Yoga Archives -

Girl Needs Yoga: Thirty in Thirty.

Apr 062013

Half-ass naked on the Internet. Conscious choice. Quite okay with it. Now all I need to do is destroy my grandparents’ Internet connection because a) I don’t want to be responsible for any strokes or cardiac arrests and b) I want to remain in the will.

Remember when I said “ I only know [on what day of the challenge I am] when I’m looking at the official scoreboard!”? Famous last words, people. Funny story:

On Thursday, after my 06:30 AM yoga class, the -very small- part of my brain that understands day-to-day things like routes, planning and calendars alerted me that I might have miscalculated something. At work, I grabbed my planner and on-line information and it turned out I was not on day 29 as I originally thought, but on day 30. And on the Wednesday, I had taken Manfriend to the airport (boo hoo he’s gone for six weeks, very sad very Lifetime Movie) so I had planned on doing a double class Friday, the last day of my challenge. At least, in my head.

So there I was, accidentally on day 30 with one more yoga class to go. At work, no plan and no extra work-out gear on me. Time to improvise.

With major groveling, I canceled the dinner plans I had with a friend. I put my -rinsed but not properly washed*- yoga shorts and top on the heater. I found the coins in my backpack needed for a rental yoga towel. And right after work, I went back into the yoga studio. Fully prepared to have the worst class of the whole 30 days. The 06:30 AM session had not been one of my best and I had worked all day: I was prepared to ride out a very uncomfortable 90 minutes for the final class of my challenge.

And of course, because it happens when you least expect it, I flew through class. I did everything and it felt so good. Natural, too. I came out of class so high I wanted to talk to everybody and was just buzzing.

I did it.

A Bikram Yoga class every day for 30 days. When I really had no time for a class -happened three times- I did a double class on the Saturday after to get back on schedule. Which was actually great because not only did it get me out of my double-class funk, it also reminded me how amazing the energy is after two classes — For the first five hours, mind you. After that you either need to nap or eat a huge meal, or preferably both.

I have had great classes, and I have had shit classes.I have had classes where my body was stiff as an English upper lip, or where my muscles were so tired they gave out in postures, or where I was so in my head I couldn’t focus, but I always came out feeling better.

I am a little more toned than I was when I first started. I have lost a little weight, but have no idea how much because I haven’t weighed myself in over two years. I have come to the conclusion my nose looks even bigger when my face is skinnier, which is both funny and tragic at the same time.

I am definitely stronger now, better at holding a posture. The yoga always feels good, even when it’s hard. And as I said before, more relaxed, more energetic and with an overall higher sense of well-being. That was my main motivation for doing it anyway, all the physical stuff is just a bonus.

It’s not all gone, of course. I cured a basic symptom (feeling bad) of a bigger problem (feeling lost). But feeling better is making it way easier to deal with that. I can find my way a lot easier when I have my well-being to guide me, and my intuition isn’t overshadowed by negative emotions.

A lot of people throw around the term ‘reborn’ when it comes to yoga and doing challenges like this, but that’s not really my style. I am not reborn, I am just more ready. For everything.

And now, I am going to road trip with my BFF and we’re going to check out Happy Healthy Sunday tomorrow. Very exciting, I hope you all are well, and I will write for you guys soon. Love.

*Please don’t judge me. Desperate times, man.

Girl Needs Yoga: Getting There.

Girl Meets Yoga, Yoga 6 Responses »

Mar 292013

Honestly, life keeps throwing me the weirdest curveballs. Considering I have the hand-eye coordination of a drunk snake, you can do the math of how that is working out for me right now. But enough about me, let’s talk about me*.

I’m at day 23 (24? I still have to go today and I only know when I’m looking at the official scoreboard!) today and still going faithfully. Which means lots of washing, lots of showers, lots of carrying yoga gear around anywhere and people asking me if I am going on a journey or if I am just a semi-fashionable hobo.

In terms of inner peace and energy it’s similar to what I described last week. Despite non-ideal circumstances, I can keep on top of things. I am relaxed, peaceful and happy when I practice: Those effects carry over in my life, which makes it so much easier to function and do what I have to do.

