Yoga at Home for Absolute Beginners!

Do Yoga at Home: Your Age is no Barrier to your Practice!

New book!  Available at www.Amazon.com

 

"There's no age at which a person cannot help himself." ~ Ageless Yoga by Rosie Reichmann.

I just love the above statement that appears in Rosie Reichmann's book, Ageless Yoga.  Rosie wrote her yoga book at age 80!  She shows many photos of herself doing a variety of yoga poses.  Her book which I read about 3 years ago inspired me so much.  At age 80, her upbeat attitude about living life to the fullest regardless of how many years have passed reminded me that I have no excuses for not staying active.  And, of course, yoga is one of the practices she was doing (at the time of the book's publication, about a decade ago) to maximize her well-being and enjoyment of life.

Regarding age and the passage of years, it's fun to celebrate birthdays because we're celebrating another year of life we've enjoyed. However, if your focus is on gees, how much time you have left or if you expect certain limiting conditions to pop up because the years are passing by, STOP! Age is  "Nothing But a Number," as the headline of a recent Washington Express article (May 24, 2011) read,in referring to exercise queen, Kathy Smith turning 60 this year.  I am not too many years away from that number either.  BUT, as Kathy Smith believes, there's no reason you have to seem anything like a senior citizen just because of your chronological age.  In all candor, I really do still FEEL 25 (can't say I look 25, alas, but you can't have everything!) which I attribute to my healthy eating, yoga, and aerobic exercise.

Just like Kathy,  I also am fiercely adamant in the view that "number of candles on your birthday cake" need not determine your activity level.  Certainly not!  Among her many execise activities, Kathy Smith does yoga twice weekly. 

Yes folks, regardless of your age, you must remain as active as you can because it makes you feel so darn good!  If you don't stay active, gravity and other forces can take their toll and as Kathy says if you don't start doing something now, you can get ready to do nothing later.  I couldn't agree more.

The yoga poses that I present in my new released book, Yoga at Home:  Gain Energy, Serenity, and Flexibility, in 20-30 Minutes are Day, with your physician or medical advisor's approval, can be started at any age.  The key is listening to your body and taking baby steps.  It doesn't matter how long you take to master a pose.  What is important is that you move and stretch your body daily or almost daily.  As another yoga writer, Ina Marx remarked in her book, You are in Charge:  The IM Method Total Fitness for the Fit and Not so Fit, when starting yoga, a, "regard your body as unused territory that will need patient cultivation."  

Start gentle yoga today to help yourself feel your best and remain active for virtually forever!

Yours for doing yoga regardless of your age,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Intuition-led Practice

Earlier this week I recommended that you create an intuition-led practice to gain more joy and better results from your practice. During the past few days my schedule has been hectic, turned upside down by college graduation activities for my daughter, Francesca, and road trips.  My yoga time was cut in half on a couple of days and yesterday I skipped it altogether as the late nights caught up with me.  It's okay to skip once (and occasionally twice - but not more than that!) of home practice when the vicissitudes of life happen.  If you really need to catch up on sleep - do catch up on it!  

However, this morning, I knew I had to get back on track with my practice. Because my yoga practice is so ingrained, I become uncomfortable if I miss more than one day in a row of my usual 20-30 minutes of yoga.  I remembered my promise to you that I would report my results after completing a heartfelt, intuition-led practice. Here's the scoop. After I did my first easy warm-ups and entered the ankle to forehead stretch, whoa, I could sure feel the tighter than usual thigh muscles!  My work is so sedentary- most of my day is spent at day writing and researching.  It's no wonder that if I miss a day of yoga, my body starts losing flexibility - immediately!

In response to my stiffness, my intuition led me to breathe in more deeply as I entered the poses, and breath out more fully as I completed poses.  I also felt prompted to smile and just feel so grateful that I have a healthy body and that I am free to move and stretch in my own home yoga "studio" or spot.  I also spent  a few extra seconds in certain poses to ease out the stiffness.  I customized my practice to fit my needs of the particular moment.  After my practice ended I felt peaceful, more flexible, and just more attuned.  That's what an intuition-led practice and do for you.

