Yoga at Home for Absolute Beginners!

Yoga at Home: More on the Value of Smiling During Yoga

In 2010, I wrote a post about the value and potential benefits gained by actually smiling as you practice yoga at home.  Yeah, yeah, "how hokey," you may say.  But, when I remember to smile during my practice, I just FEEL even more energy, more opening up of my body, more flexibility, and more overall feeling great!

And, to support my point, the other day I re-read an essay from one of my favorite spiritual books, Make Your Life Worthwhile, by Emmet Fox.  In "A Smile is an Investment," Fox asserts the following, "Another simple thing which is of great moment is a smile.  A smile costs nothing in money, time or efort, but it is literally true that it can be of supreme importance in one's life."  

And here is how it relates to your yoga practice. Fox goes on to say, "A smile affects your whole body from the skin right in to the skeleton, including all blood vessels, nerves, and muscles.  It affects the functioning of every organ.  It influences every gland.  I repeat-and this is literally true, you cannot smile without affecting your whole body favorably.  Even one smile often relaxes quite a number of muscles..."

Talk about amping up the power of your yoga practice with a smile!  It's easy, free, and seemingly super powerful!

Tomorrow, start smiling as much as possible during your yoga practice starting tomorrow and tell me what you notice!  I want to know!  Keep it up for7 days and let me know how you feel then.  I bet you will be surprised...!

Yours for smiling during your home yoga practice and at least doubling the benefits you normally gain.

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' At Home Yoga Coach

 

Yoga at Home: Yoga is Everywhere You Are? Yes and No...

I AM all about making yoga an integral part of your lifestyle.  And, that means that yoga can "travel."  In previous posts I have talked about doing yoga in cruise ships, hotel rooms, in the office at your desk (or in the ladies room), and maybe even on an airplane as actress Uma Thurman did once.  

I believe there are many places and occasions when you can take a moment and slip in a pose. However, that doesn't mean you can do any yoga pose, anywhere!

It is especially important that beginners take extra care when learning yoga since their bodies are adapting to moving and stretching in new ways.  And, one of the most important pieces of "equipment" a new yogi needs is a good yoga mat, especially for inversion poses or any pose in which you are stretching and moving your body on the ground.  You want to protect and cushion your body as much as possible!

That's why it irks me SO MUCH when I see ads such as one that appears in the February 2013 issue of the Yoga Journal which has been around almost as many years as I have been practicing.  In this ad, the headline reads, "The Street Is My Yoga Mat" and shows a woman executing a version of the pigeon pose on what appears to be a brick-laden sidewalk or surface.  In smaller print is another message that reads, "Yoga is wherever you are.  Where do you take yours?"

Sheesh!  How uncomfortable do you want to be?  Granted, the yogi model doing the pose  is likely suffering no ill effects.  But, in my opinion, the photo sends the wrong message.  Yes, you can do yoga in many places,  but on top of hard bricks?  Are you kidding me?

Sometimes the Yoga Journal sends messages that lack common sense such as when it shows yogis wearing multiple jangly necklaces while in a pose.

So when you learn yoga, use common sense.  Don't follow misguided messages that you may find in yoga magazines created by the so-called "experts!"

Yours for taking yoga wherever you are - as long as you are cautious and wise!

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginner's Yoga at Home Coach

Yoga at Home: An Economical, Fun Way to Learn from a Book

The other day I received an email from a neighbor, Alexia, whom I have not yet met in person, but have communicated with over the past few months about rescue dogs and yoga through my neighborhood listserve. Interested in learning more about yoga, a few months ago, she bought a copy of my book (as shown above) from Amazon.com. She told me that she had read other books and even attended a local yoga class without much success.  But, she decided to give my book a try.

Busy woman that she is, Alexia was not able to finish reading my book until last week.  I was pleased when she emailed me, "Laura-----I finally found some time and finished "Yoga at Home" last night.  I can't say enough good about it...I was especially impressed with your clear, concise, straightforward style of writing.  This is the first yoga book ever I've thought I could really learn yoga from.  I felt you were speaking directly to me."

She then shared her plan for learning yoga from my book.  She and a friend will start by reading instructions to each other.  One will read and the other will do the stretches and then each will switch off.

What a clever and economical way for two people to learn together in the convenience of their own home! And, each of them will still be able to move at their own pace - whatever is most comfortable for their body type and level of fitness when they begin.

If a yoga book gives you precise and detailed instructions and you use baby steps to learn and listen to your body, you CAN learn yoga effectively and economically at home with a partner!

Yours for learning yoga at home,

Laura Venecia, the Yoga at Home Beginner's Coach

 

 

Yoga at Home: A Tip to Enhance Your Yoga Practice

During the past six or more years, I have enhanced my yoga practice by guiding my body with focus, verbal guidance, and imagery.