Also, I feel at home at the yoga studio again. I enjoy being there so much. And I realize everyone there loves yoga, in their own way. Some come all the time, some come every once in a while – and nothing is better or worse than the other. It’s just what it is. Our yoga practice is part of all our lives. We have that in common, that’s what matters (the hippie spoke). I often run into Ben “Yoga Boy” or other yoga friends. If I’m in the mood to be with people, there is always somebody to chat with. If I want to be alone, I just have to say ‘hello’, do yoga, shower and leave.

Oh, I did a couple of 20:00 classes! I hadn’t done any in years; it used to be hot as hell and just as crowded. Now it’s not so busy anymore and I found it’s really nice to end the day with a yoga class instead of beginning with one. The only problem is that I end up staying up until 1 in the morning because I have ALL the energy. Girl still needs to sleep however, so I didn’t make it to any 06:30 AM classes this week and did all my classes in the evenings. Interesting plot twist for a morning person. Manfriend thinks I am converting to his church (the night owls).

(Yeah, I took the embarassing-selfie stuff back into my bathroom. I couldn’t take the stress hormones of someone walking past and judging me for taking a picture of myself in skimpy work-out gear: You know how it is. You can only yell “I HAVE A BLOG I AM DOING THIS FOR A GOOD REASON SORT OF” to so many people.)

And as you can see in the picture above (taken three weeks apart, day 2 and day 22), some physical change kicked in. I think. No, seriously. My favorite part is the stomach — it’s not perfectly flat but it’s definitely more defined. I started feeling a familiar ‘tightening up’ feeling in my body over the past weeks but it wasn’t really noticeable yet; if you look at last week’s picture, you can hardly tell a difference. Now, you can actually tell.

Only one week left of the official challenge. I am very happy I stopped fucking around and just joined. It still feels like I am going ‘back to normal’ – at least in this area of my life.

I don’t care about how much it costs, how much time it takes. I don’t mind how disgusting I smell after a class and how much time I spent washing towels. This is what I am supposed to be doing. I do Bikram Yoga. Because it feels good, because it does my body good and because it improves every single area of my life.

So bring on the sweat and the smelly towels. Perfectly fine with me.

*Sorry, I totally laughed at that joke the first time. I might actually be too lame to function.

Girl Needs Yoga: Halfway There (15/30).

30 Day Trials, Girl Meets Yoga, Yoga 13 Responses »

Mar 222013

There are a few different sides to the story of why I decided to do a 30-day Bikram Yoga challenge again. I was emailing about it with Ruby Warrington — the next thing I know Bikram Yoga Rotterdam announced ‘The March Madness Challenge’ where you can sign up for -you guessed it- a 30 day challenge: 30 yoga classes in 30 days.

All very nice and synchronous, but not actually what made me do it.

See, I first started thinking of every reason not to do it. I mean, 30 days in a row is pretty doable, but it does require sacrifice. You need to set aside a big chunk of your time every day for thirty days. You are perpetually sore. You have to plan ahead in a lot of different areas: In clothes, in food, in washing, in how your entire day looks. You have less time for social events, less wiggle room to slack off, and you have to keep your priorities straight, very straight. Also, I envisioned the possibility of getting fed up with doing the 90-minutes routine every day again for the upcoming thirty days.

But what it came down to was this: I was feeling like shit.

I was feeling like shit and I was getting pretty desperate about getting out of it and feeling good again. From past experience I can safely say that whatever I need, yoga gives it to me and more. And at this point, I had gotten desperate enough. I was in yoga class and something inside me went “Fucking fine. I will fucking commit to my yoga practice again, JUST GET ME OUT OF THIS FUNK.”

It wasn’t about doing something impressive. It wasn’t about doing something cool; it was about doing something necessary.

Because I knew that everything would be better than how I was feeling at that point. Getting out of bed at 5:45 for five days in a row, the most extreme soreness, the worst yoga class, even the worst fuck-this-and-my-big-mouth moment? All that — still going to be better than that empty unhappy feeling that I’d been having for the past couple of weeks.

Which was why any reason why I couldn’t do it completely lost its meaning to me. I mean, fuck that. And so I walked up to my yoga teacher and asked him to put my name on the Sign Up Sheet.

That simple gesture made me feel a rush of relief. I was like ‘okay, cool (and about damn time).’ Let’s do it. Turning back to the very thing that had always taken care of me. No mindfuckery, no bullshit, just daily yoga practice.

