Academy 4 - Elegance 16 - Yoga & Body Connection
Namaste girls!
Becca here again! Ever since I saw the outline for Module 4 I’ve very politely been driving Miss Frida to distraction by asking again and again if she’d let me write a letter on Yoga. I may have gone a bit overboard (she did mention that Madam Yara had need of a PA for a month and she’d been considering loaning me to her) but once I’d stopped shaking like a leaf she told me that she’d planned to let me write this letter all along (💗). She’s just the best!
What is Yoga
Yoga is a group of physical, mental and spiritual practices that can trace its roots back around 3,500 years. There are 8 limbs of Yoga, but for now we’re going to focus less on the two snakes that live at the base of your spine and almost completely on the first limb, Hatha Yoga.
The word ‘Yoga’ shares the same root with the English word ‘yoke’ and means to join or connect and the ‘goal’ of Hatha Yoga is to connect your mind and your body.
Hatha Yoga is the what most people think of when they hear Yoga, mostly young ladies striking poses like the one in the picture to the left and it consists of a series of linked poses combined with breathing.
I know you’ve all been beavering away on your 30 day stretching practice and I wanted this letter to come later in the module and towards the end of it as Yoga is probably the best thing i can recommend to help you set up a regular stretching practice.
What you’ll need
You should have most of what you need already. You have your exercise clothes and you should have your breasts, butt and hips as well. As was covered in the stretching letter, I would highly recommend a Yoga or exercise mat and that’s it!
Well, you can go a little further, a Yoga block or two can be helpful to extend your reach in the poses where you can’t quite reach the floor and a strap can be used if you can’t quite reach your feet, but these can be replaced with a stack of books and a belt.
Where to practice
You have two options, you can go to a Yoga class or you can teach yourself via the Internet. If you live in anything approaching a city, you’ll almost certainly have somewhere that offers Yoga classes, whether you attend en femme or not is up to you but attending a class has it’s benefits.There’ll be a teacher there who can check your poses and make sure you’re doing them correctly and it can be easier to go somewhere and do it, if you’re on your own and following an internet video it’s a lot easier to be distracted.
Teaching yourself Yoga is perfectly possible and that’s what I’ll cover in the rest of the letter. The usual warnings apply, it shouldn’t hurt, you should take it slowly and if you’re ever not sure of a pose, you should pause the video and look at the teacher, if you have to, open another window and research the posture a little until you’re sure you’ve got it. You’ll pick things up fairly quickly and listening to your body should see you through most of it.
How to practice
First up, turn off your phone. The point of Yoga is to connect with your body so you need to limit distractions as much as possible. You need to concentrate and breathe so your clothes should be comfortable and relatively loose.
Where to begin? YouTube is a goldmine for Yoga videos, I initially taught myself using Yoga Zone classes which were shown on TV and these are now available on YouTube! My go to recommendation for anyone new to Yoga is the Yoga with Adriene channel. The two places to start are her Yoga for beginners playlist and the 30 Days of Yoga course. If you have any issues with poses and want to look into them a bit deeper, check her Foundations of Yoga playlist.
Once you feel you’re starting to get a grasp on things, check out her other videos. She has a few other 30 day courses, and classes and playlists covering many different topics.
When you’ve got a feel for it, the world is your oyster! There is so much Yoga available for free on the internet. If you feel like you want something a bit higher quality and are happy to pay, I’m a big fan of Yoga Today.
Tips
My very first Yoga teacher said ‘range is of the ego, form is of the soul’. You will see some very flexible ladies strike some gorgeous poses and you’ll want to emulate them, but don’t. You’re not in a competition with anyone, if you’re diligent in your practice you’ll get there but if you force and push yourself you’re likely to strain something, Yoga shouldn’t be causing injuries!
The other tip I would give is to pay attention. Listen to your body whilst you’re Yoga’ing (™ Becca 😜), this is why I want you to turn your phone off. Is the stretch hurting (it shouldn’t!), can you go a little further or do you need to back off a bit, how does it feel? Listen to your breath. You’ll be instructed in your breathing as the class goes along and this is a very important part of Yoga and connecting with your body, is it becoming forced or is it easy? Are you breathing in your chest or your belly? Breathing is also used as a tool to help you deepen the postures, you’ll find you can go a little deeper when you breathe out and relax into the stretch.
I think that will do for now girls! I really hope you give Yoga a try, I’ve been doing it for years and I’ve found it to be a wonderful practice. In the West it’s regarded as fairly feminine, it’s good exercise and it will do wonders for your flexibility.
