The fun of evening yoga

Wow, it's sad how long it's been since I've written anything. I have a confession; for a while there, I wasn't really doing yoga.

It's a bummer to see that written out, but it's true. Life with a baby proved a harder adjustment than I had expected. I "failed" at doing the 30 Day Yoga Challenge as well as I was hoping to, and it left me feeling disheartened and frustrated. I didn't think I had anything worthwhile to say about yoga, since I obviously wasn't "committed" to it, so I took a break from doing it and blogging about it.

The cool thing about yoga (and whatever other activities bring you joy) is that even if you step away, you can always come back. It's still there waiting for you, ready to be enjoyed all over again. And so it's been lately with my practice. I'm feeling more confident in my roles as both a mother and an employee (or at least I'm feeling like I'll find a way to balance it all out), so I've been able to find new times in my day to practice.

The fun thing about coming back is that I have a new perspective. I'm following videos on YouTube from channels I subscribe to but don't utilize often. I'm practicing styles that I normally don't consider "me" (like yin yoga) or haven't practiced in over a year (power yoga!). I'm even spending time following my own flows. And, I'm practicing at a time of day I never did before.

Hello, evening yoga!

I've always been a yoga-in-the-morning person. Maybe, depending on my schedule, a yoga-right-after-work-before-dinner person. But never evening. I think I had some hangups about practicing in the evening and getting myself too wound up before bed to sleep. Since I've started doing yoga much later in the day (usually after 7, once I know the Bebe is asleep), I've been able to spend more time on the mat at any given time. There are definitely a few benefits to doing yoga at night.

• I'm way calmer before bed now. Even if I choose to do a much more energetic practice, like power or Vinyasa yoga, several minutes at the end are spent in relaxation and deep steady breathing. This taps into my parasympathetic nervous system which releases stress and anxiety.
• I'm less achy. The Bebe is massive -- huge, even. Everywhere I go, I get comments about how generally gigantic he is in relation to how rather small I am. It isn't always easy on my body (especially my back and arms), so an evening practice after I've put him down to bed allows me to work out the kinks I've created hauling him around.
• I don't have to deal with interruptions. One of the biggest frustrations I had with myself doing the 30 Day Yoga Challenge was that the Bebe constantly needed me. At that phase, he wasn't happy to just lie on a mat and play with toys for 20 minutes. Now I can put him on his mat and he'll watch me practice, but it's even easier if I wait until he's in bed asleep. (I'm pretty lucky in that he falls asleep easily and stays asleep almost the entire night.)

So, motherhood has created yet another interesting change in my life. It's nice to be on my mat regularly again; I'm feeling stronger, more flexible, and generally calmer and happier. (Did doing yoga make me more flexible in my habits and mindset, or did my new flexible habits and mindset make me better at doing yoga? Hmmm....) 

If you've been trying to practice yoga, and find yourself getting stuck because you're never able to be on your mat when you want to, might I suggest looking at your day and trying (just once) to do it at a time you normally never would? It might be lunchtime, or mid-afternoon, or late in the evening. Maybe you could try getting up earlier than you normally would. Even if you never do it at that time again, it can offer you a fresh perspective on your practice.

Do you have a "best time of day" when you are most productive and happiest? How about a preferred time to practice yoga?

30 Day Yoga Challenge: Day ?-Day 26!

I've always been "that person" who is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to academic-type stuff. The annoying one in school that would say before a test, "Oh, I'm gonna fail!" and then get something like an A+ (anything that started with a B was an abject disappointment). Unfortunately, this sheer perfectionism hasn't totally translated to things like housework; I should probably work on that...

The point is that I was really excited about the 30 Day Yoga Challenge. My thought was that surely I would do yoga every day for 30 days in a row, no problem. All of the videos are under 21 minutes, so I'll easily have time for that, right? 

Haha ha. Haha. Ha. 

Nope.