‘Just’ going to a yoga class for two weeks now. Yes, I am sore. When I wake up, I am ~~a little~~ stiff. Yes, I am tired sometimes. Yes, I have washed a lot of towels and yoga shorts.

I’ve been pestering Manfriend about physical changes (DO I HAVE ABS YET DO I HAVE ABS YET), but as you can see from the picture above: There aren’t really any. I feel good in my own skin though, and I can feel that my body is functioning better (in terms of sleep, digestion, metabolism).

The mental changes are pretty cool. By doing that yoga routine every day I become so much more relaxed and focused. The racing thoughts slow down, I become calm, I find a spot from which I can actually see what is going on in my own head. I get a quieter, more organized mind.

Every time I do the yoga, I realize I’m coming back to an important part of my self. Even when it’s a shit class, even when I can’t focus and even when my body is tired, I always come out with that nice, familiar energy that carries me throughout the day.

The most important thing about the yoga right now though is that everytime I do it, I feel something inside me calm down, and I feel trust. I believe that everything is going to be alright. I think for now, that’s enough.

Plenty, even.

Bikram Bitch Post: #2 and #3

Yoga 26 Responses »

Feb 182013

Okay, the second week was pretty good. I found it pretty easy to get used to always having a yoga mat and bag with my gear on me again and I rediscovered a little more why I love my yoga practice so much: I always come out energized, even when I’m sore and I just feel better about everything. Plus, I process in there. It helps me deal with things.

It becomes easier to get my stuff and just go without overthinking it. When I’m too busy, I skip a day. When I’m too sore, I also skip a day. But when I go, I’m happy that I can go and I enjoy my class. I did a class with 80+ (!) people last Sunday and that was really intense.

(Despite the lack of abs) my body has gotten pretty strong and is used to the yoga, so I don’t need to sit down anymore. The main thing is concentration and determination now. Not my strong suit, but the yoga mat is a good place to work on them.

This last week the score is considerably lower, I only went twice. I had a lot of work stuff going on and my weekend was filled with social obligations. However, considering the steep decline in my general well-being I consider it a victory I managed to drag myself to that one 06:30 AM class and the midday class this Saturday. Both classes were really nice, and they were two bright moments in my week.

Look, guys, I know you expect a lot of positivity from me: I gladly give that most of the time, but I am not going to fake anything. And the truth of the matter is that even though I have so much to be grateful for and happy about, I am in a dark place right now. Not because of anything that’s going on in my life, but just because I got dark. Like, on the inside, for no good reason. I don’t know, I guess my existential crisis came a little early this year.

But not to worry, I am going to be okay. I am going to keep adding bright moments, as I am the one with the power to turn the lights back on inside.

Bikram Bitch Post #1.

Yoga 15 Responses »

Feb 032013

I am a totally lenient person when it comes to most of what I do. I eat healthy enough during the week that if I happen to crave junk food and an artificially flavored cocktail heavily laced with sugar on Saturday, I have zero issue and zero guilt about indulging. Accept, enjoy, move on. No problem whatsoever.

Same with my bouts of procrastination: Sucks, sure, but I never wallow in it. Accept, forgive, move on. If I have a shit day, I have a shit day and the next day I’ll be good again. Accept, forgive, move on.

But when it comes to Bikram Yoga, I cannot accept, forgive, move on. Bikram Yoga is a very important and very complicated thing in my life. There is nothing that inspires me more, helps me more: Nothing is better for me than doing Bikram Yoga. Yet it brings out my issues like a cabinet file in the psych ward. Take a look into my inner crazy.

I am not good at balance when it comes to Bikram. Because I love it so much, I want to go every day. But I tend to go 6 days in a row and then there is one day where I can’t go. That in itself would be fine, but another day rolls around and I think “fuck it, one more day without a class then” This would be fine too, technically. I think it’s fine, healthy even, to think ‘fuck it’ every now and again. But when it comes to Bikram, my ‘fuck it’ spins out of control, and mindfuckery begins.

Here’s the thing. I can’t not-practice without feeling guilty about it. No matter what I do I feel like I am forsaking the single greatest thing I have ever done for my life, my body and my head. Reason has me calculate all the benefits I’ve reaped because of it and just goes, pointing at all the evidence: “Dude, you should TOTALLY do that for yourself.” And that judgmental pointy finger is directed at me when I don’t practice.