After reading numerous yoga books in recent years, watching DVDs or videos on youtube, and on occasion (a rare occasion) attending an actual yoga class, I developed this simple technique which has improved my practice.  Consider trying it to more easily master a yoga pose - or at least execute a pose to the best of your ability.

You may consider my advice to be a bit "woo woo."  However,  I can almost guarantee that at the least, you will enjoy your practice more.  Your may also find that you master new poses more easily and quickly (not that you are in any hurry...!)  The  suggested steps are simple and are as follows:

1.  When you begin or learn a new pose, review/refresh your memory of the key body parts targeted by the pose and see those body parts in your mind.

For example, if you are learning and are doing the cobra, remind yourself that the cobra targets the upper back, neck, shoulders, upper arms, spine, and buttocks and do a body scan of those body parts right before you begin the pose.

2.  As you start the pose, tell your body (silently or aloud) to "stretch," "extend," "open," "expand," and "relax" as you execute the various segments of the pose.  Your purpose is to verbally direct your body to execute the poses.  By giving yourself verbal guidance, you will likely find (as I have) that you will do a pose more easily and effectively than you would otherwise.

3.  Create a vivid image in your mind that represents your muscles, ligaments, nerves, tendons, and cells as opening, stretching, expandiing, and/or compressing easiliy.  

For example, when I am focusing on opening certain parts of my body, I often visualize myself as a flower that opens and expands its buds in the morning when the sun shines brightly.

As Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) once said that the "way to success" [with yoga] is to take up a particular idea and let "the brain, muscles, nerves, and every part of the body to be full of that idea." Put this into practice with the steps I have outlined above.

Yours for guiding your body to success with yoga,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginner's At Home Yoga Coach

 

Yoga at Home: Feel Revitalized and Uplifted, not Drained, with Gentle Yoga!

Here is a yoga side bend - never strain!  Move in and out of a yoga pose slowly and with feeling to unleash your energy and to uplift your spirit.

In recent years, the practice of yoga has exploded in the United States with an estimated 20 million Americans now practicing yoga as I shared in a recent blog post.

Yes, in urban areas such as metropolitan Washington DC where I live, you can find yoga studios and classes on practically every street corner. And, articles about yoga's benefits and who practices yoga appear weekly in the mainstream press.  As such, you would think that we would be seeing numerous people walking around feeling energized, flexible, and serene.

Yet, I have observed that people in my social circles who attend yoga classes do not seem to be gaining the maximum benefits from their yoga practice.  And, it's not uncommon to hear about yoga injuries. Why?  In my not always humble opinion, I believe that more people have adopted the intense forms of yoga such as Power Yoga, Hot Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, rather than the gentle form of Hatha Yoga that I recommend and practice myself.  

Many people who practice rigorous forms of yoga often push  themselves hard to feel they are getting a "workout." They practice yoga practice more like a form of old school calisthenics consisting of rapid repetitions which tend to leave a person drained rather than energized and refreshed and, also more prone to injury.

Basic to basics, I say!  In his classic yoga book, Yoga:  28 Day Exercise Plan which was first published in the late 1960s, the late yoga author Richard Hittleman touts the myriad benefits of a gentle and slow yoga practice.  

He explains that yoga is a "highly plesasurable experience" and that its "movements are performed in relaxing, slow motion with very few repetitions, no strain should ever be felt...Throughout the Yoga practice session we attempt to fix the consciousness fully on all movements of the exercises and not allow it to wander.  We become totally involved in what we are doing.  You must feel what is happening in your organism, especially during the holidng periods; learn to feel the stretching; become the stretch and do not run away from it; feel the stimulation; feel the release of energy within you, feel the relaxation..."

When you practice gentle, slow hatha yoga in the way Hittleman suggests, you will notice feeling revitalized and uplifted with at the end of your session.  As I have said repeatedly in past blog posts, I truly believe that "slo focused mo' is the way to yoga!  Hittleman's yoga philosophy is classic and beneficial to all would-be yogis.  You can read Amazon reviews written several months ago that share the benefits of greater energy experienced by people who practice yoga the slow yet powerful Hittleman way.

Yours for feeling refreshed and revitalized with a slow, gentle yet powerful yoga practice.

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginner's At Home Yoga Coach

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Yoga at Home: Home Yoga Practice Benefits- Global Talk Radio Interview

 

Today I provide a refresher on the benefits of a home yoga practice via a recent interivew on Global Talk Radio.

Here is the link:

 

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Yours for enjoying all the benefits of a home yoga practice,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginner's Home Yoga Coach