Rodney Yee & 8 Weeks of Yoga

Look under the word BALANCE and see where it says 8 weeks of yoga with Rodney Yee? Well, today my husband and I will begin week 8 of this practice. I can hardly believe we've been doing yoga six days a week for 7 weeks already. We've both lost weight and feel better than we have in a long time.

I don't want to give anyone the impression we are slim, svelte and atheletic people who have blithely picked up a yoga book and cruised our way through seven weeks of yoga practice. So not the case! We've grunted, sweat and clawed our way through the last seven weeks. We are just a regular middle-aged couple who noticed we are no where near as flexible or fit as we would like to be. Even after we complete this 8 week program, we will still have a long way to go. We just feel so pleased with ourselves because we made an initial commitment of 8 weeks and our goal is just 6 days away! The other thing, and it's also a biggie, is this program, the practice of yoga, has changed our lives. We believe it to be a lasting and life long change and have plans to continue yoga practice for the rest of our lives. That's a huge statement to make after 7 weeks, but we really believe it.

The time commitment has been challenging. The commitment to "do it right" by doing the necessary chapter reading and preparation each week, not to mention the day one practice each week is twice the length of the other daily practices at just about 2 and a half hours. Still and all it has been transforming. As with most good things that come into one's life, a person asks themselves why, oh why, oh why they waited so long to begin. TGILW and I have concluded it is because right now, this time was the time we were meant to discover yoga. Yeah, I'm getting philosophical on you now.

We had a beginners yoga DVD with Suzanne Deason last year. We practiced it for about a month, but it got monotonous and we were unsure if we were doing everything correctly. I recently took a couple of private yoga classes where I could get one on one instruction. If you can afford it (it's $60 an hour here) it is well worth the investment. Since I couldn't continue the private lessons and the group classes did not fall at times the worked with my schedule I had to consider other alternatives.

That's when TGILW and I found Rodney Yee's book. We were pretty intimidated when we looked at it...the pictures, the reading, the commitment. BUT, we thought we could do it incrementally, in our home, at our own pace and give it a try. Why not for $21.95? Lots cheaper than those private sessions. I'm so glad we took a chance and for whatever guiding spirit made us pick up this book.

We have spent a little more money because while we did have yoga mats, blocks and straps already, we didn't have bolsters and blankets. The book does give alternative items in your house you can use, but since we were making a commitment and felt it was going to be long term, after about 3 weeks we invested in the bolsters and some additional blankets.

We've since purchased a couple of other books by other instructors, but plan to re-do this 8 week program first. As you can see from the book title MOVING TOWARD BALANCE is exactly what we are looking for presently. Once we feel we are pretty centered we plan to further our yoga education and our practices.

Of course, I've checked out Rodney Yee's website and found he does weekly videos for a website called Lime - Healthy Living with a Twist. They are great little one minute or two minute videos. Here's one on balance which sort of sums up why we finally started yoga. We want to have choices with our bodies as we get older. We don't want to feel limited by what we can or cannot do.

My cup runneth over!! It is such a big change for us and has consumed a great deal of our time, effort and energy but has paid some big dividends too. I just had to share some of it with you.

Yo-yo-Yoga!!

I had my first private yoga session last week. My second one is tomorrow. I didn't expect to be good at it. After all my only previous experience was from the Suzanne Deason DVD I've had for about a year and a half. Off and on over the past year I'd do the easiest level on the DVD and tell myself I should try a private session and see if I want to take yoga classes.

Finally, I made the call and set up a private session. I wanted to get a couple of private sessions under my belt before even attempting a class. Let me say that while some positions were familiar, my DVD in no way prepared me for a full one-hour yoga session. I have never sweat more in my entire life. Never!! Now several days later I feel great about the experience. At the time, I felt clumsy and inadequate.

Fortunately for me I had a good instructor that reminded me that no one is good the first time they try anything. Everyone has a first time. Simple, but very true advice. The best thing she said though was this, "Anyone can walk through that door. Lots of people talk about it. Lots of people think about it. You are here. You did it."

As I've gotten distance from that first session I realize how hard I pushed myself and that was one of the reasons I wanted to try yoga in the first place. I'm still terrified and worried that because it is hard I'll give up. But I've practiced every day, the breathing is becoming more natural and easy for me. Doing Sun Salutation in easy flowing movements may take some time yet!!! But, scary as it is I'm also excited in a "holy shit!!" sort of way. That is a good thing.

Sometimes things have to rumble around in my head for awhile before I see things clearly. What I realized today was that I don't have to be afraid of quitting or failing. I didn't start this process to become a yogi (teacher). I'm searching for some form of exercise to give me flexibility and mobility with my RA. Yoga was one of the options I wanted to try. I've come to realize that this search, and in particular the private yoga sessions, were part of a process to check it out, try it and see how I liked it. How liberating!!! It isn't a life time commitment. Duh!

How do I get myself in these knots anyway? *wink* No yoga pun intended.

Namaste!