“Why are you not doing yoga?” “You should be doing yoga.” “You could have been doing yoga now.” I hear that in the back of my mind.

I always feel a form of uneasiness when I let more than two days pass without going to a class. That uneasiness only grows as time goes by. After two weeks it becomes almost palpable, like a lump in my stomach. Simultaneously, that uneasiness and guilt makes me feel shitty about myself. That drives me further away from my practice. The further away from my practice the worse I feel and the harder it becomes to get back into the hot room. While my yoga mat and yoga gear are always neatly parked in our hallway. Aall I have to do is grab ‘em and go. But I somehow don’t.

The further away I get from my practice, the worse it gets, in all areas. Slowly, but steadily. My energy drops. My happy mood drops. I get out of sync with my body, become head-only again. I become more stressed, less loving, more short with people. I become convinced that all the weight I lost through Bikram Yoga has magically reappeared on me. The body I love becomes something I eye suspiciously in the mirror.

And as I write this down, telling you this, all I can think is “How the hell can I let it get that far?” I bet you’re thinking that too. Truth is, I really don’t know. Wish I did, but I’m too ‘in it’. The process is so gradual I don’t notice it while it’s happening, just when it has happened. I can’t explain why I feel desperate for it and cannot go at the same time. I drive myself crazy with it. With Bikram Yoga, I face my residual all-or-nothing (ending up at nothing) attitude full-force.

So after months of this on-again-off-again bullshit, with a big ass peak in off-again during December and the first weeks of January, I did manage to get out of it.

The energy I got from giving a workshop brought me back to feeling like my usual self, and that pushed me back into my usual practice. To drive that point home of me wanting to go back into my practice for real, I took a 06:30 class again: They used to be my favorite classes, but I hadn’t done one in two months.

The next day, I woke up completely sore. Pleasantly so, but pretty forceful. And then I did something I wasn’t able to do before without a guilt-trip: I decided not to go. I didn’t debate all day, I didn’t mindfuck myself into not going, I just decided I was going to give my body some rest and do another class the next day. It worked.

I took another 06:30 class on Wednesday. Thursday night I did a class too, but I skipped Friday again when I woke up feeling like my abdominal muscles were overstretched. No guilt, no problem. This weekend, I did one class on both Saturday and Sunday.

This way, I am slowly reconnecting with my yoga practice and enjoying it immensely: How I feel doing yoga, how I feel after, what I get out of it,why I love it so much in the first place. I am easing into it. I don’t want to crash and burn anymore. I am so done with that.

The plan is to go back to doing a yoga class every day — that I can. I totally want to go back to the simpler days where I did yoga every day, sweating my ass off, calloused hipbones (from Floor Bow) and spine (from everything on the floor), energy and clarity for days, without making myself go haywire.

But it doesn’t have to be straight away. I have decided it’s okay for that process to take weeks, months, whatever. The only goal for now is to have a healthy yoga practice.

Speaking of healthy yoga practice…

Hi. Meet Triangle Pose. I am was totally Triangle Pose’s bitch. This postures ~~owns my ass~~ has owned my ass for almost 1,5 years.

It was my dreaded posture. I couldn’t remain upright because my legs would always give out from under me. It did not get better for a really long time. Every class, I struggled and fell out. Struggled and fell out. Over and over again. I eventually became convinced I was always going to be suffering through and hating on this posture.

But then my friend Ben “Yoga Boy” Schultz fixed it for me. See, Ben “Yoga Boy” Schultz is a 35-year old Australian who has been doing Bikram Yoga for 2 years, we became friends through yoga. He is a very constant factor in my practice with his kick ass focus, his jokes and no-nonsense attitude. I adore him. He will be prominently featured in my second Yoga e-book, and he totally fixed my Triangle Pose debacle.

Basically what happened is that I made Ben go to a 09:30 AM class with me, while Ben MUCH prefers to go at a later hour*. After a Triangle pose kicked my ass once again during a class, I got so frustrated with it, I sat down and waited it out. Now, I am strong enough to do every posture, this was just a bratty move on my part of being fed up with trying. Ben and I had lunch after and he grinned at me over his coffee and said: “So you make me come this early and then you sit down and watch me do the pose. When I see you sit down during Triangle, I have a half a mind of going “We didn’t come here all this way to watch me do Triangle Pose now, did we?”

