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Thursday, August 29, 2013
Mindful Yoga
What defines a good yoga practice? Regularly attending a sweaty room, having a calm mind, wearing yoga pants to more places than the mat? It need a closer look at yoga, what is yoga to you?
I seem to turn to yoga when my mind need quieting, my hips are sore, or negativity is clouding the brain. Attending classes on the regular make me happy, it really does, so why don't we do it more often? Work, school, sleep, grocery shopping, that 1/2 marathon I just signed up for, boyfriends, they all seem to get in the way. Boyfriend; now that's a good one. Really he likes it when I go to yoga. I am happier, more balanced, and generally more fun to be around. So why is it so hard to dedicate your life to something you love?
Money. At $15 dollars a class it's hard to legitimize spending that much for just yoga. Or to do an unlimited month it can be well over $150!! As a college student and soon to be graduate I am trying to save money so I can support myself in real life. Dreaming of being a yoga teacher has always been in my vault. But how can a yoga teacher afford taking regular classes at their studio? Not that they actually would have to pay for a membership but really, you're selling a product (in this case a class) that you yourself can't afford.
I'm not trying to talk about money or the economy but actually why I feel bound and unable to practice something I love. Luckily there IS such thing as a home practice, and the internet and all other amazing resources. That just takes more self discipline to stay the whole hour or 1.5; but that is what yoga is all about right? Self discipline, self study, self exploration?
A quote from a past yoga class:
"In yoga we put ourselves in difficult postures, and learn how to breath through them. This is to prepare ourselves so in future we are able to focus and breath through hard moments."
Tell us your thoughts here at Unbrand Yoga!!
~Camille Lynn
I seem to turn to yoga when my mind need quieting, my hips are sore, or negativity is clouding the brain. Attending classes on the regular make me happy, it really does, so why don't we do it more often? Work, school, sleep, grocery shopping, that 1/2 marathon I just signed up for, boyfriends, they all seem to get in the way. Boyfriend; now that's a good one. Really he likes it when I go to yoga. I am happier, more balanced, and generally more fun to be around. So why is it so hard to dedicate your life to something you love?
Money. At $15 dollars a class it's hard to legitimize spending that much for just yoga. Or to do an unlimited month it can be well over $150!! As a college student and soon to be graduate I am trying to save money so I can support myself in real life. Dreaming of being a yoga teacher has always been in my vault. But how can a yoga teacher afford taking regular classes at their studio? Not that they actually would have to pay for a membership but really, you're selling a product (in this case a class) that you yourself can't afford.
I'm not trying to talk about money or the economy but actually why I feel bound and unable to practice something I love. Luckily there IS such thing as a home practice, and the internet and all other amazing resources. That just takes more self discipline to stay the whole hour or 1.5; but that is what yoga is all about right? Self discipline, self study, self exploration?
A quote from a past yoga class:
"In yoga we put ourselves in difficult postures, and learn how to breath through them. This is to prepare ourselves so in future we are able to focus and breath through hard moments."
Tell us your thoughts here at Unbrand Yoga!!
~Camille Lynn
Monday, June 17, 2013
Today is my first day of summer. After finishing my finals on Friday a long needed break from school has begun. Now I am in Fresno and ready to start a fun summer with my boyfriend. A summer full of biking, climbing, running, swimming, and luckily YOGA!!! I fell out of practice as my motivation declined while attending a "corporate yoga facility." I injured my shoulder as a result of a class pushing me too hard without a proper warm-up. Last summer I searched for yoga in Fresno and didn't have any result. This time I found something that I am beyond excited to attend. Below is the quote on the front page of their website. I feel this is a call to arms for yoga....enjoy :)
"When you practice yoga, you are able to live through stressful times without becoming stressed. Because The Yoga Center of Fresno's main goal is for you to experience mental and physical relaxation, we teach the postures in the proper way to release stress stored in muscles while shaping the body.
http://www.yogacenterfresno.com/students.html
"When you practice yoga, you are able to live through stressful times without becoming stressed. Because The Yoga Center of Fresno's main goal is for you to experience mental and physical relaxation, we teach the postures in the proper way to release stress stored in muscles while shaping the body.
To some yoga is just another exercise program where well-shaped buns are the only goal. Pictures in magazines and other publications emphasize difficult yoga postures as the goal. Yoga sessions are performed like a gymnastics contest to determine the best yogi. This all has changed the public's perception of the true purpose and meaning of yoga. This is in part the great difference between modern yoga and The Yoga Center of Fresno's Yoga of the Old Masters. "
http://www.yogacenterfresno.com/students.html
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Meditation
I just couldn't bring my self to go to yoga yesterday. I have been dealing with a shoulder injury that was painful in down dog and during chataranga, usually sitting out is not my thing. I knew I could go and "listen to my body" but child's pose for an hour and a half wasn't what I wanted.
Instead I went on a hike and meditated at the top. Being my first act of personal, intentional meditation I was afraid. I was afraid of where my mind would take me, where it would try to go. Focus on your breath, your body, emptiness. So I tried. I set my watch for 20 minutes, sat up on top of a rock, and shut my eyes.
