Yoga at Home for Absolute Beginners!

Yoga at Home: Marianne Williamson Inspires My Yoga Practice

I am a self-taught yogi.  I have never been to India, have never been certified to teach yoga, nor have I attended more than a handful of yoga classes (literally one hand...).  Some readers of this blog know more about yoga than I.

However, just as my business mentor, Tom Antion, once laughed and said that he did not know everything about the Internet or Internet marketing, but that he knew just enough to make a ton of money, I know just enough about practicing yoga at home to enjoy energy, flexibility, and serenity without injury.  And, I still feel 25 even though I am past 35, 45, and 55!  I think that counts for a lot...

One principal aim for writing this blog is to share what inspires me to maintain my practice day in and day out, week after week, month after month, and decade after decade.  A few months ago I began my 43rd year of yoga practice.  Consistency is key and many people have told me that they find it a challenge to practice regularly.

No doubt numerous people would get bored with the fairly standard set of yoga poses I do daily. However, one secret to my success in keeping a consistent practice is that I constantly seek different ways to stay inspired in my practice.  The other day, the words from a passage from the Law of Divine Compensation by one of my favorite spiritual writers, Marianne Williamson, leaped off the page and virtually shouted that I needed to share with you that this is how I maintain dedication and commitment to my yoga practice. 

Marianne (who I had the pleasure of meeting in person at her December 2012 book talk in Washington, DC) was not talking about yoga in her passage.  Instead, she was discussing how to stay inspired and motivated in your work (i.e., your day job) even if it's not your ultimate calling.

In the chapter, "Positivity," Marianne suggested that if a person gets bored or fears certain facets of their work that they take a different perspective and implement the following four rules for miraculous work creation.  She says, "Be positive.  Send love.  Have fun.  Kick ass."

I love her wise words!  And, here's how to apply them to your yoga practice when you roll out your mat or even more so when you find yourself resisting rolling out your mat.

Be positive:  Remember yoga's myriad benefits to your mind, body, and spirit.  If your motivation lags, keep yoga magazines, books, and DVDS all around you to remind you of how much you can gain from your practice - as long as you do it!

Send love:  I have said this numerous times.  Put your heart into your practice.  Send love to your body as you breathe, bend, and stretch.  LOVE is a super charger for motivation.

Have fun:  Change up your practice often.  Add fun rituals like lighting candles and turning on your favorite relaxing tune or fast paced, invigorating music to jazz up your practice.  Use fun imagery - imagine you are on a Hawaiian beach as you bend and stretch.

Kick ass:  Advising you to "kick ass" might seem antithetical to the spirit of gentle yoga.  But for me, it means putting all of your focus, all of yourself into the pose you are doing in the moment.  The more you put in, the more you will get out- seemingly trite but so true.

Marianne's advice is simple but powerful.  You can only find out though, by implementing it for yourself.

Yours for kicking ass during your home yoga practice,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' Yoga at Home Coach

 

  ^TM

Also see:  http://www.DoYogaAtHomeNow.com

 

 

Do Yoga at Home: More on the Alternate Nostril Breath

 

 The alternate nostril breath is a great technique for de-stressing

Since I began writing this blog over 5 years ago, several times I have discussed the immense benefits of doing a simple yoga breathing technique called the alternate nostril breath.  And, it is time I shared some more information about this technique with you!

Many of us pay little attention to how we breath unless we are pregnant and taking Lamaze classes in which among other things, we learn how to breathe our way through labor pains.  But how we breath is vital to our well-being and effective breathing is central to practice of yoga.

Not only should we synchronize our breathing with yoga movements and poses, but engaging in certain yoga breath techniques on their own maximizes what our body, mind, and spirit can gain from yoga, especially in boosting our energy and ridding ourselves of dangerous stress.

This weekend I attended what is reported to be the largest used booksale on the East Coast, the annual Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart booksale.  I bought some literary gems, including two books on yoga. I wanted to share with you some of the material from one of those books which points to the exceptional power and benefit of the alternate nostril breath.