Everything was actually going swimmingly until last week. I got ridiculously sick (like, wake up in the middle of the night to nurse J and think, "Things are not right here," and then in the morning, curl up on the guest bed and beg J to sleep just 5 more minutes while shaking and in horrible pain). Happily, my doctor had an opening that morning so I was able to head in and get some powerful antibiotics (thanks modern medicine! You've been saving my butt quite a bit lately!). 

But I didn't do yoga that day.

And then I missed another day later that weekend. We went to play disc golf and all the walking just kind of wore me out.

Sunday evening, I was nursing J and had a moment of deja vou; my breathing pattern felt a lot like, well, yoga. 

It hit me that something I've been saying for the longest time is actually true. Yoga isn't just the asanas, the stretching, the burn. The most important part is the breath. 

So take heart if you've slipped up and haven't found time to hit your mat! Take 30 seconds to close your eyes if that wouldn't be hazardous and take slow, even, deep breaths. Boom! You just did yoga.

30 Day Yoga Challenge: Day 1, Day 2

Day 1

I got up when my son woke up and decided to get on my mat right away. Before my son J was born, I enjoyed doing yoga first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, what I didn't plan on was the fact that J likes lots of attention in the morning. I ambitiously thought that he'd enjoy some tummy time on a towel next to my mat. That worked for maybe one minute. After that, he fussed quite a bit. I ended up getting through the video doing a combination of pausing to snuggle him, and doing some of the poses (pigeon, seated twist, butterfly) while holding him in my arms. I put him down when he seemed asleep, and as soon as he began to fuss again, I picked him back up.

My hips are extremely tight and I have very little core strength left, but it felt so good to finally breathe and stretch (even if it was broken up and a bit unfocused).

Lessons learned: wait until the baby is down for his nap, even if that means you don't get to work out at your "usual" time.

Day 2

Well, I *tried* to learn from yesterday's lesson, but sometimes I just need to get something done and J won't nap on cue. Luckily, he was pretty happy hanging out next to me. I did some full planks in today's practice which I haven't done in months. I checked myself for abdominal splitting (diastasis recti) and while there is a small separation, it's nothing to worry about. Today's practice focused on the chest and shoulders. Since I've only walked for exercise over the past 6 weeks, my shoulders were definitely burning!

With J being a bit calmer, it gave me a chance to actually breathe. This week I've been taking on a few shifts at my job (I work from home). It's really challenging right now to schedule myself to work for a certain period of time and keep J happy for the time I'm on the clock. I'm not sure how it's all going to play out, but a few deep breaths are really helpful when my brain is spinning in circles with worry.

(Re)Beginning Yoga

The last several weeks I've been focused on a whole lot of "other" stuff, namely preparing for my son's birth, having him, and then beginning a brand new phase of my life: motherhood. It's been a wild ride so far, starting with his delivery. I had a very long labor that ended up in an emergency c-section (if you get a choice in the matter, I'd advise either being in unmedicated labor for a long time OR having a c-section, but definitely not both).

Due to having my internal organs held in with superglue for the first few weeks after delivery, I decided that it would be a good idea to not push myself physically until I hit 6 weeks postpartum. (My midwife recommended it too, which made me feel a lot less guilty and lazy!). In the meantime, I've been taking our son for walks in his stroller and in the Ergo baby carrier. (I waited until I knew my incision was completely closed before I started wearing him.)

My 6 weeks is up on Wednesday, and I'm easing back into yoga with something fun: Do You Yoga's 30 Day Yoga Challenge on Youtube. I participated last October, and it's a great "intro to yoga." What's more, it is fantastic for promoting a beginner's mindset. To me, that means being open to new experiences and enthusiastic about the "try," not so much about the result.

Promoting this attitude towards yoga will hopefully bleed over into other areas of my life, like (big surprise) parenting! Instead of constantly worrying about my lack of perfection, maybe I should just focus on how adorable my son's chubby cheeks are. I want to celebrate his baby smiles and relish the moments when he tries to talk to me, instead of panicking about whether I'm stimulating his brain too much or not enough.

