15 minutes of yoga a day, for 30 days

October 3, 2012

15 minutes of yoga a day, for 30 days

There are lots of yoga challenges these days. Most, if not all of them, are run by studios and the goal is to get students to come to class more often. It's a win-win - students get the benefits of coming to class more often and notice that when they make time for it, they really can fit more into their schedule than they thought. And, the studio gets more consistency in the classes and more business, too.

Many of us love the community of the studio and the structure a great teacher can bring to your practice. Even us teachers! I tried a challenge like that a few years ago and although I enjoyed it, it also was not sustainable for my current lifestyle. I have a full-time job and two young boys. I also have a husband that I like to spend time with, and we try to be partners in the caring of our children.

So, these studio challenges, although awesome in many ways, don't fit for me. For a while, I've been sort of resentful of this realization. Sort of limiting in my thinking about how I'll fit in my favorite way of moving my body - yoga.

I've noticed that this limited thinking has left me feeling quite down about the whole parenting lifestyle. Wishing I could do the things I did when I was single or childless. However, that kind of thinking is not productive and it's pretty depressing.

So, I thought - what if instead, I do yoga at home. I know this is not a novel idea. Home practices are lauded by yogis all over the world. And, it fits for me now. Last month I did at least 1 sun salute a day for 30 days #30daysofsunsalutes. This month I'm stepping it up - 15 minutes a day for 30 days. #15yogain30. Sometimes I'll do my own practice and sometimes I'll do a video online.

Yesterday I did my own practice - here's the sequence if anyone is interested in using it:

Mountain pose
3 forward folds with lifts up to sky in between
Down dog
Right leg - 3 dd splits with knee into belly
Lunge w dropped knee and arms up
Do same on left
Down dog
3 sun salutes w jump back and forward
Right leg
Warrior 1 with 5 fists of fire
Warrior 2 with pulsing front leg and ujjayi breath
Repeat on left leg
Vinyasa
Jump forward
Fold
Chair pose twist on both sides multiple times - with a faster pace and fire breath.
Stop on left side - step back into twist with lunge legs
Open arms
Come up into warrior 2
move back and forth between side angle pose and humble warrior multiple times
after 3rd round - half moon pose
step back into vinyasa
repeat on other side
come back to chair pose
step back to warrior 3
bring back leg forward into eagle pose
unwind arms jump back into plank - vinyasa
repeat other side
come back to mountain
3 rounds of sun salutes
come down to seated - sit in sukasana for a few breaths to close.
Namaste