In Neti:  Healing Secrets of Yoga and Ayurveda, David Frawley tells us, "Probably the most important pranayama (which means yoga breathing) is 'alternate nostril breathing' where one breathes exclusively through one nostril and generally out the opposite nostril...Alternate nostril breathing is probably the best exercise for the nostrils, which as muscles require their proper exertion in order to maintain their tone and flexibility. Through alternate nostril breathing you can provide a good workout for your nostrils, which in most of us are weak and otherwise not directly exercise at all.  This practice aids in developing the strength of the nostrils, which in turn increaes our breathing capacity and vital energy all around...Daily alternate nostril breathing is as important to the health of the nose as daily exercise is for the overall health of the body..."

I bet as a yoga beginner, you had not given much thought to giving your nostrils a workout, eh?  

For my part, I practice the alternate nostril breath daily.  I do it in the morning upon awakening as I transition into meditation and I do it at night to help me relax into slumber.  

If you have not yet begun this powerful "breathing for life" technique - start it tonight or tomorrow morning.  It will help you relax, de-stress, and re-energize.  Instructions follow below:

Alternate Nostril Breath 

Type of yoga pose:  Can be done seated or lying down 

Body parts targeted:  Lungs and nervous system

How to do the pose:

1. Sit in a comfortable position on your mat or in a chair with your spine erect (or lie down on your back on a mat or other flat surface).
2. You may choose to close your eyes.  Closing your eyes enhances the relaxation and calming effect of this technique.
3. Place your left thumb on but not closing your left nostril and place your index finger and middle finger on your forehead in the space between your eyebrows.  Exhale deeply from both nostrils.
4. Press down upon your left nostril with your left thumb and breathe in through your right nostril, expanding your abdomen (i.e., using the same body movement of the complete breath) and filling your lungs to the count of 8 or whatever count is most comfortable for you.
5. Press your index and middle fingers down on your right nostril and hold your breath for a count of 4.
6. Raise your left thumb off your left nostril and exhale all the air in your lungs through your left nostril to the count of 8.
7. Without changing the position of your hand, follow by breathing in through your left nostril for a count of 8.
8. Now press your left thumb down on your left nostril so both nostrils are closed.  Hold your breath for a count of 4.
9. Lift your index and middle fingers from your right nostril and exhale through your right nostril for a count of 8.

This completes one round of alternate nostril breathing.  Switch arms for the next found of breathing and go through the same routine starting by exhaling through both nostrils and then inhaling through the right nostril.

Number of repetitions:  3 rounds or do the breathing for five minutes alternating nostrils. With practice, build up the counts so you are inhaling, holding, and exhaling for a count of 8. Do this breathing technique any time of the day when you need to relax, clear your mind, or slow down your pace.

Key benefits from this pose: 

1. Increases “prana” – i.e., the “life force” or energy in the body.
2. Helps clear air passages.
3. Relaxes and calms body, mind, and nerves.
4. Clears mind.
5. Balances opposite currents in your body and helps restore equilibrium.
6. Functions as an excellent way to begin your yoga session, as a prelude to meditation, or for winding down after doing poses.
7. Quiets the mind and can help in overcoming insomnia.
8. Strengthens the nervous system and improves circulation.
9. Relieves sinus conditions by dissolving obstructions in the nasal passages and can increase immunity to colds.
10. Can alleviate headaches (or anxiety stomach aches).
11. Helps develop overall serenity.

 Laura’s special hints and experience with this technique:

Inhale and exhale without strain in and out through the nose, not through the mouth.  When you begin this technique, you may notice, as I did, that one nostril is clearer than the other. I had trouble breathing through my right nostril. Don’t worry—over time both nostrils will clear and you will breathe through each one with no problem. And, some yogis say that our nostrils sometimes take turns being “in charge” throughout the day. 

