Outside Practice December

I went to the Yoga Flow on Tuesday morning again with Betsy. I really like the way that her class flows (hence the name I guess!) It is perfect for me in the morning. My RA makes it really difficult to function in the morning but this class really helps me loosen up my stiff joints and makes my symptoms less severe. If I had the time I would love to practice everyday, but I can only go to the studio once or twice a week. I also really love that Betsy rubs oils on everyone's shoulders at the end of the class. They always smell fantastic and it is perfect while laying in corpse pose!

Continuing Yoga

I found a studio called the Laughing Buddha in West Deptford, NJ by my house. Since I am done Stockton after this semester I plan on still practicing Yoga at home. The woman there was named Mia and she is a certified teacher. I made sure to ask all of the questions that Laurie told us about in the beginning of class! This studio offers a few classes most of them are Bikram and they offer a Hot Vinyasa which I am interested in. Even though we did the bikram sequences in class I am very interested in trying a real class.

I really enjoyed taking this class it has helped me realize that I can practice yoga to help with my RA symptoms. I will be looking into Ayurvedic Medicine for my RA as well. I feel as though Yoga is something that I can do for the rest of my life. Being healthy is really important to me and if I countinue practicing I am sure that I will see positive outcomes from it.

This class has also made me appreciate yoga as a spiritual practice. All of the information given about the spritual aspect of Yoga has made me realize that it is more than just a way to keep your pant size down!

Outside Practice November

I normally go to the Monday night Technique classes with Laurie. I can really tell a difference when I am doing breath work the wrong way and when I am doing it the right way. I feel that the postures are easier to get into when I am breathing the way I should be. This class is always full of people everytime I go which is how I know that it is a good class to be in. The Technique class really helps me understand the postures better and because they are held a little longer than usual it gives my body time to adjust into a posture.

Outside Practice for November

I went to a Yoga Flow at 9:15 AM on Tuesday. I was having a hard time with my breath work and trying to keep it up for the entire class. I knew something was wrong when I started to black out, see spots and got really cold. I had to sit down on my mat for a few seconds to gain back my equilibrium and make sure that I was able to continue. After about 30 seconds I was good to go again! I really don't know why this happened though. My only guess was that because we kept swan diving then going into forward bend and all the way up again. Also, I had just woke up not too long before I went to class so I dont think my body reacted very well with all of the movements.

Outside Practice

I have been attending the Yoga Technique classes on Monday's with Laurie and I feel like I am starting to gain some strength in my upper arms! I have tested this by finally being able to do a chataranga ( I know I butchered the spelling pretty bad) without struggling for once. I am really happy about this! Plus I think I finally understand how to do them correctly instead of just flopping on the ground. When I left this class I was feeling really good, my arthritis wasn't bothering me and everything felt really great. The breath work that we were using that day also made me feel really great while moving into postures. We would inhale and then pause at the top of the inhale and then exhale kind of like a yawn with no control. The next day however, my legs were a little sore because I hadn't worked those muslces like that in a while!

Hatha Yoga

In class today we did a few asanas from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. According to these texts it is supposed to lead to spiritual evolution if it is practiced everyday for 12 years. Some of these postures were difficult and when they were described it was difficult to picture how they were supposed to be performed. I found it quite odd that this particular kind of yoga can bring certain powers and improper practice can lead to the misuse of these powers. Overall, I dont really know what to think about this type of yoga but Im sure if I look more into I could make some sense of it.

Viniyoga Practice

We did a Viniyoga practice in class with Laurie. This practice was focused on head, neck , back and shoulders. When I went into the class that day I had slept wrong the night before on my neck and doing this practice help loosen the tension that I had. This practice also had a lot of cobras in it and by the end of it my triceps were feeling a bit like jello because I dont normally get to work that muscle group very often! I did really like the pace that Laurie set the class at she said it was more of an intermediate pace because of the way we controlled our breath during the postures. We used a count of inhale for 5 and exhale for 5 seconds. I liked the way that this type of breathing felt, I felt very controlled and felt like I was more aware of the way the each posture felt.