The beginning was nice, easy almost, but there I started to wonder. Wander on studying for finals, what I was going to make for dinner, what I was going to do this weekend. I am a compulsive planner.
I would bring my thoughts back to my breath, to the wind in my hair, across my back, and to my third eye. But eventually the strain was too much and I could bare it no longer, I had to check the time; surely it was twenty minutes by now.
15, I was five minutes short, or 15 minutes ahead of where I started. Blinking my eyes open I felt refreshed and rejuvenated and happy to have tried.
Instead I went on a hike and meditated at the top. Being my first act of personal, intentional meditation I was afraid. I was afraid of where my mind would take me, where it would try to go. Focus on your breath, your body, emptiness. So I tried. I set my watch for 20 minutes, sat up on top of a rock, and shut my eyes.
The beginning was nice, easy almost, but there I started to wonder. Wander on studying for finals, what I was going to make for dinner, what I was going to do this weekend. I am a compulsive planner.
I would bring my thoughts back to my breath, to the wind in my hair, across my back, and to my third eye. But eventually the strain was too much and I could bare it no longer, I had to check the time; surely it was twenty minutes by now.
15, I was five minutes short, or 15 minutes ahead of where I started. Blinking my eyes open I felt refreshed and rejuvenated and happy to have tried.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
"Ab Work"
I was late this morning to my Sunrise Yoga class. Disgruntled about having to disrupt the initial meditation with the sound of my rain coat and boots. Luckily the teacher was talking about his excitement for the pain our abdominals are going to feel today. Going on about how this class is going to be so hard and how excited he is about it made me even more frustrated.
Starting out my class in the wee hours of the morning frustrated was not my ideal. I would have rather stayed in bed than listen to the ab work we were going to go through. Instead of starting the class with some opening postures (we just got out of bed and a night's sleep) we started in dolphin. As my tight shoulders inhibited me to be able to 'relax' into the posture I was second guessing ever coming back to this teacher's class again.
"5...4...3..3 1/2...2...1...rest"
I opted out of the numerous sets of crunches we were instructed to do. I spent them in child's pose and other times downward dog. It frustrates me that flows are getting interrupted by the count of sit-ups and the breath is lost while trying to "hold it for 30 seconds." I wonder what Iyengar would think of our "ab-work." In his book of Yoga his own belly doesn't make it seem like he would care.
Flowing through you poses and meditation is more important than what your abs look like. If you care about your middle then go to Pilates or a core class; but please don't try to incorporate it into my mediation. Vinyasa flow classes are taking out warrior 2 and replacing the crunch. Studios are turning into gyms. I have nothing against gyms but I usually don't go there to relax and mediate.
So this was my rant against corporate yoga. I won't even start to go into my "pay period" or my "membership account." That will have to be next time
Unbrand Yoga...A grass roots yoga initiative
I was late this morning to my Sunrise Yoga class. Disgruntled about having to disrupt the initial meditation with the sound of my rain coat and boots. Luckily the teacher was talking about his excitement for the pain our abdominals are going to feel today. Going on about how this class is going to be so hard and how excited he is about it made me even more frustrated.
Starting out my class in the wee hours of the morning frustrated was not my ideal. I would have rather stayed in bed than listen to the ab work we were going to go through. Instead of starting the class with some opening postures (we just got out of bed and a night's sleep) we started in dolphin. As my tight shoulders inhibited me to be able to 'relax' into the posture I was second guessing ever coming back to this teacher's class again.
"5...4...3..3 1/2...2...1...rest"
I opted out of the numerous sets of crunches we were instructed to do. I spent them in child's pose and other times downward dog. It frustrates me that flows are getting interrupted by the count of sit-ups and the breath is lost while trying to "hold it for 30 seconds." I wonder what Iyengar would think of our "ab-work." In his book of Yoga his own belly doesn't make it seem like he would care.
Flowing through you poses and meditation is more important than what your abs look like. If you care about your middle then go to Pilates or a core class; but please don't try to incorporate it into my mediation. Vinyasa flow classes are taking out warrior 2 and replacing the crunch. Studios are turning into gyms. I have nothing against gyms but I usually don't go there to relax and mediate.
So this was my rant against corporate yoga. I won't even start to go into my "pay period" or my "membership account." That will have to be next time
Unbrand Yoga...A grass roots yoga initiative
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The other day I went to yoga. I went to a healing class because I may have torn my ACL. Never the less I was the youngest person in the class by +30 years.
I went, I practiced, I wasn't the most flexible, and enjoyed it none the less. The arm stands and back bend that I am capable were not for show and tell that class. It was about relaxing and becoming in tuned with your body. I can't even remember if we ever went into downward dog; but that wasn't the point in the class.
Leaving after our hour and a half class left me joyful and happy. Happy to be young and able, happy to have started yoga before I was disparately injured, and happy to be able to share a class with women whom are way more wise.
"Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured."
B.K.S. Iyenga
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