your breathing with your movements.  It's harder to breathe in deliberately and deeply when you move fast, right?  So, when you do your hatha yoga practice, s - l - o - w     d- o - w - n!

Thought the for Day:  "In hatha yoga, slo' mo' is the way to go ."~Laura Venecia Rodriguez

Beginners Yoga: The "G" in Yoga is the Secret to Motivating Yourself!

Motivating yourself to practice yoga daily can be very easy.  Notice I said CAN.  The secret is simple.  You only need to apply it.  Consider the word "yoga" - it has a G in it.  Well, guess what the G stands for?  It can stand for many things but if you want to motivate yourself to practice yoga daily, that G represents "Gift".  Yoga practice is a "gift "that you bestow on yourself, isn't it? 

You "gain" (hey, there's another G!) much from the gift of yoga- more serenity, flexibility, energy, and an overall increase in vitality from your inside out.  It's as simple as that.  A daily gift of yoga expands your life and makes you feel fresher and awake. So, if you can't seem to motivate yourself to practice daily - remember your practice is a valuable gift that keeps on giving - by renewing your mind, body, and spirit.  Surely, you would not want to deny yourself that!

Thought for the Day:  "Your daily yoga practice is one of the most precious gifts to yourself.~Laura Venecia Rodriguez

Yoga for Beginners: Have Insomnia? My experiment...

Insomnia has been an intermittent problem for me all of my life. Consistent quality sleep has often eluded me. The only time I didn't suffer periodically from insomnia was after my daughter and son were born. During the following 15  years or so, I fell asleep as soon as my head lay down on my pillow. Bi-hourly feedings in the middle of the night, chasing after young children, and working full-time are real insomnia busters!

However, about two years ago, my once a week bout of insomnia returned. I don't have it that bad, considering that 10 to 15 percent of the U.S. population suffers from chronic insomnia, which is defined as sleeplessness that exceeds one month.  The reasons for insomnia abound from ingesting too much caffeine to exercising too soon before sleep or going to bed with worries about conflict at the office, a troubled relationship, or especially common these days, fear about finances.

Can yoga help relieve insomnia?  Yes, I believe it can.  Definitely, yoga techniques like the neck rolls and alternate nostril breathing help relax your body and mind and are excellent ways to prepare for sleep.  Yet, sometimes, even after doing these, my body has felt "wired" once I slipped under the covers to sleep and I was not able to sleep for hours even though I was not worried about anything - at least not consciously. Just the other day the cause of my insomnia was revealed to me.

I have always had the attitude that I have to make myself go to sleep - it was an obligation, rather than a joy. I have always resented sleeping even if I craved it, because I want to be able to cram in more activities into my day.  And, I essentially keep busy until the moment before I turn out the light.  This is not a peaceful approach to sleep.  So, here's my experiment for the next month.  One hour before I plan to get into bed, I will adopt a yogic approach to bedtime.  I will gently and quietly ease into setting the mood for surrendering to sleep at the time when I usually feel quite tired by drinking some chamomile tea, doing some neck rolls and alternate nostril breathing, and most importantly, of looking forward to sleep as a time of renewal and refreshment.  As spiritual writer, Neville ,once advised, "make love with sleep."  It sounds alluring and worth a try....!

Thought for the day:  "The conscious two-thirds of our life on earth is measured by the degree of attention we give sleep. Our understanding of and delight in what sleep has to bestow will
cause us, night after night, to set out for it as though we were keeping an appointment with a lover."~Neville

Hatha Yoga for Beginners: How to do the Lion

 

Lion

Type of yoga pose:  Funny-looking facial technique that can be done seated or standing.

Body parts targeted:  Face and throat

How to do the pose:

1. Sit in a comfortable position on your mat or in a chair with your spine erect.

2. Arch your back slightly forward and stretch your arms out stiffly at the elbows.  Spread your fingers far apart.

3. Inhale deeply and then exhale strongly forcing all stale air from your lungs.

4. Open your mouth as wide as you can and simultaneously open your eyes as wide as possible.

5. Extend your tongue out of your mouth as far as it will go as if you were trying to touch your chin with it.

6. Hold this position motionless for 10 seconds.

7. Slowly draw your tongue back into your mouth, close your mouth, and relax completely.  Allow your hands to relax on your thighs.  Inhale and exhale deeply.

8. Repeat the exercise.

Practice Time:  Start by holding the pose for 10 seconds, add five seconds a week until you’ve built up to 30 seconds.