You can use this breathing technique to increase your energy during afternoon lulls or whenever you need to “pep” yourself up. I have used the alternate nostril breath technique to alleviate occasional anxiety and stomach aches by breathing and focusing on the words, “deep relaxation.”  Within 2 to 3 minutes, the stomach pains subsided. This yoga breath technique can also quiet the body and mind before meditation or sleep. At bedtime, lie down in your bed and do 5 to 7 rounds of the alternate breath technique to relax and release all tension.

One fellow yogi friend from middle school, Ann Kelly Ogle, told me that she was taught that exhalations should be twice as long as inhalations when doing deep breathing exercises.  I believe this varies by teacher. I learned the above breathing process from Yoga for Beauty and Health. However, you may wish to try Ann’s suggestion as well and find your preference. The key is slow and deep breathing!

Yours for giving your body AND your nostrils a daily yoga workout!

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' Yoga at Home Coach

  ^TM

Also see:  http://www.DoYogaAtHomeNow.com

 

Yoga at Home: Model other Yogis but Don't Compare or Compete

Here I am doing the chin to chest movement of the neck roll sequence I practice daily- I  focus solely on doing my personal best - I avoid comparing or competing with others and even with myself!

This morning I re-listened to an audio program I own about money and entrepreneurship.  And, one of the key points presented was the vital importance of "modeling" other successful and prosperous businesspeople in order to instill positive habits and practices.  

However, immediately following that piece of advice was the admonition that if you want to achieve your personal best, don't compare or compete with anyone else.  This is also relevant if you are beginning a yoga practice!

Yes, you want to model useful hints and tips from more experienced yogis. And, no, you don't want to get "bent out of shape" (pun intended...) by comparing and competing with yogis who have been practicing for years or who have different body structures and capabilities.

In all candor, I originally learned yoga because I was so unathletic in high school and feared becoming a permanent couch potato at age 15.  Yoga attracted my attention because I read that it was a gentle, relaxing practice that didn't cause soreness or deplete one's energy but was instead revitalizing and energizing because of its slow gentle movements.   You see, the only yoga I first learned about was the gentle slow form of hatha yoga. I never heard of vinyasa or anusara  yoga and I don't think "hot" yoga or "power" yoga had yet evolved - at least not in their present forms or were certainly not well known.

Because I focused solely on learning a style of yoga that encouraged me to ease into poses gradually over time and to allow gravity to do its work on my body, I suffered no injuries.  In addition, I reaped the benefits of gaining greater energy, flexibility, and serenity. Except for one single yoga show on PBS at that time (Lilias!), I had only books to learn from and so I actually had no one (other than the instructors in the photos) to compare myself with or "compete" against.  I learned in a vaccuum...

As a result, I just focused on doing my best and the only measurement I used was how I felt.

If I were learning yoga these days for the first time in some of the classrooms that people tell me about or the few that I have visited, I would have been intimidated.  

Indeed,  yoga is so widespread these days that it can be a challenge NOT to compete or compare yourself with yogi celebrities in the media or even your next door neighbor who may drop the names of the complex yoga poses she just mastered.  However, remember one principal purpose of yoga is to re-l- a - a - x!  So, yes learn from other yogis, but don't compare or compete how you do with others or you will tense up!  Just celebrate doing the yoga you can do - every day, day by day.

Yours for doing yoga with zeal and zest to achieve your personal best.

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' Yoga at Home Coach

  ^TM

Also see:  http://www.DoYogaAtHomeNow.com

 

Do Yoga at Home: Everything is Energy and Yoga Helps!

 Even the gentle, slow paced hatha yoga I do really boosts my energy!

In her inspiring book Dancing at Your Desk which teaches you how to discover and create a career that enthralls you, career intuitive Sue Frederick (see careerintuitive.org) says,

"Consider this:  Life is not a smart contest, a beauty contest or a competency contest.  It's an energy contest.  The person with the best energy always wins!  They get the life they really want...Here's the secret ingredient that determines your success...Energy."

