Annual leave day, not a run day, so definitely a Cozy Yoga day with Adriene.
It’s a 38 min fun and relaxing session that plays with body, mind and blanket ( and a dog, if you happen to have one around). It’s a bit unusual, which Adriene admits herself.
But it’s certainly a session which leaves you feeling cozily relaxed. It goes through quite a few stretches and poses, almost all of them doable even for me, an unbendy, stiff (and rather aging) woman with sensitive knees.
I’m beginning to really respect Adriene’s way of doing her sessions. They are warm and friendly in how she chats about the different poses. They are gentle in how she makes sure everyone knows that this is about YOUR body and not about getting “yoga right”. And it’s creative in how she uses her body, her environment and all sorts of props around her, from blankets, dogs, hoodies, etc.
Yesterday evening I listened to the whole 2 hours of her being interviewed by Light Watkins. It was a recommended by @roseabi on here a couple of months ago and I finally listened to it.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podca...
And listening to her really made me understand what I do like about her Yoga videos:
I like that she manages to demystify the practice without removing the magic and the meditative elements. And I like this, as I know I’m not as open towards spiritual expressions of symbolisms that are - to me - too esoteric. But that’s just me.
I like that she plays around with the postures to get to know the ways how her body feels, and I can easily imitate and adapt this to my completely different body. For example, she does a downward dog in a way where she is still moving slightly, walking her feet in place, listening to what her body is saying and finding a right spot through smaller movements. I don’t know if this is general practice or not, but I like it. And I managed a downward dog without killing my legs for the first time today. It was all about technique and playing around with what feels good.
I also love the playfulness, and the harmlessness of breaking a pose. Wether it’s making little gestural jokes, or moving in and out of a pose when explaining things... these little releases from a pose or norm also help demystify a practice and keep our focus on what feels right for one’s body, rather than what is perceived to be right in a ancient, established practice. To me Yoga and it’s associated cultures have always felt a bit intimidating and with it not as inviting as it could be. And Adriene breaks through that by breaking some of my perceptions of its norms.
Ever since discovering Pilates, I knew my preference for Pilates had something to do with its pragmatic origins and thus pragmatic cultural practices of its community to which I felt more aligned.
But Adriene makes it hard not to love Yoga, even someone like myself who has a problem of drawing on what many yogi would call our spirituality, as I just don’t know what that actually entails.
I like my facts, my real world, and all the beauty contained in these. So a playful exploration of what our bodies can do, how they can change, grow and adapt, and whilst doing that delight in the process of play within movements, postures and instructions.... it’s just the for me perfect way to get to know Yoga. And judging by her popularity this probably goes for many others as well.
Happy working out everyone!
