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?

Wow - that does look tricky!

stilllearning - What is that 'free form' practice like? I can't quite picture yoga without the traditional asanas.

That video was interesting, thanks. Much of "quietening the mind" etc does feel a bit like thoughts are being whacked. I like the traffic analogy.

Free form is just my expression. Umm, so basically I would say that you might do some asanas but at some point you feel that your hand or arm or neck needs to move in a different way and so you follow that and it leads to another movement, it might resemble an asana but not really be it. You are working intuitively. Sounds weird and not really yoga - but I liked it. As I say I found it quite liberating. I wouldn't like to abandon asanas, but it was interesting to go off road for a while!

It sounds interesting. I still can't picture it, though

Off to Google...

It might be a bit made up. I would say next time you are doing some home practice - pause at a natural break, close your eyes and see how your body wants to move.

Yea it's that one cote, I could only do it fully on one leg, but one leg's a start! It is great when everything clicks, I was a bit gutted there was no time for lotusing last night - I think I'd probably have managed it, my hips just felt super open. Usually that only happens around full moon, so god knows what was going on!

Going to have a look at that video later when I get a bit of peace, I do like things like that!

Aha! I have had a google - which was a bit of an eye opener and a sometimes quite funny. But I think these two vids are what I am badly explaining. I think it come from yoga being about getting away from your mind (at times) and so once you are in that kind of space, go with what you feel rather than what you think. It is not instead of asanas but kind of off road a bit.

This one started my day right though!

Sorry about the links! But I think he explains it better towards the end. I like the way he gets off the mat, My teacher says if you bump into someone just work off them.

Ooo I'm not sure I'd like that! I do ashtanga so would find it really odd just doing my own thing!

still - That Simon Park video Wow, that's no longer yoga imho. That's modern dance.

I'd be going "free form" as well, if I could do stuff like that. Seriously, some of it made me wonder if computer graphics have been used in the making of that video. Very jealous

Mysore yoga is doing your own thing but guided by the teacher, sounds a bit like that but a more extreme version. I think it's interesting to do both lead and more free form yoga, they each answer different needs.

My regular teacher tends to do a class where we do a little bit of work on our legs, back, arms, balances etc so everything has a bit of a stretch by the end. Whereas I've had other teachers who concentrate on one area for the whole session which can be good and helpful going forward in home practice but if your back needs a stretch and then they concentrate on legs or balances can be frustrating since it doesn't really answer what you need that day. So I can see how free form could be good, especially once you have a bit of experience.

Yes when we were chatting about it, my yoga teacher said 'is this yoga?' But its where her practice is taking her I suppose. Yes, I think that Simon Park video is dance too. (which, believe me is not what I was doing the other night!!). Also in his other videos they have djs etc, which is nice but a bit gimmicky maybe? Anyway my original reason for posting is that I can see this helping with me actually getting a home practice going, rather than having to follow a video or something. Wow is that time? just came back from a festival and off to another tomorrow so will be offline for a while.

Hi everyone. Just checking in to let you all know that I can't stop falling flat on my back whenever I try to do a headstand away from the wall. I had another try today at yoga class and ended up crying Whoooaaaaaa as I flipped and crashed on my back. Ouch. Good thing I have no pride since giving birth to DD naked from waste down, on my back, and with my feet in stirrups in full view of any old man who cared to enter the room

How is everyone doing? I've name changed after hackgate btw, but have also been so sporadic with my practice over the summer that there wasn't too much point in posting!

Back on it now though, although my left hamstring is really tight for some reason - I guess the only way is to be gentle on that side until it sorts itself out.

Kids are back in school this week (thankfully) and today was my first day back at my usual yoga studio Unfortunately, my brilliant teacher hasn't returned from her holidays yet so I had to do with her replacement.

It was all so different - supposed to be Vinyasa but there was no "flow" and (my personal bugbear) there was a lot of faux-soft baby-voicing of "iiiiiiinhhhhhhaaaaaale.... ehhhhxhhhhaaaale".

Why do some yoga teachers do this? Why can't they speak in a normal adult voice?