Yours for listening to your intuition as you do yoga,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

 

 

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Use Your Intuition and Practice for the Love of It

I know I know.  I have ranted  ad nauseum about the importance of maintaining a consistent, ideally daily practice to reap the maximum rewards from yoga. Consistency is key.  Especially in the beginning. As I advise in my newly released book, Yoga At Home:  Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serenity in 20-30 Minutes a Day, start with just 5 minutes of yoga a day - but make that every day. Increase your time in baby steps.Try not to miss days when you start out because you need to build your consistency muscle so that yoga becomes ingrained in your essence.  Once you do, you can take a day off each week or as needed if your schedule gets very hectic or disrupted as mine did this weekend when my daughter graduated from college.

Although consistency is key, I must point out that you don't want your practice to become an obligation! I operated from that perspective for many years and I know I didn't enjoy the serenity and joy that comes from practicing yoga with love and not out of mere obligation.  I love yoga instructor Rodney Yee's advice about how to approach your daily practice.  He says, "Start to trust your intuition.  Ask yourself, what do I feel like doing today...Simply practice in the way that fits your body, your personality, and your current emotional state."

Pur your heart into your practice and ask your inner wisdom what you should do and report back!  I will do this tomorrow morning and share my experience.

Yours for practicing with love and the guidance of your intuition,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

Beginners Yoga: Book Review for Yoga at Home Released This Week

As I announced several days ago, I officially released my new book, Yoga at Home, this week in conjunction with DC Yoga Week.  Below is a review by Australian author, Ruth Barringham, that she posted in her writer's blog. I asked her for her honest opinion.  You can see her review at her blog at:http://writeaholics.net/blog/?p=138  or read the text below.

Book Review
Yoga At Home: Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serentity in 20-30 minutes a Day
By Laura Venecia Rodriguez
190+ pagesPublished May 2011
Review date: 10th May 2011

Personal review by Ruth Barringham

"I myself, have always been a great lover of yoga, but because I always feel stiff and clumsy, I've never practiced it consistently. So this new book was of great interest to me. It is primarily aimed at the complete yoga novice yet it also contains valuable advice and new perspectives that would also be of interest to seasoned yogis.

To many people the art of practicing hatha yoga seems unobtainable because they feel they won't understand the Sanskrit terms used in yoga or that the 'pretzel-like' poses will be too overwhelming.
In 'Yoga At Home' Laura Rodriguez, who commically describes herself as a "consummate non-athlete", shares her own simple and personal experiences of yoga poses, language and understanding.
She talks at length about her own personal journey of discovering yoga, the benefits that can be derived from regular practice, yoga equipment, correct breathing, meditation, mindset, motivation, weight loss through yoga and the importance of creating a daily yoga routine.

There are photos throughout the book of the author herself practicing yoga poses "at home" and it's clear to see from how great she looks that she is a positive advertisement for the yoga she is teaching.
Every pose mentioned in the book details not only how to do it, but also the benefits to be obtained. There are also extra details about the personal problems the author herself encountered when she first started to do the poses and how she remedied it, all contained in a "Spectial hints and Laura's Experience With This Pose" section after each exercise.

Being able to read her own personal problems is very reasuring for anyone (like me) who may be struggling, just to know that someone else wasn't perfect first time either.
E.g. After the Arm and Leg Pose, Laura's Experience says "...I have found that keeping my eyes fixed backward on a point on the ceiling can help maintain my balance...it helps to do this pose next to a wall so you can catch yourself and regain your balance if you start to wobble...Some days I can keep my balance perfectly. Other days I wobble back and forth like a first-time trapese artist on a tight-rope!"
What I liked most about this book is the easy-to-read and laid-back style of the author. E.g.One of the chapters is simply called "Yoga is no longer for the hippie-dippie artsy-fartzy crowd." Hilarious! :)
Most yoga books are too intimidating and full of bronzed, heavily-photoshopped models, who make the poses look stylish, classy, yet impossible to do.

'Yoga At Home', on the other hand, shows you how anyone regardless of age, lack of ability or lack of time can do yoga easily, privately and most importantly, without feeling pressured to keep up with the ridiculously beautiful and inhumanly bendy people who are always portrayed in other glossy yoga books.
I've read quite a few yoga books over time but none of them are as down to earth and easy to follow as this one. And, I'd even recommend it to people who don't want to do yoga, just becasue it's an unpretentious and fun-to-read book.

