doyouyoga
Tomorrow I will finish three weeks of doing a 30-minute-or-so session daily. I think it was last year when I discovered SixtyandMe.com That led to me finding and ordering the “Gentle Yoga” DVD with Cat Kabira teaching basic stretching techniques for ‘mature’ women – even though who had never tried yoga before. I wasn’t interested in trying to fold myself into a paper airplane or tie myself up into a pretzel shape, but I WAS stiff, sore, and feeling pretty brittle. I worked through it, and then decided to simply do the poses that seemed to help me the most rather than having to find time to play the DVD. Cat stressed that it was the PROGRESS that mattered – not whether you actually aced the pose to PERFECTION. I did well for awhile, and then just quietly stopped doing it. My reasons are stupidity and lack of sufficient motivation.
Three weeks ago, when we had decided to do the South Beach Diet plan in order to ‘reboot’ our efforts to commit to the keto eating plan, relearn ‘portions,’ smarter choices, etc., I also decided that I would get back into my yoga.
After three weeks, I am starting to feel some progress! I am 73 and RELAXING is a difficult thing to do. Just lying down flat on your back on the mat doesn’t sound like much. It IS – when several areas in your back are clenching. After a minute or so of CONSCIOUS focus on relaxing and breathing, the discomfort and clenching goes away. I am also seeing progress in several of the stretching positions. One came just yesterday. I’m lying on my back with my arms on the floor above my head. I pull up my right leg, bend the knee, lay my leg to my right side. I can DO that on my left. On my RIGHT, that was really uncomfortable. I’ve been doing it anyway daily for 3 weeks, breathing into it and not pushing myself, just breathing into the discomfort and trying to relax. Yesterday I was able to let the leg down almost completely onto the floor without pain! HOORAY!!!!!! I feel better when I finish my stretches, so that’s a wonderful thing, too. Even my husband is trying to encourage me, asking me if I’m going to ‘yoge’ today.
I’m giving myself a gold star for every practice. Likewise on my elliptical trainer session in the garage. I’m going for stars 11 and 12 for the week today.
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