I started a more intensive yoga practice last fall while working at a school that offered after-school vinyasa classes for staff. Our teacher was a wonderful woman that knew just how far to push and challenge us. I'd come out of each hour class feeling sweaty, tired, and at peace. I thought that was how yoga was supposed to.
I couldn't go to yoga classes in January, so I committed to Do Yoga With Me's 30 Day Yoga Challenge. I realized that not all yoga classes were an hour in length, and I had to accept the fact that sometimes yoga didn't stretch me and energize me like the vinyasa classes. Sometimes it just rested me.
Fast forward to March and another yoga challenge that involved way too much lying on the ground and philosophizing, and I was pretty set in my yoga ways. I wanted the classes to be long and tired.
But then life got in the way of yoga, our yoga teacher left, and I didn't find time to fit in my weekly hour of yoga. I put yoga off or just did it occasionally. I toyed around with a new video yoga instructor, Lesley Fightmaster, and did a few short classes. But I wasn't committed.
After reading HummusSapien's Love Letter to Anxiety last week, however, I think I'm ready to recommit to a more regular yoga practice. Though building strength to survive those hour yoga classes is cool, what I really need from yoga are the components of muscle stretching and brain rest. Lesley Fightmaster's classes have just enough chatarungas to keep me moving and she always ends with an inspiring quote, so for now, I think I'll still with her classes. So long, hard, sweaty vinyasa. Hello, rest, because right now, that's what I need more of to moderate my life.
*And if you're like me, living a busy lifestyle but in need of the rest of yoga, I recommend Lesley's Fightmaster's "10 Minute 'Emergency' Yoga Sequence." As said in the video, some yoga is better than no yoga.*
I wrote earlier about my experience with 30 Days of Yoga. I enjoyed that journey, the mental discipline, the time-management, the body practice. And now I've completed another journey: The 31 Day Yoga Revolution with Adriene Mischler. I learned about Yoga with Adriene from a friend who posted lovely photos of her yoga journey on Instagram. After a month off daily yoga practice (goodbye February), I wanted to get back into it. So I signed up.
Let's just say I wasn't a fan. Adriene's yoga is slower and more meditative. Hatha style, not vinyasa. Strength, not stamina focused. Adriene talks a lot. About things other than yoga. She's silly, and sometimes inappropriate, borderline crude. She's way into self-love. And maybe to an unhealthy extent. I found myself unhappy, frustrated after sessions. I started adding ten minutes of Fitness Blender before the yoga. (These videos are shorter than many of Do Yoga With Me's challenges.) That helped a little. But I still found myself angsty.
I completed the final day of the challenge last Friday, and I was grateful. I have to admit that video surprised me a little, though. Adriene didn't talk and just practiced. I had to really watch to follow. I had to focus. This practice contained more flows. More chatarunga. I liked the music in the background. At the end, I finally got into crow (only for a few seconds, but it still counts). I left feeling strong and proud and happy. I think that's what Adriene wanted for her yogis.
So did I enjoy the 31 Day Yoga Revolution? No, not really. Will I continue with another of Adriene's challenges? (Hello, 30 Days of Yoga or Yoga Camp.) Probably not. Yoga with Adriene is not my style. But I still learned from this experience. I practiced discipline. I processed frustration. I got stronger. I let myself feel.
It's okay to dislike. It's okay for something to not be my thing. But what's important is working through the struggle and discomfort, accepting them, accepting myself in the process. That's the revolution.