I laughed, but the phrase stuck. Over the weeks that followed when I took class, whenever Triangle Pose came up, I heard his teasing voice in the back of my head going “Now we didn’t come all this way just to watch me do Triangle, did we?”

And I would grin, think “No” and do Triangle. I would do the pose, and be able to finish it. It got me out of the “oh shit here it comes” and “let it be over” attitude, and instead made me focus on something funny I was thinking of in that moment. It became our inside joke.

And now? I love that posture. It’s still hard and I have to focus and work at it, but I can finally do it.

And that reminds me that this is the case for my yoga practice as a whole too. It can be hard, I will always have to focus and devote myself to it, but I can do it. Especially when there is a positive approach and some jokes involved.

*Ben calls the 06:30 AM the Stupid Class. :’)

Baby’s First Bikram Class: A Guide.

Yoga 9 Responses »

Nov 142012

This is basically a remake of the old blog I wrote about this; helping you after that faithful moment you decide to take your first Bikram Class. Some things to keep in mind and how to take the best care of yourself possible before, during, and after.

Keep in mind, I’m not a certified teacher. I’m merely a Bikram fanatic that happened to have a blog and a big mouth. Different studios have different ways of handling things. At my studio we don’t drink water during our classes.(so hardcore), in others there are breaks to take a sip of water. Always take the teacher’s advice over mine.

My most important advice? Enjoy! Feel what it does for your mind and body, and always be easy on yourself. Let me know how it goes?

Before

Drink, drink, drink. Water (with lemon juice), green juice and maybe some orange juice. Water is best though. Before class I have usually guzzled down 0.75L of water, and I keep the green juice for after.

Wear something tight — and if you want to be most comfortable: skimpy. Believe me, once you’re sweating and moving in all sorts of positions, every extra unnecessary layer you have on is going to make you hate your life and your choices. Go for a tank top/bandeau top with shorts.

Put your yoga mat in the back row. This way you can have all the people in front of you as examples and you won’t be as self conscious because very little people will be able to watch you. Also, if you stand here the teacher can see you well if you need a little extra adjustments.

Don’t be a dick. I’d advise you to just lie down and breathe as you wait for class to start, but it’s perfectly fine if you want to carry on a whispered, quiet conversation while you wait. Just don’t disturb the people who are either warming up or are lying down in savasana, that’s rude.

During

Breathe right. They tell you to breathe in and out for your nose. Don’t ignore them. Do it. It’s best. Occasionally you will jawn, or burp, or sigh, but always go back to breathing through your nose.

Try to fidget and fumble as little as possible. The more you focus on yourself in the mirror or your front neighbor’s back in front of you, the easier it is to stay focused and do the postures.

Stay calm. You’re not going to faint. You’re not going to die. It’s just a warm room. If it’s all a little much, and it can be the first few times, just sit down and take it easy. Always listen to your body.

After

Drink, drink, drink. Again. Now it’s time to rehydrate and help your system flush out the remaining toxins. I drink coconut water – it’s very hydrating and has electrolytes to refill what you’ve depleted.

Eat, eat, eat. You just burnt up a shitload of calories, so it’s time to fill up. Eat lots of healthy things, preferably green vegetables, fresh juice or a great salad.

Take it easy. Keep drinking lots of water throughout the day and don’t do any strenuous exercise. Now is not the time for half a marathon or a hike up the mountains. Relax and be kind to your body.

Some Tips On Double Bikram-Yoga Classes.

Making Things Easier, Yoga 16 Responses »

Oct 032012

In case you’re new here (Hi!), I am a yoga student. Someone who practices yoga.

I’d call myself a yogi if I only didn’t associate it withdouble-jointed Indian men with beards and terrifyingly good postures. I feel the term yoga student fits me a lot better: I practice yoga and that’s all I do. I’ve been at it for almost three years and some of it looks okay, some of it doesn’t. I sometimes remain in position, I sometimes fall out. It’s also a learning practice for me. I learn from it: Things about my body, about myself and other important life lessons you can find in the small little e-book ‘Girl Meets Yoga’ you can download here.