But be warned...
The author doesn't want to let you get away with only reading the book. At the end is a Permanent Life-Long Commitment to sign stating that you'll not only start practicing yoga every day, but you'll do it with "an attitude of joy, enthusiasm and love". And just in case you thought you could get away with doing yoga only "At Home", there are also sections on how to do yoga at the office, in a hotel room and even in a cruise ship cabin. So she really does leave you with no excuse for not practicing yoga.
And if that's not enough there is also a list of further yoga books you can read and yoga DVDs you can watch.  And not only that...You are also invited to have a free 30-minute telephone yoga consult with the author herself.

Phew!"

 

Yours for starting yoga at home now!

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

 

 

Beginners Yoga: DC Yoga Week & Yoga at Home Book is Now Available!!!!!

May 15-21 is official Yoga week in Washington, DC- when yoga studios and teachers in the area offer yoga classes for free or low cost to encourage more people to get out there and do yoga.   And, it's also the week I officially launch my new book, Yoga at Home: Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serenity in 20-30 Minutes a Day!

From conception to birth, this book took me four years to research, write, and edit in my spare time.  A long gestation time but, it's been a labor of love (mostly) and, I admit, frustration at times (computer glitches), and challenges (photo shoots and re-takes, re-takes, re-takes).  I did everything except the art work, cover design, and layout.  So, if you catch a couple of mistakes in the text, I apologize!  I tried to avoid glaring errors.  And, I am sincere when I saw, I poured my love and energy into it.

Anyway, here's why I think you could benefit from reading this book:

Yoga at Home:  Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serenity is an inspirational, motivational beginner's guide to becoming slim, supple, and serene with gentle yoga. Feel 25 even if you're 35, 45, 55 or more and look your personal best by studying the ancient, powerful practice of gentle yoga at home. Learn how to create a customized, self-paced 20-30 minute daily yoga regime. Discover creative ways to stay motivated and to keep your practice fresh and fun.

The book is designed for: 1) people who feel intimidated by the pretzel-like yoga poses splashed in yoga magazines and books; 2) individuals who have tried a class and couldn’t keep up with the instructor’s explanations because they require slower paced or more personalized instruction; 3) consummate non-athletes and klutzes like Laura who feel inadequate and embarrassed in classes filled with athletic yogis on either side of their mat who seem to execute the poses with such ease, 4) busy people who don’t have time to commute back and forth to take an hour-long class at the local yoga studio or gym; and 5) individuals who don't have access to yoga classes close to their home.

Yoga is not just for the super flexible, super models, athletes, actresses, or elite.  It's also for YOU!

You can buy it for $12.95 through Amazon.com or  https://www.createspace.com/3493692.

Yours for learning about yoga and starting it right away!

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

The Self-Taught Yogi Klutz

 

 

 

 

Introductory Yoga at Home: Do You Already Have to Be Flexible to Do Yoga?

The above illustration, from my soon-to-be released (it will happen Sunday, May 15), introductory yoga book shows a pose that I doubt I could ever achieve.  For one, I don't have enough upper body strength to lift my weight that high.  Secondly, I doubt I could ever flex my body backward into such a bend.  Since I rarely attend yoga classes, I personally don't know anyone who has mastered this pose.  This pose would seem to require extraordinary strength and flexibility.  Nevertheless, I can still do yoga - maybe not every pose, but enough to keep me feeling fine.

One assumption that arises frequently about yoga is that you have to be flexible to do yoga...!  To me, that's like assuming you have to be thin to get thin....Silly circular logic.  Of course, people who seem to be inherently flexible will have an easier time executing and mastering the poses.  But, the point is not are you flexible enough to do yoga, it's will you do yoga regularly (let's say almost daily!) to become more flexible?  As Dr. Timothy McCall says in his book, Yoga as Medicine, some people's body structures do not lend themselves to doing certain poses easily.  "...If your limbs are short in proportion to your trunk, for example, you may never be able to clasp your hands behind your head in certain twists, or thread one leg behind the other in Eagle pose."  Nevertheless, regardless of how flexible or inflexible you are when you start a yoga program, consistent yoga practice will enable you to gain greater flexibility.  You may not be as flexible as others around you, but you will benefit enormously, regardless. So, no, you don't have to be flexible to start yoga, but you will gain great flexibility with it when you establish a daily regime.