I'll write a minimum of one update per week, and hopefully I'll throw in some pictures too. Get ready for some gorgeous, well-composed shots that show off my messy house and poochy belly!

Do you want to go back to basics, in yoga or elsewhere? Anybody up to join me for 30 days of yoga?

Calming yoga poses for pregnancy-induced crazy

I'm not sure if I'm always this emotionally unbalanced, or if I'm particularly unhinged because I'm less than 2 weeks from my due date. It's amazing how quickly I can go from sobbing over something relatively inconsequential to laughing my head off at something I found on YouTube (dogs in booties who can't walk! Hysterical!).

When I feel like my emotions are on a roller coaster, I try to use yoga and some slow, deep breathing to calm me down. Here's a few of my favorite poses that help me reach for a little (temporary) calm.

• Child's Pose: Nothing like it for helping me to just shut out distractions. I like doing this on the bed more than on my yoga mat, because my belly button is so sensitive and my big ol' stomach tends to rub on the floor anymore when I enter this pose. The bed feels a little more comfortable to me at this point.
• Legs Up the Wall: The less-motivated version of Shoulder Stand. It cools me down, which I really enjoy since I tend to run hot lately. Also, when I get emotional, I overheat. Again, I do this on the bed, either against our headboard, or with my legs just up in the air for several deep breaths. 
• Easy Pose: The more-motivated version of just sitting down. It encourages me to just think about my breath (if I'm thinking about anything at all), and it gently works my core; super-important as I get closer to delivering this baby! It's a great way to start a practice too.
• Corpse Pose: This is a nice way to finish a practice. I lie on my side, more in a fetal position than anything else.

If all else fails, a good cry and a piece of chocolate also works! It's so important to find poses that are easy to get into, comfortable to hold for several breaths, and don't wear me out. There's definitely a time and place for feeling the burn, but that's not when I'm trying to calm down.

Do you have any favorite poses to pause an emotional train wreck?

How to clean a stinky yoga mat

One of the biggest issues with living alone for several months is the complacency. It's easy for me to get way too casual and comfortable with myself, with all my weirdnesses, quirks, and habits. Plus, as anybody who has left their home for a long period of time and then returned has noticed, your habitat has a smell that you're comfortable with and end up not noticing once you've lived there for a while. (Travelling usually somewhat resets my nose and gives me a chance to smell what newcomers smell when they visit!)

When my husband returned after a long absence, his nose had been seriously reset. One day recently, he was in our bedroom changing clothes. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"What is that smell? It smells like FEET." He began sniffing his way around the bedroom and didn't stop until he'd tracked down the source of the stinky-foot odor. Horror of horrors, it was my yoga mat, rolled up and stored in the corner by my bed.

To be fair, I occasionally clean it with rubbing alcohol, but the smell had totally permeated into the rubber/plastic/I'm really not sure what kind of synthetic stuff they make it out of. He unrolled it and gaped at the dark spots at the head and foot of the mat.

"Dude. That is not ok."

If you read a lot of yoga blogs or natural house-cleaning blogs (and I hope you do!), there are about 40 million recipes for mat cleaning sprays. They all involve mixing a lot of stuff into spray bottles, including expensive and sometimes hard to find essential oils. I'm here to tell you that you don't need to do that. In fact, you can clean your yoga mat for as cheaply as free (or whatever water costs you in your area). This is how my husband got my mat to an almost-new condition.

1. Spray off the yoga mat with water. My husband took my mat out to our backyard and sprayed it off with the jet setting on our hose. If you don't have a hose with a good nozzle, I'd suggest putting it in your shower and spraying it off.

2. Let it dry in the sunshine. This is (in my opinion) the most important step, and if you can only do one thing to clean your mat, I'd pick this! Sunlight is a great disinfectant, and can help bleach out dark spots. Lay it out in your backyard, drape it over the rail of your balcony, or take it to a park and let it hang out on the grass while you read a book for an hour.

Voila! Your mat won't be a biohazard anymore! I'm planning on doing this much more regularly, before it gets so bad that we smell feet.