Anyway, I’m a very specific yoga student: I practice Bikram Yoga. Short intro on Bikram Yoga: It’s a 90-minute class with 26 postures while it’s 40 degrees in the yoga room. Brutal, but satisfying and immensely good for you.

And you might think that’s cray, I’ll bring a little more craziness: I sometimes like to do two classes in a row. For those of you wide-eyed screaming “WHY?!” I’ll tell you why: Because it’s amazing! It takes extra time (and towels) but it gives you twice the benefits of one yoga class, you teach yourself devotion and discipline and the energy you’ll have after is nothing short of wonderful.

I did my first Bikram Yoga Double class after about a year of practice, but you should really feel for yourself when you’re ready. For me, I literally had thought that I wanted to deepen my practice an then my friend asked me if I wanted to join her for two classes instead of one. And I did. It was nice.

It’s not the end of the world if it’s harder than you thought it would be either: As the teachers say, you can always sit down and take a break! Please note that I am not a Bikram Yoga instructor and it’s always a great idea to ask your yoga teachers for more expert advice. These tips on how to survive a Bikram Yoga Double Class are solely based on my own experiences and preferences.

Drink a lot of water the day before your back-to-back Bikram classes. This is especially important if you start the day with your double classes so if you do, up the water intake in the evening. Sorry for the inconvenient bathroom breaks!

This may be a no-brainer, but bring two sets of yoga gear (clothes and a towel for on your mat) and if you want, an extra towel to shower with. It’s a lot nicer to change into something dry and clean than walk around in double sweat. Also good to have in your bag: big bottle of water, some flavored coconut water or juice, fruit and a sandwich or salad to eat after the two classes if you can’t go straight home.

For your first couple of double classes you may find you want to take it slow in the first class. Later on this is more a mental thing than physical, but regardless: It will give you the confidence to survive the second class. So pay more attention to your breath and sit down when you need to. Take it a little slower in the beginning. You can always crank it up more should you so desire.

During the break between your two classes: Relax in the final resting position and then do what you like: Take a shower, drink some water (or something with electrolytes in it like coconut water or green juice with celery in it) and eat a small piece of fruit for some sugar. One of my teachers actually said it was best not to eat anything in between to prevent nausea, but fruit for me is easy to digest and doesn’t bother me in the next class.

Get back into the yoga room at least ten minutes before the next class. It can help get used to the heat (again) and relax. The more relaxed you are before your second class the better.

In the second class, in my experience I feel stiffer first, but in twenty minutes I’m so warmed up and flexible I can now go a little further in postures while it’s still comfortable. During the second class, just observe how your body responds and be respectful to it.

This is also important: Listen to the teacher’s words now more than ever. Of course you have to do that in the first class as well, but during the second class it can divert your attention from your monkey mind who is screaming at you that you’re clinically insane and who is trying to distract you from the yoga. The more you listen, the easier the second class will be. All you have to do is follow the words: It keeps your mind busy and it guides your body.

Now you might be sore when you come out the class (and the next day) but it’s nothing compared to how you will soar* from the energy boost. Don’t worry you can’t do anything afterwards, because you will. In fact, you might be doing even more because you feel so relaxed and productive. I wouldn’t recommend running a marathon after though, that might be a little much.

Can you do a yoga class the day after? Of course, but you don’t have to! Listen to your body and its potential agony or enthusiasm.

Now I know it might be a Bikram Yoga Culture Thing, but I’m pretty sure you can apply these principles to other yoga classes too, should you so desire. The beauty about yoga is that if you are able to listen to your body and honor its boundaries, you can practice it however long you want. But as always, any yoga is always better than no yoga at all, right?

On a somewhat related-to-yoga note, these supercute pendants in the pictures you can find this Etsy shop. Aren’t they adorable? I am actually considering to start wearing a necklace for them.)

*HAHA, PUN.

In Soreness And In Health: Yoga.

Yoga 4 Responses »

Sep 032012

During the summer of ’11 I made the big ass mistake of forsaking my Bikram Yoga practice for more than a month: I had a two-week holiday in France, came back, created the biggest mental mindfuck ever (I’m really good at that). I didn’t go for another two weeks until my seminar with Mary Jarvis. Which let me tell you, is pretty brutal even when you have been practicing like a good little yogi, so for me that was brutal times a million.

