Yoga Chat: Would anyone like to chat here about our daily practice?

[CoteDAzur]

... since nobody in RL is willing to listen to me talk about how I hooked on to my big toe this morning or how I might soon dare do my headstand away from a wall?

How is your practice these days? Achievements? Challenges?

In traditional ashtanga, there's no posture practise on days when there's a full moon or no moon. I've heard two reasons for this:

1. with a six-day practise spread across the month, it's good to have a couple of extra days where you rest;

2. the moon messes up your 'inner balance' when it's full or... what's the word? No-moon.

What is "no-moon"?

The opposite of a full moon!

Meaning, you can't see the moon in the sky?

Eh? No moon? Losing your balance because of the moon? I don't understand.

Don't think Moon Day is observed in many classes but might be observed more in shala-based classes (though mine does have classes tomorrow) Am massively jealous in awe of your 6 day practice Cao

I would love to find energy to do daily yoga
By the time I do my work and commute 12 hours of my day are gone, I am aiming at 7 hour sleep. 5 hours left.

I usually spend 1 hour of it walking my dog.

4 hours left...
I should be able to find 20-25 min to do some yoga!

Anti short (under 30 mins or so) Ashtanga practice videos here which you might like:

If you don't like Ashtanga, Yoga with Adrienne on Youtube has (I think) Hatha videos some of which are quite short.

No better time than now!
Day one is 34 min -

I should be able to manage it today.

Hello, I've just found the yoga topic! I've been having a good read through the threads and I feel like I've found my people - no one in real life wants to talk yoga with me.
I've been practicing yoga for about 4 years but I'm really out if shape at the moment as I've just had a baby. I tried to continue practicing yoga throughout my pregnancy but was too tired and uncomfortable to do much. I did pregnancy yoga but that was more about relaxation than exercise,so I've lost all of my strength and flexibility!
Dd is 6 weeks old and I'm dying to get started with my practice now. I tried a few stretches the other day and I'm pretty disappointed at how inflexible I am now. I won't be able to get to a class for a while so I'm planning to do the 30 days of yoga as linked to on this thread starting today! That's assuming I can put the baby down for that long. Would be nice to see anyone's thoughts on 30 days of yoga or links to anything else that might be good in getting going with yoga again after a break.

hazel - I'm sure your strength & flexibility will return in no time. In fact, you probably have more strength in your legs than you realise, having carried pregnancy weight for so many months. I heard good things about 30 days of yoga with Adrienne. Let us know how it goes.

Ooh another yoga thread! I'm just coming back to yoga after not doing any for a few years. Have found a local class starting in September, and in the meantime am loving the yoga with Adriene on YouTube! I have had a tendency to push myself a bit too hard in the past and feel drained rather than energised and relaxed afterwards. But Adriene makes it very chilled and enjoyable. I think I'll carry on doing her videos in between classes once I start in September.

For me, the thing with moon days is (tell me to shut up if I'm bleating on about them too much!) less about the 'influence' of the moon but more about having a couple of days in the month where you rest.

I practised this morning after taking yesterday off (the place I go to doesn't run classes on Saturdays) and Friday (moon day), and felt good for the rest.

Reporting back on 30 days of yoga - I've done day 1 and 2 and feel really good for doing it, I've missed yoga so much and I'd forgotten how good it feels to have a proper stretch! I did find it pretty difficult though. All of the poses were familiar to me and would have been easy enough pre pregnancy but everything feels different now, for example I struggled to hold plank for more than a breath or two and I didn't have a hope of doing chaturanga!
Adrienne comes across as a lovely supportive teacher though(I'm a little bit in love with her already) and she gives modifications for lots of poses so I don't feel too disheartened. I don't think I'd recommend it to total beginners though as there isn't a huge amount of explanation during the'flowing' (vinyasa?)

Whoops posted halfway through a sentence - meant to say vinyasa part of the class, but most of the class was fairly simple and easy to follow as long as you have a little knowledge of yoga.

hazelnut - I'm not surprised you couldn't do chaturanga (which AutoCorrect changed to 'chattering' ). After I came back to yoga, it took me several months before I could do anything resembling a proper chaturanga!

Cote yes I know it's one that needs good upper body strength - just need to keep reminding myself I shouldn't try and run before I walk!