And, one way to tap your maximum high vibrational energy is to open all the energy centers in your body by doing slow, gentle, yet invigorating hatha yoga!

Is yoga the only way to boost your energy?  No - but, it is definitely an effective one - as long as you practice with an open mind and enjoy where you are - moment by moment.  Mastery is not an end all or be all.  When you enjoy where you are at the moment just by moving your body with yoga, your energy will likely soar.  Yoga opens the energy centers in your body, invigorates your lungs with more oxygen through the breathing techniques, eases the stiffness and releases stuck energy.

If you have been sedentary for years, you may not notice an immediate boost in your energy when you begin a yoga practice.  You may feel that you will never be able to touch your toes in a forward bend, or maintain your balance for more than a split second while learning the Eagle, or ever interlace your fingers in the backward hand clasp, much less enjoy an upwelling of energy in your mind, body, and spirit after a practice.  

But, I can tell you that as a consummate klutz, I have noticed that when I put my heart into my practice to learn the poses for the simple joy of opening, stretching, and flexing various parts of my body (as I advocated in my last post), the energy surge came quickly.

Whether a renewal in energy comes immediately or after a few days, weeks, or maybe even a month or two, it doesn't matter - it will come.  When you have more energy - you are more alive, more lively, and you just automatically feel happier and draw more positive experiences to you.  Yes, it may sound a bit woo-woo to you and unscientific.  But, this is what I have experienced in my life.

As I have stated many times, I am not a yoga instructor. I cannot delve too far into explaning all the scientific reasons for why yoga works.  I am a self-taught yogi.  I only know enough about yoga to feel and look my personal best.  And the energy I have gained from my practice is invaluable for enhancing my life.

I could not agree more, "the person with the best energy wins!"  Yoga can help you "win."

Energetically yours,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' Yoga At Home Coach

 

  ^TM

Also see:  http://www.DoYogaAtHomeNow.com

 

Do Yoga at Home: Secret to Maintaining a Daily Practice

 

 Here I am, "getting to" do the full locust...

I don't know how many times people have told me that they have trouble maintaining their motivation to do a daily exercise practice.  Too many things get in the way.  It's hard sliding out of bed in the morning or doing exercises after work when they just want to come home, eat dinner, and relax.  They just don't have enough time.  Yada yada yada...

Well, the other day I was consulting with my spiritual coach about some business issues and the challenge of carving out sufficient time to do what I need to do.  She advised me that when you truly love something and have a passion for it, "no dang thing will get in the way!"  Wow - what simple and yet powerful wisdom!

Specifically, she meant that we find the time to do what we want to do simply because we love it!  Not because we "have to do it" or because we seek a particular result. But, rather that time expands in proportion to how much we love what we do. Period.  

This concept is consistent with what I heard last month from renowned Puerto Rican actress, Rita Moreno, at a book event in which she shared the spotlight with another renowed Puerto Rican, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor who also recently published a memoir.

You would probably never guess that Rita Moreno is 81 as she still dances and sings (I was actually awestruck by the power and resonance of her singing voice) and is slim and still sexy.  (When the book event was over I heard several women say, "I hope I look like her when I am 81!").  I believe that Rita Moreno's secret to remaining youthful is that she decided to drop the word "should" from her vocabulary. She does things because they bring her delight! 

And, that is a secret to maintaining a daily yoga practice in your home.  

Granted, you may have started learning yoga because you feel you "should" because you are tired, stiff, and frenzied.  And, yes, consistent yoga practice of 20-30 minutes a day in your home can create amazing energy, flexibility, and serenity for you.  That's why I wrote my book!  To enable people to achieve that.

However, if you drop the concept of doing yoga daily because you "should" and with an eye fixed on the results you want to gain and shift it to that you  "get to do yoga because it's an innately wonderful experience, your motivation to maintain a daily yoga practice will take off with a life of its own!  Just try it...for the joy and love of it!

