On the 27th I had an extra yoga class, on the topic of starting to practice at home.
Walking to class.
Maples.
It was an interesting class. Laurie Blakeney, our teacher, is a very thoughtful person, who puts a lot of energy into her teaching. She thinks things through before presenting them, and learns more about how she wants to do it next time with every presentation.
It was interesting to hear about other people's barriers to practicing at home, and interesting to hear Laurie's solutions to various kinds of barriers. I hope I will be able to get myself to practice at home a few times a week.
Walking home through West Park. The ducks are clear that people who stop on the boardwalk are at least reasonably likely to have food. They come nearby, hoping.
This was a surprise to me. I've caught glimpses of the muskrat a couple of times, over the summer, but this is the first time it came near, like the ducks, as I stood still on the boardwalk. If I knew where to get duck chow, I might get some, and bring a bit to the park when I walk through.
This muskrat is about a foot long, from nose to base-of-tail. Maybe a little more. I still wonder how it got to West Park, which isn't really all that close to other wet-land areas (and which doesn't have a very big wet-land area itself!).
Oak.
Ragged hostas.
Red leaf on a green fence.
Jet trails behind the megamart.
Jet trails over the neighborhood as I walked Willard.
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2 comments:
I love these posts. Would love to hear her suggestions for yoga at home. Sigh :-/.
[blush] Thanks!
She broke it up into categories -- mental obstacles (too busy, too tired -- the sort of blah, blah, blah "reasons" we use to *not* do just about anything), physical obstacles (lack of space, lack of wall space, lack of props), and, hmm, knowledge obstacles (that's not what she called it, I'm pretty sure, but -- how to modify the poses for our particular bodies, or how to put together a string of poses...).
She offered suggestions for dealing with each category. For "too busy, too tired" -- perhaps baby steps. Not an hour, just 10 minutes. Two or three poses. For "no space" she suggested the space in front of a door. Not only is that space usually empty for the dimensions of a yoga mat, but the door is often solid enough to provide "wall space." For "but I don't know what to DO," I think the basic suggestion was "Try." :-) lol...........
There are lots of books in the library with series of poses. She suggested we note, after the end of class, what we did in class (which is dozens of poses; no way I personally can remember all that -- but I suppose whatever I did remember would be better than nothing....).
I'm glad you asked this -- thinking about how to describe what she said has helped me arrange and solidify it in my mind.
I think the primary take-aways would be the same as for beginning just about anything.....
1) Begin. Baby steps are fine!
2) Use the space/props you have (and use your imagination to find space/props). Don't bother about what you don't have until you have established a practice of using what you do have (with the exception that you probably really need a sticky mat).
3) There is tons of info available (in class, library, online -- though this was not mentioned in class) to give you an idea how to proceed.
4) #1 is the most important.
:-)
Another thing she said that resonated for me was that class is NOT like your practice at home. Both are valuable, for different reasons. It is SUPPOSED to be different at home, where you can take your own time to begin, hold, and finish each pose (as an example of one advantage to solo practice).
She also said that if you buy props, be sure to get two blocks at the same time (because if you need two at once, you almost always want them to be identical), and she also mentioned two identical blankets (for when you have one under each leg, for example).
Hmm. She might think it's interesting to see this compression of that class.............. :-)
Thank you again for asking! :-)
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