Number of repetitions:  3 in a practice session.  Can also be done any time of the day to wake up your face!  This facial technique can also be combined with other yoga poses like the backward hand clasp.

 

Key benefits from this pose: 

1. Increases energy and vitality in the face and throat – perks up the face.

2. Stretches away tension lines in the face and neck.

3. Helps prevent or minimize wrinkling.

4. Helps to firm sagging face and neck muscles.

5. Increases circulation and stimulates nerves in the face and neck.

6. Stimulates and massages the larynx.

7. Can stop or alleviate sore throats.

8. Helps to remove a double chin.

Special tips and Laura’s experience with this pose:

Exhale deeply when you stick out your tongue.  Some yoga teachers suggest roaring as you exhale and stick out your tongue to enhance the pose.  Be certain to keep your eyes wide open during this pose.

I have not had sore throats for several years (only 1 or 2 I think since I became a vegetarian back in 2002); but I have been able to nip sore throats in the bud and alleviate the discomfort by doing this funny looking facial exercise.

In recent years I have also received compliments about my complexion - something that did not happen in my earlier days.  This might be a result of the Lion - I can't say for sure.  I do agree that it increases the circulation in your face and neck - you can feel the blood flowing after doing this exercise. 

Yoga Thought  "Doing the Lion each day may help keep the wrinkles at bay." Laura V. Rodriguez

Beginners Hatha Yoga: Stretch Baby Stretch! Sometimes It's Hard!

Stretching your body to enhance your overall flexibility is one of the key benefits of a daily yoga practice.  Our sedentary lifestyles often lead to tightness in our bodies which yoga alleviates. The yoga pose above, the plough, is one of my daily morning staples.  It enhances the flexibility of your neck and spine and you sure can also feel the stretch in your hamstrings!  This pose can be challenging for the beginner and for me who has been doing it for years.  Since I practice in the morning when I am stiffer after hours of sleep, I can't always touch the floor with my feet.  But, I usually get pretty close.

Last week I enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing beach vacation with my children in Cozumel, Mexico.  One of the few drawbacks of the vacation was the hard mattresses we had to sleep on.  I didn't notice the too firm mattress when I fell asleep but boy did the effect become apparent the following morning!  I rolled out my lavender travel yoga mat and began my usual regime.  Wow!  I almost felt as if I never had done yoga in my life!  I felt so tight and  when I did the plough I could only begin to enter the pose as in the photo below.

This was as far as I could get!  Just as if I had gone way back to when I started yoga.  Nonetheless, I persisted with the practice all week even though my ham strings were rebelling a bit  I never pushed or strained - never do that.  Your body benefits even if you can't stretch more than a smidgen.  This experience enabled me to remember and realize that beginners can feel challenged and might get discouraged.  Don't - just persist!  When I returned home and slept in my own comfy bed, my flexibility returned.  At times, you may seem to relapse.  No worries -you'll get back on track in a short time as long as you are consistent!

Thought for the day:  ~Stretch baby stretch daily with gentle hatha yoga!  Sometimes it can be challenging, but it is always beneficial.  Laura Venecia Rodriguez

Beginners Hatha Yoga: Facial Yoga?

 

The woman above is doing the "Lion" pose, a yoga facial exercise designed to eliminate tension from the face and neck.  I have been doing this pose for years.  Does it mean I still look twenty-five.....ah no.  I can't claim that it has created the fountain of youth for my face and it does look kind of hokey.  It can also scare people!  One morning, years ago, my then husband came upon me doing this pose and jumped back totally startled! Nevertheless, I believe this facial pose does tone the face and neck, and it also helps to relieve sore throats.

During the past few years I have learned about a new group of yoga teachers who offer classes in yoga "facial toning."  In her book, Yoga Facial Toning, yoga instructor, Rose Hong Tran, states that her program helps return "weakened facial and neck muscles to a healthy, energized, well-toned condition" and that the various yoga facial poses she teaches helps to increase blood circulation in the face, neck, scalp and hair.

In recent years I have received compliments about my complexion - something that did not happen in my earlier days.  This might be a result of the Lion - I can't say for sure.  I do agree that it increases the circulation in your face and neck - you can feel the blood flowing after doing this exercise.  Rose Tran offers many other yoga facial exercises designed to "stimulate the 57 muscles in the face and neck."  I just haven't figured out how to incorporate them into my daily schedule. I combine doing the Lion with other exercises like the backward hand clasp.   For now, doing the Lion daily seems sufficient. In the next post, I will give you instructions on exactly how to do the Lion from my upcoming book.

