I do my own little yoga routine 4-5 days a week. If I go more than two days without it, I can feel my back starting to seize up again. I have tight hamstrings. My back has gone out--to an incredible painful degree--a few times in my life and that drives me to this minimal routine that keeps me functioning.
I started yoga using "Yoga With Adriene" because she is pretty low-key with her approach. She has yoga options for a huge range of time allotments, targeting different areas or different moods, or 30 day programs for those who are 30 minute a day committed. Not me!
After skipping through options for months, I found myself going back to certain videos for the targeted stretches that seemed to do the most for the time spent. I took the best stretching poses from several routines and designed my own which is about 15 minutes or less--depending upon how long I let myself stretch.
Part of it is this pose on the left...what I call the one legged, forward fold pose. (I am sure they have a good yogi name for it, but for the life of me, I have no idea what it is :D.) I struggled for a long time to get this pose and still get off balanced easily when in it.
In order to get into this pose I always have to first get centered in mountain pose. (Image on right.) As you can see it is a very basic pose that I have absolutely down. It's just standing, right? Well, no. There is a key part that you can't see by just looking at the picture. If I don't feel myself grounded into the floor through my feet on this first step, I cannot get the folded pose. I can feel it.
I have been off-balance and fallen to the side probably 3 out of 4 times over all, although that is including the first 6 months when I fell pretty much every time. There is a trick to getting centered enough through your core--visualizing it down one leg--that has taken me time to truly get. I can feel if I am off balance as I start the 5 step process from the pose on the right to the one on the left. I feel foolish, awkward, bumbling and every ounce of excess flesh that I am struggling to balance into position.
But if I don't, I don't walk.
If I don't, I can't even sit.
If I don't, I can't even lay down without excruciating pain.
Once in the fold-over pose, I can just allow my weight to fall forward and pull my muscles into the position they need to be in for the deepest stretch I can get to target my main problem muscles in my hip flex-or and hamstrings. My natural weight pulls me down and it is as I get as relaxed as I can in that pose, that the deepest stretch happens.
As I was doing this the other day, the thought hit me. Once I am centered myself on a seemingly small point '(my personal devotions: prayer, scripture study, pondering, religious talks, weekly temple and sacrament meeting attendance) all the weight in my life provides the maximum stretching experience possible by just existing. All the weight--the problems, worries, woes and struggles--that seem bulky and cumbersome when I figuratively "look in the mirror"--actually serve to stretch my soul to the deepest when I am using that weight after being centered in those foundational areas in my life.
God uses my trials to help me not only sit and walk better, but even to rest better.
I was grateful for that visual reaffirmation of the key role of our personal daily devotions. Even if it is:
--a few verses,
--an earnest prayer,
--a quickly scribbled few lines about my blessings, lessons learned, or spiritual epiphanies
--a conference talk listened to while I fold the laundry, drive around or (ironically enough) do yoga :D
--a couple ordinances in the temple (or wherever your place of worship is)
--a bedraggled group of Biesingers that struggles into the pews for worship on Sunday
I have never, never felt these centering actions have made my life harder after I have done them. Before I do them, I seem to always let other, "weightier" things get in the way. But then I remember that if I don't center myself for the deep stretching, then my life will quickly get immobile and painful. It is enough to propel me to do it more than I wouldn't.
Sometimes I will go for four days in a row without yoga--always putting it off well-intentionedly (I love making up new words). And then, my back starts twinging as I sit down or stand up.
Just like with my yoga, I let my life get in the way of my personal devotions and it takes less time than four days before I start feeling my soul twinging. When I wince with the pain, I think, "have I done all my personal centering?" And inevitably, I have not. I have not really focused on them and used them to allow my problems to give my soul the deep stretch that it needs.
I started yoga using "Yoga With Adriene" because she is pretty low-key with her approach. She has yoga options for a huge range of time allotments, targeting different areas or different moods, or 30 day programs for those who are 30 minute a day committed. Not me!
After skipping through options for months, I found myself going back to certain videos for the targeted stretches that seemed to do the most for the time spent. I took the best stretching poses from several routines and designed my own which is about 15 minutes or less--depending upon how long I let myself stretch.
In order to get into this pose I always have to first get centered in mountain pose. (Image on right.) As you can see it is a very basic pose that I have absolutely down. It's just standing, right? Well, no. There is a key part that you can't see by just looking at the picture. If I don't feel myself grounded into the floor through my feet on this first step, I cannot get the folded pose. I can feel it.
I have been off-balance and fallen to the side probably 3 out of 4 times over all, although that is including the first 6 months when I fell pretty much every time. There is a trick to getting centered enough through your core--visualizing it down one leg--that has taken me time to truly get. I can feel if I am off balance as I start the 5 step process from the pose on the right to the one on the left. I feel foolish, awkward, bumbling and every ounce of excess flesh that I am struggling to balance into position.
But if I don't, I don't walk.
If I don't, I can't even sit.
If I don't, I can't even lay down without excruciating pain.
Once in the fold-over pose, I can just allow my weight to fall forward and pull my muscles into the position they need to be in for the deepest stretch I can get to target my main problem muscles in my hip flex-or and hamstrings. My natural weight pulls me down and it is as I get as relaxed as I can in that pose, that the deepest stretch happens.
As I was doing this the other day, the thought hit me. Once I am centered myself on a seemingly small point '(my personal devotions: prayer, scripture study, pondering, religious talks, weekly temple and sacrament meeting attendance) all the weight in my life provides the maximum stretching experience possible by just existing. All the weight--the problems, worries, woes and struggles--that seem bulky and cumbersome when I figuratively "look in the mirror"--actually serve to stretch my soul to the deepest when I am using that weight after being centered in those foundational areas in my life.
God uses my trials to help me not only sit and walk better, but even to rest better.
I was grateful for that visual reaffirmation of the key role of our personal daily devotions. Even if it is:
--a few verses,
--an earnest prayer,
--a quickly scribbled few lines about my blessings, lessons learned, or spiritual epiphanies
--a conference talk listened to while I fold the laundry, drive around or (ironically enough) do yoga :D
--a couple ordinances in the temple (or wherever your place of worship is)
--a bedraggled group of Biesingers that struggles into the pews for worship on Sunday
I have never, never felt these centering actions have made my life harder after I have done them. Before I do them, I seem to always let other, "weightier" things get in the way. But then I remember that if I don't center myself for the deep stretching, then my life will quickly get immobile and painful. It is enough to propel me to do it more than I wouldn't.
Sometimes I will go for four days in a row without yoga--always putting it off well-intentionedly (I love making up new words). And then, my back starts twinging as I sit down or stand up.
Just like with my yoga, I let my life get in the way of my personal devotions and it takes less time than four days before I start feeling my soul twinging. When I wince with the pain, I think, "have I done all my personal centering?" And inevitably, I have not. I have not really focused on them and used them to allow my problems to give my soul the deep stretch that it needs.
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