Day 9 ~ Full Potential Detox Practice

    Day 9 and feelin' fine!!! This session was definitely a little tougher than the previous ones. I do have to admit that I was not in a yoga mode at all. I was perfectly fine just sitting down & working on my blog in my pj's while drinking a beer. My to do list was fresh in my mind and I didn't want to take time away from getting this blog on a roll & out for people to read. It's pretty much been my life for the past 3 days! My boyfriend convinced me that we needed to do it & he wasn't feeling it either but no excuses! (Man, he really knows how to get me to do things that I don't want to do.) So, I huffed aaand I puffed aaaand I put the computer down! :)

   With that being said, Day 9 finally began. This session revolved around a full body detox - yoga style. It can help with your digestive system if your feeling a little bloated or anything that might be wrong with your stomach.

    We began on our backs, focusing on relaxing and getting ready for this practice. Now, what I thought was funny is that she somehow knew how I was feeling and made it a point to say, "Just put away the to do lists and put away the day thus far & just ease into this present moment." I immediately just looked up at the ceiling and thought,"Crap, How does she know?!" This allowed me to realize that I needed to take this next 25 minutes and just focus on me and let everything else go for now.

   She had us sit cross legged on the mat and move our arm back behind us to get a nice, good stretch. With this, she told us to shout something, as if we were shouting it off a mountain top. My boyfriend twisted a little more and decided to shout, "Holy Shit!" Right at that moment, Adriene said, "Make sure its something positive, like I love my life!" We both laughed and he actually apologized to her. After a good chuckle , we proceeded to do our usual transition of downward dog to lunge. I noticed that I have improved my ability to swing right into lunge with my right leg but still am having a little trouble with my left. I now know that is something I need to work on! She then led us into high lunge (basically lunge with your arms raised straight into the air and back heel lifted up.) She had us pulse up and down on our back leg while keeping the front leg still and strong. This was a little hard. Next we  added a twist to this lunge. Twisting essentially means bringing your opposite elbow to the outside of your front leg, then making a fist with your other hand directly into the palm. All while keeping the elbow nice and pointed towards the sky.

To end out the session, we moved into a utkatasana twist or chair pose twist. This is a move that will strengthen the thighs, butt & hips, as well as one of the best poses to help detoxify the body. Utkatasana Twist is where we stand with out legs together and bend our knees, as if we are sitting in a chair. We then lifted our arms into prayer mode and twist to the side, holding it there for a good 15 seconds. This doesn't seem like to long, but when you're actually doing it, it's pretty difficult! I kept losing my balance and at one point I even fell. But I got back up. Never give up! Once we were finished, I had found that I definitely sweat and felt the burn in my thighs. I am excited to go back to this video later on and see how I have improved.

Now its you're turn to feel the burn! 

Namaste :)  

Day 9 ~ Full Potential Detox Practice

 

Day 8 ~ Yoga for Healing & Meditation

  

  

   It's day 8! Don't hate, meditate & feel great! I truly enjoy her quirky little things she says at the beginning of each session :)

   After yesterdays two intense sessions (abs and total body), I was glad to find out that this session was about Total relaxation! Hallelujah! Haha! Mediation is an amazing thing, you never truly realize how much noise is going on in your head, until you try to mediate and push all those thoughts aside to clear your mind. I have read about and practiced meditation a few times. Mostly when I have found myself stressed out, dealing with anxiety, or even with a migraine. It can do wonders for so many things. I will provide you with a link explaining the history of mediation here: History of Mediation.

   Since there isn't much to go into detail here, I will use this entry to transition into explaining some of the things in my world outside of these yoga sessions. Don't worry, I will still have the video at the bottom of this entry, so please feel free to try it out if you are needing some relaxation!