Quotation for the Day: ~"Yoga facial toning promotes the production of healthier, more resilient cells and facial muscles in the gentle way Mother Nature intended, from the inside out." Rose Hong Tran, Yoga Facial Toning, p. 9.

Hatha Yoga for Beginners: How to Do the Cobra

As I said in my previous post, the cobra pose is excellent for relieving tension from the back.  Here is an excerpt from my book on how to do the cobra!

The Cobra  (Sanskrit name –Bhujangasana (boo-jang-GAHS-anna, bhujanga = serpent)

Type of yoga pose:  Backbending prone pose

Body parts targeted:  Upper back, neck, shoulders, upper arms, spine, buttocks,

How to do the pose:

1.    Lie on your stomach with your chin down on your mat with your hands at your sides, palms up, and your head resting on one cheek. Allow your body to relax totally.

2.    Gently and slowly turn your head so it rests on your forehead.

3.    Slowly raise your eyes to the top of their sockets.  Inhale as you slowly raise your head and back.

4.    When you can raise your head no further, continue raising your truck up off the mat with the top of your chest leaving the floor first until you can lift your trunk no further using your back muscles alone.  Bring your arms slowly forward and place your hands, with your fingers pointing toward each other about six inches apart, under your chin.

5.    Aided only slightly by your arms, continue to lift your trunk (breathing in and out as seems natural to you), bending your spine upward and back like a snake, vertebra by vertebra, until you can go no further comfortably.

6.    When you have reached your farthest point of flexibility (keeping the lower half of you body on mat from navel downward), hold the pose motionless for 5-10 seconds (whatever length of time is comfortable for you).  Keep inhaling and exhaling smoothly and evenly.

7.    Begin coming down out of the Cobra by bending your arms slowly at the elbows and allowing your trunk to descend one inch at a time.  In succession, your abdomen, middle chest, and finally, upper chest will return to the mat.  Your head remains up until your entire chest has returned comfortably to the mat.

8.    When you can support your upper body without your arms, bring your arms back to their original position at your sides.

9.    Lower your head and then your eyes until your forehead is once again face down on the mat.

10.                  Turn your face onto your cheek and become totally limp.  Breath easily and rest a few months before repeating the pose or going onto the next pose.

Practice time:  Start with 5-10 seconds and increase by a few seconds each week until you can comfortably hold the pose for 25-45 seconds depending on your time constraints.

Number of repetitions:  1-2 

Key benefits from this pose: 

1.    Removes tension from your back, spine, and shoulders.

2.    Stretches and adjusts every vertebra of the spine from the neck to the base of the spine and restores youthful flexibility.

3.    Strengthens and increases flexibility in the upper back and shoulders.

4.    Develops the muscles of the chest and bust.

5.    Firms and streamlines buttocks.

6.    Revitalizes and awakens entire body.

7.    Enhances libido by massaging the sex, thymus, and thyroid glands.

Special hints and Laura’s experience with this pose:

This is not a pushup and therefore your groin does not leave the ground.

Be certain to do this pose gently and in slow motion.  Very slow raise your head and trunk off the floor by taking at least 10-15 seconds to get into the pose and to exit the pose.  Keep your heels together while in this pose to maximize its effectiveness.  Go up only as far as is comfortable.  Be patient as it may take you some time to master the full pose.  But, no worries, you will still benefit.

I find this stretch to be very invigorating.  Initially, it can be a bit challenging.  You may notice your heart pounding a bit after coming down out of the position as in the bow pose.  The cobra-bow-locust poses are an effective sequence, done in that order.  I have found that I can also do the Lion pose (facial stretch) while doing the cobra.  Because this pose is especially important for the spine, back, and glands, I do it daily.

 

 

Yoga Relief for Beginners: No More Aching Back!

I rarely, and I mean rarely suffer from backaches.  I try to stay attentive to my posture and not slump while sitting.  But, the other day, I guess I allowed myself to slouch in my chair at work for several hours while completing a tedious task at my computer. Later in the day, my lower back started to ache and I felt so stiff!  It reminded me of a time when I had finished grad school and was doing typing temp work to support myself while I looked for a job in my field.  I spent an entire day without moving in front of the typewriter (remember those things?) and boy did I become stiff.  I could barely turn my head for three days!  It was one of the periods in my life when I wasn't practicing yoga consistently.  I remember soaking in a tub filled with hot water for relief.

