How to Take Your Movement Off the Mat and Out of the Studio
Thanks for reading and making my 2023 so amazing! As a reward here is a super fun picture of my kitty graciously allowing us to drag him into our festivities.
Hi there,
We have officially made it to the end of the year and into the last month of 2023. Last month we chatted about homestretch goals. If you made some homestretch goals with me, I hope you feel equipped and motivated for the last few weeks we have to check some things off the list and feel accomplished. If you want to follow along with my end-of-the-year goals, I am sharing those online on my Instagram & Facebook accounts. Go and follow The Gratitude Practice if you don’t already and come along with me as we tackle some fun things and of course, do some yoga.
What I want to talk to you about today is keeping a movement practice in your life throughout the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. This can be a time when our routines and rhythms go through a change of pace. There might be less time to go to a studio to take a class or you may be traveling a lot which can interfere with your movement practices. Here is the key point -That’s okay! There are going to be different seasons in your life where a more structured class is what you need and have the space for AND there are also going to be times where you don’t and stressing or shaming yourself about those times doesn’t really benefit anyone.
So… What to do instead? If you are wondering how you still fit in some movement and yoga when you don’t have the time or space to go to a studio class and your routine is off, there are so many different options open for you to try out instead.
Before we get into it, you might be asking why I am sharing content like this when I own a studio and students coming to class pays my bills. Well here’s the thing, yes this is true but, I also feel really passionate about helping people reject the idea that yoga has to look a certain way, be done a certain way, or happen in a certain place to “count”. Yoga can look like such a diverse array of options and opportunities that I want you to experience and enjoy!
Here are some suggestions 👇
✨ Yoga Outside the Studio Format✨
Desk / Chair Yoga. In our modern era, we tend to spend a lot of time sitting at a desk, in a car, or in a chair. I know I would like to do less of this but in order to function within the society we live in this is just a reality. So if you can beat them, join them. I really love some good quick movement breaks at my desk throughout the day. Here are some of my favorite go-to poses to get you started. Head & neck rolls, figure 4, seated forward fold with legs wide, and seated twists. Remember this doesn’t have to be a long drawn-out process and you could choose to just try one of these out at a time.
Yoga in the bed. Carving out some time after waking up or before going to bed to do some little movements and stretches is a great way to keep moving and generally feels pretty nice. The benefit of yoga in your bed is you don’t have to get down onto the floor, there are pillows available to use for props, and you have a really soft surface to practice on. Here are some yoga pose ideas for your morning or bedtime routine. Legs against the wall (or headboard), pigeon pose, cat & cow (kneeling or seated), seated side bends or reaching side to side, forward folds, happy baby, or reclined twists like supine twist. Bonus points if you share a bed to get your partner to join or do some partner stretches.
1-5 minute stretch and breath break. This idea is a bit less specific but I wanted to talk about how you can take all the structure out and still have so many options for movement. Anywhere you are you can do some yoga. Here are some ideas: Feel into your feet and wiggle your toes, stretch your hands or roll out your wrists, take 3 full breaths, or relax and release your jaw by making different facial expressions (the bigger/ weirder the better). All of these options have an emphasis on mindfulness and feeling into smaller more subtle parts of your body and movements.
Connect to your senses. This is a great grounding technique for anytime you might feel overwhelmed or overstimulated which can happen a lot during the holidays. Here are some ideas for connecting to your senses: If you can close your eyes and notice what you can hear, smell, or taste. If you have your eyes open you can notice what you can see around you, maybe hunt for different colors or shapes and let your eyes move all around the room. You can feel into your body and notice the different textures, temperatures, or other sensations you are feeling along your skin. Connecting to your senses is a great option to use when you are in public spaces or big gatherings with people around who you don’t necessarily want to be forward folding in front of.
Standing around and waiting yoga. Okay, we are still workshopping this name a bit (lol) but, the holidays are full of smaller moments when we are essentially standing around and waiting like waiting for things to cook in the kitchen, standing in line at the grocery store, or gift shopping, etc. You can use a lot of the other options outlined above in these situations but here are a few more ideas: Rock on your feet- forward to your toes and back to your heels, standing reaches side to side, standing twists, or standing calf stretch by having one foot and leg out in front, flexing that foot towards your body, bending your standing leg knee and leaning back with a bit of a forward fold. A bit hard to explain in just text but I’m sure however you are doing it, it will be perfect.
Okay so there are a lot of ideas to get you started and I hope you can implement a few of them over the next month. I will be popping onto social media to demo some of these options and give some more examples so feel free to check that out for more. I hope you have a fantastic holiday and start to the winter season. If you are interested in coming to the studio for some classes I would be so happy to see you! Please check the schedule on Mindbody or shoot me a text as we get closer to the end of the month some classes might be canceled due to the holiday and traveling to see family.
P.S.
If you have made it this far, you are the best thank you. This year I started one of my favorite projects I have ever done to date. The Untangling Relationships Podcast is literally one of my most favorite things I get to do in my business. If you have listened to any of the episodes throughout the year, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I also want to say that podcasts generally get new listeners by word of mouth since there isn’t an algorithm suggesting things to people as strongly on the platforms…so if you have listened and like the pod please do me a solid and share it with other people in your life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