Yes, I've built up (what feels like) considerable upper body strength over the past year, with visible (to me) muscles in my arms. Thanking yoga for it every day

Talking about upper body strength, I love doing headstands but don't seem to be going anywhere with handstands. Can anyone give some tips?

Hazel I started 30 Days of Yoga today! I am doing Day 2 tomorrow.
I am very new to yoga but suffer with anxiety and really need this for stress and to calm me down.

I have been going to a Dru yoga class but I am the only new person and everyone else there has been going for years. I am Dyspraxic and at this Dru class the teacher starts everyone off with aerobic type exercise (activation she calls it). It's my idea of hell on earth because my body just won't do what I tell it to and I get my left and right confused easily when doing fast paced activity. I am also a bit shy and the awareness of how much I was struggling with following the aerobics made me feel miserable. Then we do one or two positions (or whatever you call them) and then it's a 5 minute relaxation.
My teacher is nice enough but she was a bit irritated with me last week because I just couldn't get my left and right sorted and tbh I just felt like crying at that point. I felt useless
Luckily I found this section and read about 30 Days...and signed up.
Well my first day went really well. I probably look horrible and am doing it all wrong and I know I forget to breathe but I really enjoyed the session and found I could follow what Adriene said. Plus there was no crappy aerobics session!! Plus it was a real yoga session (one position flowing into the next) as opposed to a couple of disjointed positions I would forget about until next week.
I hope this feeling of peace continues because this was what I wanted all along. What type of yoga is it Adriene teaches?
I hope to find another class but for now I will stick with this.

What is Dru yoga? I don't like "Come on! One! Two! Three!" in yoga, and thankfully there isn't much of it, but I have seen a few yoga/pilates classes with that vibe. It sounds like you would like a beginner's Vinyasa class much better.

Whichever class you go to, I think it's a good idea to tell the instructor about your difficulties beforehand. I have problems with several joints and talk to each new instructor about the stuff I won't be able to do before class starts so that she doesn't try to push me to do Goddess pose or put all my weight onto one wrist on a side plank, for example.

Cote I picked Dru because it was supposed to be very meditative. I will definitely check out Vinyasa.

I told the instructor before I started about my Dyspraxia and what it meant so when she was short with me in my last class because I was struggling, I was shocked. I just felt like crying which is not me at all and I think it was probably down to the sudden awareness of how difficult I find stuff like that and a bit of humiliation.
Interestingly I had no such problems when I did the Day 1 session of Adriene's.
Anyway I won't be going back to the Dru class. I'd just paid £80 for the course as well
What type of yoga is it Adriene does in the videos?

Yoga should make you feel great whatever your ability, not the way you were made to feel in your yoga class! Hope you get on well with the 30 days of yoga - if there is anything you can't do then you shouldn't feel bad about it at all - that is why you are practicing!
I wouldn't be put off finding another class though - I've never met a yoga teacher who isn't supportive to all abilities and I've been to a lot of different yoga classes!
Just trying to find time do do day 4 - the baby won't be put down and dd1 wants to join in with the yoga but she was such a hinderance yesterday that I want to wait until she is in bed! It's not exactly relaxing to have a 3 year old climbing between your legs when you are trying to hold a pose!

Shit I had a terrible experience with a teacher a few weeks ago who had a bullying, aggressive attitude to her students. She showed little consideration for her students' well-being (yanking the man next to me's leg even though he said it was painful) and seemed to think that, just because she'd showed us the asana, we should be able to copy her exactly. I don't think she meant to do it, but I felt humiliated by her and I think others did too. It's quite telling that there were only about 5/6 of us in the class and I was there by mistake (the class was misadvertised). I have no idea if this is true, but my regular teacher said that Iyengar (sp) teachers can sometimes appear a bit bullying. Have no idea if it was an Iyengar class don't want to start a fight with Iyengar devotees, but I vowed never to go again. Glad to say that the vast majority of teachers I've had are v professional, let you go at your pace, perform adjustments respectfully. Sorry that happened to you shit but don't let it put you off. You could always try and get your money back.

It's been a while since I looked at Adrienne's channel but from memory, I'd say it was Hatha yoga. Internet bandwidth is difficult where I man atm (on holiday) but I'll try to watch some of her stuff later and let you know.