Not only that, but not going to yoga is a bad move for me no matter how long. But a month? That’s my temporary insanity, right there. All those benefits I reap from yoga: the energy, the inner peace, the intuition, the healthy food cravings, the sleep and the physical fitness? I have to be crazy not to go willingly, right?

So sensible person that I am (ahem), I try to repeat my mistakes as little as possible. Which is why I took a yoga class on the very day we left for Munich, did some relaxed routines next to our tent while we were camping and intended to get back to my regular yoga practice as soon as we get back.

…Well, that last part went a little differently. See, my problem with yoga is that I can’t “just” go to a yoga class. I can’t “just go” to a yoga class, and leisurely start up again like a normal person. Oh, no. That would be crazy!

Instead, I get ~~a little~~ ridiculously unrealistic, super-demanding and Drill Sergeant on myself. When I go to yoga after a hiatus, I need myself to get into my usual routine STRAIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING, DO FIVE 06:30 AM YOGA CLASSES IN A ROW DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 20 SOLDIER.

Of course, this greatly clashes with the idea of yoga and for me it results in failure even before execution. You can’t go from sleeping in for two weeks straight back into standing next to your bed at 05:45. You have to get into it, ease into it.

On Wednesday, after a semi-panicked realisation I was already at 3,5 (while I had vowed never to leave the studio for more than a month), I figured any class would be better than no class so I just went to the 15:30 AM class. I was in the neighborhood, had my stuff with me and just took the class. And it was wonderful. I was stiffer than I usually am (duh), but also stronger than I remembered.

I soon eased into it completely, and not only that: I very much enjoyed it, like (almost) always. I felt like I was coming home, both in myself and the hot yogaroom. And I decided I don’t mind my muscles aching and spending so much time in the yoga studio.

I want to live in perpetual soreness and in health.

The Different Yoga Classes I’ve Tried (So Far)

Health, Uncategorized, Yoga 9 Responses »

Jul 272012

Before yoga, I ran. And before running, there was basically an extended time period (my entire life) were I was inherently awful at any sports.

Dear readers, I am not a team sport person. I am not a ball sport person. Laws of gravity, logic and cause of effect all work their way around me when it comes to sucking at sports. But you know, then I started running (it didn’t involve balls, bats or people laughing at me) and that worked out pretty well. I liked the solitude, the sweating and the loud house music I played on my iPod. Then I discovered yoga: that was basically love at first stretch. And cliche-alert: It changed my life.

If you exclude the few hatha yoga classes I took when I was in Canada (and I hope you will because our teacher was a vegan with a Mac ‘n Cheese fetish), I’ve done Bikram Yoga for almost 2,5 years. That is and shall remain my holiest of holy yoga practices. However, I’m always curious to other things and so this summer I started taking a few other yoga classes here and there to see what else I like and what I can learn there.

Iyengar Yoga: Lin took me to her Iyengar yoga class a while back and it was lovely. A great, relaxing work-out that stretches and strengthens all your muscles. Basically what you do in Iyengar Yoga classes is use props. Things like belts, ropes, ballet bars and little wooden blocks to put your head up when you can’t yet reach the floor in a weird position.

What I loved most here was the teacher who would occasionally just push me further into a posture and I could really feel the difference in my body. This is something nobody ever does during Bikram Yoga. Bikram Yoga is only vocal with the occasional extra instruction if you need a little extra help, but they never touch you.

Iyengar? Lovely way to practice yoga, basically.

Sivasanda Yoga: I took this class a few weeks back. In this class there are lots of breathing exercising, a warm-up with Sun Salutations and then some postures the teacher decides on and helps you with. I liked the individual coaching that happened here and there, but I do like my yoga a touch more intensive. There was a little too much breathing, Ohm-ing and relaxing: a 20-minute relaxation exercise is a little much for me. At the end of class so I did float out of there all mellow so if I have some extra time I might go again, but it’s definitely not my favorite of non-Bikram Yoga classes.

Asthanga Yoga: …Now this I like! I took this class yesterday and I’m already excited for next week’s class — definitely going again.