   While starting this journey, I was given a book by my brother called:

 The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, in hopes that it would help me with some things I had been battling with self happiness and bettering myself inside and out. I haven't been able to get too far into it, but from what I have read, it has been inspiring! I recommend it if you have been having trouble finding or improving yourself. I have included the book description below for you :)

"In The Joy of Living, world-renowned Buddhist teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche—the “happiest man in the world”—invites us to join him in unlocking the secrets to finding joy and contentment in the everyday. Using the basic meditation practices he provides, we can discover paths through our problems, transforming obstacles into opportunities to recognize the unlimited potential of our own minds."

   Personal update: In the beginning of this challenge, I noticed that my balance was off, my strength was low, and my flexibility was none existent. With day 9 around the corner, I have noticed some improvements. My strength is definitely getting better, especially when we are doing the vinyasa. I am starting to feel the workout in my shoulders and arms and have to  remind myself that it's a GOOD PAIN! With each day I notice I am becoming more and more flexible. I'm definitely not at Elastigirl status, but  I am better than day 1! Now for balance, I am still having trouble with that but I am keeping the determination! If I fall, I get back up! Also, I have noticed that I am starting to incorporate yoga into my daily life. If I am sitting at work , or just anywhere in general, I stretch out my neck or I will bring my arms up & back, allowing my back and shoulders to get a nice good stretch. Now I will leave you with this quote to end out this entry . Namaste :)

      


Day 8 ~ Yoga for Healing & Meditation

Day 6 + 7 ~ Six Pack Abs! + Total Body Workout

   Heading into day 6, we reach a more intense yoga session. That's right....SIX...PACK...ABS! Dun Dun Dun! Lol. When I saw this as the caption, I was most definitely not ready for it. But come on, it's only yoga....how bad can a yogi ab workout be?! Well... after waking up the next day with my abs feeling shredded, I would like to retract that statement. Never have my abs hurt so much from a work out! But please keep in mind, any pain from yoga or exercising in general, is ALWAYS good pain! It just means you are having, and beginning a positive transformation!

   Starting this session off, we first made sure we had our mats laid out right, water by our side & our yoga blocks! (Which came in super handy for this practice.) If you do decide to try this one out & don't have a yoga block, feel free to just use your imagination (or a few Harry Potter books!) We began in a flat back position to the mat, hugging the legs into the chest, followed by extending the legs up into the air and positioning our hands behind the head, fingers crossed. Now this is where we were allowed to use the yoga block, She told us to position it between our thighs, which allowed us to focus on making sure our legs would stay strongly positioned in this next move. We then lifted our head and shoulders forward while making sure we were keeping our shoulders flat, and elbows wide. She reminded us to not do so much of a crunch motion, but imagine that we had a beautiful piece of fruit being held beneath our chin and chest, allowing our head to stay strongly facing up while we kept our upward movements nice and easy. This particular ab work out was probably my favorite one of the session. :)

The next sequence was, I must say...the hardest one for me to keep up with. We started out laying back to the floor, bringing our knees back up over the hips, then extending the right leg out. As we extended the right leg out, we brought the block under the left and then we switched. So we imagined we were bobbing a basketball back and forth under our legs, She gave us 2 other variations we could do as well, which I like. Who doesn't like options?!

   You would think we had enough wouldn't you?! Nope! We were still pumped up and decided to dig our heels into day 7 as well! This session allows you to open up your side body and get that heart rate going, while you build strength! It really just takes you through repetition sequence from downward dog, vinyasa & warrior. While in warrior 1 pose, we learned a new term and movement with our arms called garudasana. While staying in Warrior 1, we drop the right arm underneath the left and brought the palms together, then lifting  the elbows up and finger tips reach out. It was interesting to try to focus on doing that while still balancing in Warrior 1.

Ending both sessions, we allowed our selves to to head into shavasana. Also known as, corpse pose or relaxation/mediation. After 2 intense sessions, it was definitely important to do. I look forward to going back and doing day 6 again to strengthen my core and abilities.

Be sure to check out the videos below!

