Online Yoga to Support Your Practice

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“you. YOU are the yoga.

simple fact.”

I love Bindi Fry’s latest post about practice, grasping and surrender (my take, not her words) from which this quote hails. Short story: home practice is where the magic happens. Home practice is where the yoga happens. Want to know what “yoga” is besides “just the asana“? Engage your own home practice. Your habits, your loves, your obsessions, your truth, your hiding , your obstacles and games, your beauty: all there. Seriously, go get it, cause it’s there on the mat when you roll it out every day on your own.

Now, the best of this occurs when you’re in a self-guided practice, meaning you either have a practice that’s been given to you or you follow your body on the mat.

But among the many “dirty little secrets” of yoga teachers that we learn after teacher training aren’t so dirty and aren’t so secret is that sometimes we’re tight on time, and sometimes it’s just luscious to have someone else give the cues, and sometimes we could use some motivational oomph.

When I’m crunched on time, want a “class” and am seeking inspiration, a reminder of Beauty, an invitation to Love and a beckoning of the Truth, I have a couple of websites that are my rock solid go-to’s. One is Harmony’s Well and another for private lessons is Now Lesson. For quick classes from yogalebrities, I go to myyogaonline.com. And today they have this great giveaway! A Camel Cushion from Halfmoon Yoga Props. All you have to do is leave a comment about how you increase chest and back flexibility. Here’s mine:

align2center

My shoulders are my limiting factor, and I use this preparatory move I’ve heard called the ‘Windmill’: Prone, extend hands directly out from shoulders, palm down. Bend right elbow, tenting fingers in near right shoulder, using this only to stabilize your roll. Start rolling your right side up by engaging the core, feeling the stretch across the front of your left chest and shoulder. As you are comfortable and not before, you can reach the right hand back towards the left, bring the right leg behind the left, all to deepen the stretch.