This class was intense for me because in Bikram we never do any Downward Dogs or Sun Salutations and you do shitloads of all the Dogs or Sun Salutations in there. You gotta love Bikram but it’s nice to do a different set of postures every now and then.

You also have to hold a lot of postures for five whole breaths — I could really feel them working my muscles. Some postures were relatively okay for me to do (I have a good limber back from all the Bikram backbends) while with others I was flopping all over the place and looking at other people in terror: “Do I have to do that too?!”

The yoga teacher was very good with both instructions as helping us into the postures with her hands. I was kind of surprised when I was in stretching and you know…she sat on me. I mean, actually downright sitting on my back. However, she did it very gently and it got the job done: I touched my forehead to my knees and never stretched so deeply.

For now, my non-Bikram favorite is absolutely Asthanga Yoga; but I want to try a few more classes to be sure. Next week I’m trying a few other classes (Yoga Intensive, finally!) and see if I find anything else I like. I’ll report my findings like the good little yoga and self help geek that I am.

Have a lovely weekend, you guys.

Big Smile On Your Face: E-Book Sneak Peek!

E-Book Sneak Peek, Girl Meets Yoga, Yoga 7 Responses »

Jul 162012

For those of you that are new here: On my 24th birthday, I published a free, very short and simple little thing called ‘Girl Meets Yoga’. If you want to read it, all you have to do is click here: It’s very easy to read in iBooks on iPads & iPhones, but since it’s .PDF I think it’s Kindle-friendly too!

Nowadays, whenever I have a little extra time (which is not that often, but still!) I write a little for the sequel of ‘Girl Meets Yoga’. The sequel will have a little more depth and it will be longer — since that’s what most of my readers requested. I’m writing more about what yoga is doing for me now, now that I’ve been doing it for a while, instead of what yoga has done for me while I was getting into it.

The excerpt below is basically how the book is built up: I may write about yoga, but it’s also about everything else. You can usually apply whatever you learn in a yoga class to lots of other areas in your life. Which is handy, I love a good multitask as you can read below. Enjoy!

“This may not seem very profound at first sight, but hey, Disney movies don’t seem profound either but they carry brilliance inside them. Remember that. So the thing is, in yoga class there is one posture where you have to bend your upper body over your lower body, to touch your forehead on your feet eventually.

Which in my case is still a million miles away from actually happening. Before yoga I was a runner, which means this posture is even harder for me. I usually spent the entire posture just trying not to bust a vein while pulling and stretching at the same time. You’re basically bent over yourself like a sheet of paper folded in half. It’s very tough on me: I usually can’t wait for it to be over the moment it started. .

And then all of a sudden, I’m in a class and my yoga teacher Isabella says: “Okay, now put a big smile on your face!” …Um, what now?

I’m upside down as it is, trying to keep my upper body against my legs while trying to stretch while trying to get my face further down my legs and now I was expected to smile to boot. There is only so much multitasking even a woman can handle.

But, obedient grasshopper that I am, I did it. Just the notion of me standing like that and smiling like an idiot made me smile like an even bigger idiot. And when I was genuinely smiling, the posture didn’t feel so hard anymore. I could hold on more easily and that really helped my alignment. What’s more, over time as Isabelle instructed us to put a big smile on our face whenever we did this posture, I actually started to like it. Had not seen that one coming!

Something crazy happens when you put a big smile on your face: Things become easier. I started putting a big smile on my face while experiencing a shitty writer’s block; it made the words flow more easily. I put on a big smile when thinking about other people. I started putting a big smile on my face while thinking of my problems*.

I could get into the whole neurochemistry thing that smiling triggers, but all you need to know is that a smile automatically releases neurotransmitters that make you feel good, or at least better. And feeling good helps absolutely everything in life. Not just in a yoga posture, but also when faced with a difficult client at work, going through a rough patch with your partner, a bad day or any type of other personal crisis.

I encourage you to try it. Think of a problem in your life and put a smile on your face. Whenever you feel down, consciously lift up the corners of your mouth and smile for a second. When you’re doing something hard at work, smile while you’re doing it. Try to maintain that smile as long as you can. It may lift you, help you.

…And even if it doesn’t, at least you’ll be camera-ready.

*most of them first world and nerd, but hey, even first world people & nerds have some genuine trouble in their lives.”

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