One of the things I do regularly is yoga. I have done this for a few years now and have been slowly but surely working my way through the plethora of Youtube yoga channels. My most recent completion was The Journey Junkie. Following her I have to say pushed me out of my comfort zone in a few ways. She pushes to do a number of balance postures that I cannot necessarily do, especially now when pregnant. She also is a bit more into the spiritual side of yoga that I am not sure I follow completely, but overall I was glad to learn from her and as with all things I found things she did that I really enjoyed. Yoga is funAllie, the instructor of The Journey Junkie, constantly talks about the challenging postures in a way that truly invites you to have fun. She wants the journey to be enjoyable and viewing difficulty as a fun opportunity to try something new actually seemed to help me in doing the postures. I really also found that it was contagious and made me want to find more fun elsewhere in my life. Even when she was participating in spiritual practices that I found odd or uncomfortable, I remembered to have fun with it and enjoy the process. Listen to your bodyShe is constantly inviting you to listen to your body and not push yourself too hard when you are not warm or when your body tells you to stop. She talks about how she pushed herself too much early on and now she trusts her body. I feel like the repetition of this message was important for me and is something I continue to take with me. I feel like this is the central message and I have found again and again that my body can be trusted. My body knows how much to eat and how much to move and how much to rest, it is my job to listen and not try to push myself too hard. Look WithinIn addition to trusting your body and looking for cues within, Allie asks us as her audience to dig deep. She wants us to question our understandings of ourselves and to be willing to face ourselves in all of what lies within. She suggests that taking the time to consider our thoughts and our minds as a large part of who we are is a useful and important practice. I am grateful for the number of ways she has asked me to question beliefs and to trust what I already know rather than listen to the sea of doubt. Do you have any yoga suggestions? I have a new channel I am hoping to test out but am always on the lookout for more yoga.
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If you have reading my blog for any amount of time, you have probably noticed my love of yoga. Last year I wrote about finishing Yoga with Adriene and I reflected on how that changed me. Last year in the chaos of all our moving I finished all the videos on the Youtube Channel Yoga with Kassandra. I find reflecting on what yoga has taught me to be a useful practice. There is a time for both strength and softness.Yoga with Kassandra was an interesting mix compared to Yoga with Adriene. She has classes that are more challenging and less challenging. She has moments in her classes that are quite challenging and push you to try things you never would have before, whether it is a headstand or a bird of paradise pose. She also always ends each class with an extended shavasana. She recognizes the need for both strength and softness and it is evident in her classes as well as in life. Sometimes you need to exert effort and sometimes what is needed is to soften and simply be as yourself. Stillness can be a greater challenge than strength.Yoga with Kassandra does a number of yin yoga classes. These require you to sit in a pose for a number of minutes without moving or shifting. Interestingly enough, although these classes can seem easier, sometimes sitting with yourself in a pose forces you to see things you would not already, to breathe and accept. I think this concept applies to life in general, rather than trying to fix and shift, just sitting breathing and allowing life to be as it is is quite a helpful practice. I am usually the type of person who rather than sit with something, I move onto the next task or the next fix. Some things in life cannot be fixed, sometimes the only thing to do is accept it as it comes good or bad. When I started doing her videos I realized I was not used to the amount of quiet and I would continually check to make sure the video was on. I think it is important to spend time in the stillness and the quiet. Both are part of life and we often do not spend enough time trusting in the stillness. Nothing needs to be taken so seriously.I tend to be quite serious, but sometimes in classes of yoga you fall. I fall all the time. I am learning and trying new things and I always found that Kassandra was authentic and falling did not feel like a failure, but I was able to let go and just enjoy the process of trying it out. This is true of my daily life. I need not take it so seriously, but rather I can simply enjoy the daily process of living. The joy upon actually getting a pose after you have fallen quite a bit is indescribable. Strength and flexibility are gained through patience and consistency.I found my flexibility grew quite a bit in the process of doing Yoga with Kassandra videos. This was not necessarily intentional, but I found that both my strength and my flexibility were cultivated over time. I may minuscule process daily and then overtime I was able to do things I could never do before. Sometimes you do not see the process as it comes, but rather you only see once you have arrived. I hope you found this interesting. I would recommend Yoga With Kassandra, but be ready for both challenge and quiet. I thoroughly enjoyed her videos. I have recently started another Yoga YouTube Channel and I will check back in and share how it goes. If you have any yoga suggestions, please comment below.
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About MeI'm Sarah; a wife, traveler, foodie, and adventurer. Archives
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