This time my pain and stiffness were not nearly as severe, yet, I was suffering.  I felt I couldn't move as easily and I had shooting pains from my right foot all the way up to my thigh.  I went to bed that night feeling uncomfortable.  The next morning I woke up and when I began my yoga practice, I put extra attention on doing three poses - the cobra which you see above, the bow (pictured in a previous post), and the backward bend.

I made sure that I moved gingerly yet strategically and attentively - extra attentively!  Boy, did those poses do the trick!  I could feel my lower back decompress and open and release the kinks, Relief!  The aches were virtually all gone. I felt SO much better after doing those poses.  The cobra is known for helping to remove tension from the bank and spine and it definitely worked its wonders for me. The bow also helps relieve tension from the back and adjusts the sacroiliac and lumbar vertebrae.  The backward bend provides a therapeutic backward stretching of the spine.  Doing all three in eliminated the heaviness and aches from my lower back so I felt like new.  Yoga works!

Laura's thought for the day:  "The back is an area of the body where tension tends to accumulate. Gentle hatha yoga is the perfect antidote for that tension.  It gently releases tightness and stiffness from the back."

Hatha Yoga for Beginners: Conscious Stretching

  The latest issue of Yoga Journal (August 2009) has an article, "A Mindful Stretch" by certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, Roger Cole, which explains that the essence of Yoga is not about stretching, per se, but rather about consciousness and seeking "to cultivate an expansive, quiet state of mind."  Cole discusses in depth the concept of the "stretch reflex" which regulates the length of your muscles and explains how understanding the physiology of this stretch reflex can enhance your yoga practice.

Cole's article provides a wealth of information about the physiology of stretching, most of which is far more scientific and detailed than I can take the time to fully understand.  However, one concept that immediately resonated with me  was Cole's assertion that "the most effective and fulfilling way to lengthen your muscles is to lead with your mind and let your body follow."

I couldn't agree more!  As I proposed a while back, visualizing your body moving into a pose and seeing yourself achieve the full position before you can actually do so, can accelerate your progress.  I have personally observed that when I do the plough which challenges me quite a bit because my legs don't easily reach back and touch the floor, visualizing my feel touching the ground as I move into the pose, helps me extend my stretch.  This is an example  of the mind leading and the body following.  I cannot explain how this works scientifically as Roger Cole does most thoroughly, I only know that it works.  Try it!

Laura's thought for the day:~"When you practice gentle hatha yoga, gently lead with your mind and your body will follow."

Hatha Yoga for Beginners: Does a Flexible Body=Flexible Outlook?

 A few years ago, one of my astute friends commented that she had always figured that a mutual male acquaintance of ours was "rigid" in his outlook on life and in his interactions with friends and romantic partners because he held his body so rigidly.  I had never noticed that physical aspect of him but I realized that the strain that had emerged in our friendship resulted from his strict, judgmental views on how I handled my finances and a few other areas of my life.  I did not appreciate those views, at all!

If a rigid body reflects rigid thinking does a flexible body reflect flexible thinking?  And, even more important, can creating a more flexible body through gentle hatha yoga lead to a more flexible outlook on life?  In my view, this is definitely a possibility.  Just think about it, as you o- p - e- n  and  s - t - r - e - t - c - h your body and all your muscles and tendons through daily yoga practice, you become more energized and very likely, you feel more expansive and more open-minded and accepting of others.

When your muscles are tight, taut, and constricted from a sedentary lifestyle and lack of use, you are probably going to be more irritable and withdraw more into yourself.  When you don't feel great, are you really flexible in you thinking?  I think not! 

David Simon, Medical Director of the Chopra Center (founded by Deepak Chopra), touches on this very topic in the DVD, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, which I highly recommend.  Simon notes that the benefits of yoga asanas extend beyond the physical to the mental and spiritual.  Heexplains that greater flexibility of the body developed through yoga can lead to greater flexibility and open-mindedness in one's life off the yoga mat.  Yes, I believe  a flexible body can create a more flexible outlook.

Laura's thought for the day:  "Since yoga has the power to unite the body, mind, and spirit, developing a flexible body through yoga can lead to a more flexible (and fun!) outlook on  life and your relationships."