Yours for enjoying a more flexible life with yoga,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

 

 

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Stress happens... release it with yoga!

  

Aaah...  how I love Edvard Munch's painting, The Scream, shown above!  Why?  Because when I feel stressed, it is SO cathartic for me.  The painting epitomizes the need for and value of a primal scream now and then when the pressure builds.  What me - have pressure?  I do yoga don't I?  Yes, of course I do.  Does this mean I never feel stressed?  Of course not!  Does any mother of a teenage boy escape stress?  I think not. 

The type of gentle, slow, hatha yoga I practice does not prevent stress because it cannot prevent the ups and downs of life.  But, it does allow you to release the stress that comes your way. During the past few days my teenage son has driven me to my wit's end.  No need for details.   If I weren't practicing yoga daily, I might really lose it. Yesterday's interactions with my son were especially difficult and punctuated by vociferous rantings and ravings.  This morning I realized that I had to take a few extra steps during my yoga practice to release the pent-up stress and strain in my mind, body, and spirit that had developed yesterday.

My first step was to create a clear intention to release stress and to relax totally and I dedicated my session to that purpose. I followed this by switching on my two vanilla-scented battery operated candles to  enhance the mood. Next, I turned on the light classical music station to have soothing music in the background. A wonderful, soothing piece, "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" by Debussy came on the music station.  I could not have asked for a more appropriate selection! Lastly, I remembered the time I lolled on the beach in Kauai with my college friend, Marilyn, and visualized myself back on vacation.  Guess what? It worked.  I had a soothing, delightful yoga session and felt so relaxed afterwards.  We can't escape stress, but we can release it with yoga. When you open and stretch your body with strategically created yoga poses, relaxation occurs more easily and stress dissipates.

Yours for releasing stress with yoga, 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez

P.S.  Yes, I am trying to persuade my son to learn some yoga poses and breathing techniques!

Yoga at Home for Beginners: Don't Compare or Compete with Eva Longoria or others!

Today, as part of my entrepreneurial training, I listened to a audio about the "energy of money" created by millionaire entrepreneurs Ali Brown (who starred on the last Secret Millionaire show) and Kendall Summerhawk. One of the key points they impressed upon their listeners is that to leap ahead in their financial success, women MUST stop comparing and competing with each other.  As Ali says, one can benefit from "modeling" others but avoid comparing and competing.  Ali said that her business income skyrocketed the year she stopped comparing and competing with others and focused solely on her business vision.

The same holds true for your yoga practice!  I wanted to post a copy of a January 2005 Life Magazine cover (that magazine no longer exits) which showed Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria, doing the yoga pigeon pose (which I have not yet tried...) in all her glorious beauty. Alas, I didn't want to risk violating copyright laws so you're stuck with my photo above.  But, I do remember watching a Season one episode of Desperate Housewives and being so pleased to see Eva as Gaby Solis going off by herself to do yoga. A true poster woman for doing yoga at home!

Of course, I hope I don't need to remind you that when you do your home yoga practice, don't compare and compete with people like Ms. Longoria.  Apart from us both having an Hispanic heritage and being 5'2 and small-boned, no matter how much yoga I do (and I'd first have to turn the clock back 20 years like Benjamin Button), I am not going to morph into Eva just because I do yoga.  Do I envy her beauty? Yes, I have to admit that a part of me does. However, I do yoga to feel and look my personal best and that's it.  I don't practice it to try to look like Eva or model Tara Stiles who recently published a new yoga book.  And, that's the particular benefit of a home practice.  No one else is around and so you can focus exclusively on yourself.  I love what yoga instructor Rodney Yee says in his book, Moving Toward Balance, .."If you approach your practice with a sense of curiosity, rather than self-judgment or competitiveness, you will not only find it easier to motivate yourself to practice, but you will also be able to be more present during the times when you do practice.

Yours for not competing or comparing yourself with anyone else when you practice yoga,

 

Laura Venecia Rodriguez