Namaste :)

Day 6 ~ Six Pack Abs

Day 7 ~Total Body Yoga

Day 4 + 5 ~ Yoga has Your Back + Feel Alive Flow

This pretty much sums up this post :(

   Day 4 & 5! I apologize in advance because I somehow lost the original published version of this entry and can't remember all that I wrote! I am a sad panda! :[

    My boyfriend and  I unfortunately ended up with different schedules this week, so we decided to just do these on our own until it was back to normal. Feeling pumped and ready to go, I set up my mat in our bedroom and hit play on the laptop. But within a few seconds, my computer decided to be a jerk and would not load the video! I sat there patiently while it loaded and then proceeded once it did.The darn thing kept freezing to the point where I did more waiting than any yoga. I then decided I would try again the next day and consider this a rest night. Over the next couple days, I became under the weather so I got pushed back a few days. This did fall perfectly for us to be back on the same schedule and proceed doing yoga practice together. Since we were both behind, we decided to do both 4 & 5. Since I have 2 sessions in this entry, I am going to keep it brief and just give an short description of what each video focused on.

• Day 4 covered exercises to help strengthen and stretch your back. We focus a lot on the breathe and how we can focus on breathing specifically into a certain part of our body to enhance our exercises and feel a little something different. Breathing also is extremely important to keep you centered and to be able to stick with a position with out stressing your body out.

• Day 5 is focused on making you know what it feels like to be alive! To notice how your body reacts to everything we do. If you are feeling the blues, allow this exercise to help you feel fresh and energetic again! 

   Again, I apologize for the briefness. I will make it up in the following posts! Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my blog entries! It is appreciated!

Namaste :)

Day 4

Day 5

Day 3 ~ Forget What You Know

   Day 3! This session we started out with resetting our minds back to a beginners mind. Just sweep everything you thought you knew about yoga out of your mind & start with a new slate. When we allow our selves to think with this mind set, it allows us to open up to all possibilities!

   Now I know the last entry, I went pretty in depth about what we did in the session. Almost step by step. There will be some entries that I will explain a lot, and some I will just give a brief description as well as sharing my own personal experience. I do provide the featured video in the bottom of each entry, please feel free to try it out & open your mind up to new possibilities. Create your own personal experience! This session is focused on checking in on your balance & being able to understand how to connect with your core center.

   The exercise she starts out with its just one to keep you mindful of how your body naturally moves. Standing in mountain pose, I began to lift my legs one by one up towards my chest. With this movement, I noticed my body naturally wanted to sway a little in the direction of the leg that was pressing into the earth. You have to try to remember to keep your body center. An easy way to focus this is by keeping your head over your heart & your heart over your pelvis. Another thing I came to realize is if you are having a hard time balancing, just keep focus on a spot on the wall or floor. Following this, we moved in to a few more poses focusing on our balance. 

   Now this next position definitely started to work out your abs a little bit. We sat and lifted our legs bent, balancing on our sit (butt) bones. We then transitioned into extending one leg out, while reaching our hands out to the opposite side. She explains that you should be extending your arms as if you are holding Simba out over Pride Rock. Yeah, Disney nerd right here! No wonder I like her as an instructor. This was a little tough but, I got through it. No giving up here!

   Now ending this session out, we went back to sitting mode with our feet on the floor. She then had us roll back and forth from sitting up position, and back down with our backs on the floor and our legs extended up. I remember as a kid, I would do this and balance on my upper back with my legs straight in the air for as long as I could. This portion of the session soon became a laughing match between my partner and I, all because she told us that if we wanted to try & roll back into a pile pose we could. A pile pose is where you roll back with your legs extended back above your head.  So....I tried it. LOL. Basically, I lost balance & rolled sideways right into my boyfriend. All in all it was a great session full of learning & laughs. I made this meme in honor of today's practice. :) Thanks for checking in!

Day 3 - Forget What You Know

Day 2 ~ Stretch & Soothe

 

As we headed into Day 2 of 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene, I found myself excited to learn more of what she had to teach me. I was so excited, I took a selfie right before we began to share with my friends & family my new found interest.