Yours for a joyful yoga practice that you "get to do" daily!

  ^TM

Also see:  http://www.DoYogaAtHomeNow.com

 

Yoga at Home: Half-Lotus Pose

 

 
    Here I am in the half-lotus pose - excellent as an alternative way of sitting and for meditation

Have you heard the recent new saying?  "Sitting is the new smoking."  Or something along those lines! The point is that many of us in sedentary careers sit way too long - so much so that if we don't counteract it with regular exercise, it's as deleterious to our health as if we were smoking!

I can't vouch for the scientific accuracy of the statement, but I agree - sitting too long can lead to stiffness, a soft butt, and weight gain to say the least.  However, certain seated yoga poses can come to the rescue!

As stated in one of my first yoga primers published way back in the 1960s, Yoga for Beauty and Health by Eugene Rawls and Eve Diskin, 

"The Half-Lotus is a natural sitting position for  human beings.  Chair sitting as we practice it nearly universally in the West is, on the other hand, an unnatural body position.  Sitting in a chair is in reality less comfortable than sitting in one of the Yoga cross-legged positions.  This mean seem untrue in the light of whatever initial discomfort or stiffness you may experience in the beginning...Once your body, through pleasant, regular practice becomes accustomed to the Half-Lotus, you will experience what I mean by genuine comfort."

And, in a recent Yoga Journal article we learn that with repeated practice, a well-aligned "Sukhasasana," known as an easy yoga cross-legged pose, "tones the entire circumference of your torso-front,sides, and back...and creates the conditions for a relaxed yet alert state in both the body and mind."

Granted, it's not always feasible to sit in a yoga seated pose, especially if you're a woman and wearing a skirt or dress in the office. However, the point is to encourage you, as often as possible, to alternate the way you sit by doing the Half-Lotus pose.  At least try it it!  Instructions follow below:

Half-Lotus
(Sanskrit term is ardha padmasana)

Type of yoga pose: Passive, seated
Body parts targeted: Hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, feet How to do the pose:

1. Sit on your mat with your legs straight out in front of you, spine erect (but not rigid). Bring your heels and toes together, touching each other.

2. Bend and bring your left leg up toward your groin and grasp your left foot with your hands. Your left knee should be lying gently against or near the mat—not up in the air.

3. Place the sole of your left foot on the inside of your right thigh and hold it still in that position. Do not allow your left foot to slide under your right thigh.

4. Next, bend your right leg at the knee so you can grasp your right foot with your hands. Place your right knee toward or against the mat.

5. Lift your right foot up with your hands and put the outside blade of your right foot on the area where your left thigh and calf join. Draw your right heel as close to your groin as you can comfortably. The sole of your right foot should face upward at a slight angle.

6. Rest your wrists on your knees.  Hold for 10 seconds and up to several minutes.  Slowly and gently release your right foot. Reverse legs and repeat the pose.

Practice time: Hold the pose for 10-15 seconds during the first week and add a few seconds each week until you can sit in the pose for several minutes or longer.

Number of repetitions: No specific number. Hold this pose for as long as you are comfortable while meditating or doing deep yogic breathing techniques. You can also combine it with the lion, neck rolls (which I do), or backward handclasp.

Key benefits from this pose:

1. Strengthens and tones the muscles of the calves, thighs, and feet.

2. Improves circulation throughout the legs.

3. Helps boost the libido by benefiting the sexual glands and

   organs.

4. Helps reduce weight in the thighs, hips, and buttocks.

Special hints and my experience with this pose:

This pose can be challenging for the beginner.  I increased my time sitting in this pose over weeks and months.  If you are unable to keep your thighs and knees down, be patient and don’t push down on them.  Eventually, gravity will take over and they will relax and rest on the floor/mat.

 

  ^TM

Also see:  http://www.DoYogaAtHomeNow.com