  So we got on our mats, and dove right in to day number 2. This session began with an easy (& my personal favorite) pose, extended child pose. This helps get your body warmed up for the following sequences by stretching the kinks out. What I like about Adriene is that she tells you to allow yourself to move a little side to side or even sway back & forth if your standing. You don't have to be totally stiff & serious. You can have fun while doing it & it feels great! We then got on all fours, extending the right leg straight out, imagining we are pressing it into a wall. These imagination descriptions she gives us; I have come to find, really really help me understand exactly what I am suppose to be doing. We then switched off to the left leg, from there she had us bring our leg back from extended leg pose and had us hug it in to the chest (almost so our nose and knee were touching), this is a good one to help improve your balance. Once done with that, my wrists were really starting to hurt pretty bad from pressing down into the ground like we were. Luckily, she showed us a little wrist exercise we can do to help reduce wrist pain after doing those poses. 

   During the next sequence, we did poses like downward dog, baby cobra, plank and then jumping into mountain pose and repeat. I've always hated repetition in other yoga videos, but have found that I don't mind it so much with these. Maybe it's cause I actually like the instructor? Haha!! To end it out, we sat back on our mats, pulled our legs into our chest giving them a hug and then proceeded to rock back & forth from sitting position & back to laying on our backs. This gave our spines a nice little massage, and we finally came to a rest on our backs to end session number two with a little relaxation.

   I will admit, it was a little harder than Day 1 (of course), but I didn't find my self wanting to give up or skip poses. She even said at one point, "If you would like to skip this, you can." I was rather proud of myself when I pushed through, rather than giving up like I had before. 

    Check out the video below for day 2 and give it a shot! Leave me a comment let me know how you did :)

Day 2 - Stretch & Soothe

Day 1 - Ease Into It

  

   Now I started this blog a little late in the game. I am currently on Day 9 of 30 Days of Yoga, and I will do my best to update you at least to that point. 

   In the past, I haven't had much luck connecting with the instructors on the yoga DVD's my boyfriend had purchased. They've always felt a little to serious for me & made me feel as if I didn't do the poses exactly the way they did them, or couldn't hold them for as long...That I was a failure & then I would give up. A little over a week ago, he decided to just search YouTube for yoga for us to try. (Since I didn't like the ones he was getting LOL) That's when we came across Yoga with Adriene. (I have included the link to her YouTube page right in the text!) So we got our yoga mats out, sat down & pressed play. It happened to be the Day 1, of the 30 Days of Yoga video and at first I was NOT thinking, "YEAH! 30 Day Challenge! Lets do this thing!" It was more like,"Ok, lets see whats it's like, but I'm not doing a 30 Day Challenge... Are ya kidding me?!" Within the first 2 minutes, I was hooked. This was different than all the other yoga sessions, I have ever done. It was being taught by a cute, quirky woman who didn't take herself so serious and I immediately related to her. This got me super excited & I was able to give her my full attention. I finally found my yoga instructor. 

    This particular session started out easy. She reminded us to Ease Into It, don't jump right into poses you haven't trained your body to do yet. Yoga is all about the awareness of your body, and awareness of your breathing. Listen to your breath, focus on inhaling deeply through your nose and then exhaling through your mouth. Focus on the natural stretch of your body & what it's telling you it is capable of doing as of right now, not of what you think it needs to be doing.You want to move easy & slow, there's no need to rush into things. With practice, it will become easier & feel more natural.

   This experience is far more than becoming stronger & more flexible, and there is more to it than becoming toned in problem areas. It's also about being able to connect with ones self - mind, body & soul. After this first session I felt empowered, and I actually felt determination to do this 30 day journey of bettering myself inside & out. That's when I made the decision, let's rock this & see where this journey takes us :)

  I will include the  featured video at the bottom of the blog each day, and I encourage everyone who has or hasn't tried yoga, to give Adriene a chance. 

Enjoy! :)

                                                                 Day 1 - Ease Into It