Culture
Yoga 101
In this episode of Hobbies 101, Emily dives into the world of yoga, sharing her personal journey and the transformative benefits of the practice. She discusses the importance of connection, compassion...
Yoga 101
Culture •
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Interactive Transcript
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I went to get on my yoga mat this morning and you know do my yoga practice and I just
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had trouble hitting the start button because I was just sitting there thinking about all
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the ways that I love yoga and why I'm so glad that it's part of my life and what I wish
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other people knew about it and you know I wanted to talk about yoga more than I wanted
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to actually practice this morning so I figured today is the day that I make my yoga 101
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episode. So here it is, I'll be talking about you know my practice, how it's looked
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over the last couple years, it's been very different as I've moved around and stuff, different
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phases of life has made that practice look different so I will talk to you a little bit
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about that and some of the benefits that I see from yoga, why I think it'd be good for
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everybody and then I will also give you some hints and tips and even some of my favorite
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like equipment you know my favorite mat and stuff I'll give you, give you some tips if
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you want to start it yourself.
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Welcome to Hobbies 101, a podcast for beginner hobbyists. Starting a new hobby can be overwhelming.
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There is so much information and many hobbies have a startup cost. Whether you're starting
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your first hobby or just looking for a new one, this podcast will give you the basics you
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need to know in audio format before you spend money to start it yourself. I'm your hostess
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Emily and I'm looking forward to exploring new hobbies with you.
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Today for hobby highlights I wanted to share with you some of the hobbies that some of my
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friends and families have recently started. If you listened to my last episode traveling 101 you
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know that we recently did a big road trip across country from Texas to Oregon and back and along the way
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we got to see friends and family and I was surprised at how many of them have started new hobbies since we
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last talked to them and most of them I don't think know about this podcast and so anyway it was just
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really inspiring to me and I think it'll be inspiring to you and so yeah that's what we're going to
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talk about today in hobby highlights. One of the things that really inspired me was how many of these
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people still have kids. I mean there are seasons of life when it's easier to start a new hobby
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and seasons of life when you kind of need to cut back and having kids is kind of one of those
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seasons where you probably need to cut back because you have a lot of other demands on your time
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and now some of my friends who you know recently found out they're pregnant with their first child
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they are talking about how they're going to be cutting back on their hobby time. But yeah some of
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the other families who have you know elementary aged kids were telling us about how they are
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pursuing new hobbies that they've never tried before and I'm just really inspired by that.
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I'm also just inspired about how many people wanted to talk about their hobbies.
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You know I've talked about this in the episode hobbies inspire connection and probably in my intro
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episode two but but hearing people talk about their hobbies just just really hammered that home for
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me. You know we would talk about jobs and we would talk about family stuff with these people that
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we haven't seen for a few years but most of them are doing the same jobs some of them aren't
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but most of them are and and to talk with them more about their jobs is just kind of like you know
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where do you go from there we don't have the same kind of jobs it's hard to really talk too much
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about that and to a large extent work is just work and so people like preferred to talk about their
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hobbies. So here they are and these are just the hobbies that people have started recently.
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Our friends and family have lots of other fun hobbies but today I just want to do highlight
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the new ones. So playing the fiddle coaching soccer western dancing brewing beer vegetable gardening
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woodworking hunting and archery. I want to highlight one of these and that's coaching soccer.
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This one I think probably took me by surprise the most and maybe because it's just something that
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people do all the time right but I wouldn't have really thought of it as a hobby but as this
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friend was talking about it it is definitely hitting all the hobby boxes and it definitely
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is a hobby for him. When he was talking about it he was just talking about how you know he's
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loved the game of soccer for a long time and has played it he still plays it but now that his son
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is old enough to play and he's volunteering to coach these kids he is learning so much more about
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the game and he talks about it as when he's you know he's in it and he's coaching he's just like
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all there and it's working his brain in ways that he doesn't use it when he's just playing for
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himself and he's also talking about you know wanting to get better at it and grow in these different
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skills. Anyway those that's just like what a hobby is supposed to do right something that pulls you
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all the way in that you do just for fun and that you want to grow and skill in. So anyway I'm really
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inspired by all these people who have started hobbies recently and you know even in times of life
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when it's not necessarily easy to do that but it's enriching their lives and they're using it to
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connect on deeper levels with with people around them. So I hope you're inspired too I would love to
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hear what kind of hobbies you have either started or just continue to do what kind of hobbies in
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rich your life. So post on Instagram tag me let me know and I will share it with other people
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so other people can be inspired too. I recently did a 10k and before I did like as I was signing up
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I hadn't done any running before that and I was talking to a friend about you know what I needed
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to do to get in shape and I was like you know I haven't been running but I have been doing yoga so
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I you know I am in shape I just kind of need to get into running shape now and my friend's response
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was oh yeah I need to do more stretching and it it occurred to me that that's what yoga was in her
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mind was that yoga was stretching and that's not untrue it's just that yoga is so much more than that
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and I think one of the reasons that I have had trouble doing a yoga episode is that I know that
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yoga is even more than just what I know it as you know for for the yoga that I do I basically do the
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asanas or asanas which is the postures but in yoga there's actually eight limbs so people who like
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follow all the parts of yoga it is an entire lifestyle for them and it has it has eight limbs and
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these postures that most people talk about when they talk about yoga that is only one limb of it
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so I think I have just been kind of intimidated by the topic of yoga and have and yeah I've just
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been intimidated but yeah so in this episode I'm really only going to be talking about that one part
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of yoga the the asanas the postures the the poses and the physical element of it now breath control
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is another one of those limbs and breath control is also really important in the physical movement
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part of yoga and so I'm not sure if if I would say this is two of those limbs or just the one
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I'm not sure I'm only familiar with the poses but yeah yoga is more than stretching it is poses
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that build strength flexibility and balance so again more than just flexibility it also is
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building strength and balance and I would I would call yoga movement that is connected to breath
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and maybe that's because I mostly practice vinyasa yoga but there's also hatha there's yin
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there's hot yoga which is like a thing there's there's different kinds of yoga but all the
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yogas that I'm familiar with all are movement connected to the breath so yeah I've tried to make
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this yoga episode I don't know two or three times and I've just never felt like it was good enough
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to publish you know I've been really inspired by a brine brown's book the gifts of imperfection
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and which she says the three gifts of imperfection are connection, compassion and courage and it's
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especially the courage that gets me to kind of get over the perfectionism and
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and embrace the vulnerability of putting out these episodes but that doesn't mean I want to produce
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crap so so I think this episode is turning out to be better than the other ones I've tried
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but I also wanted to bring up brine because those three gifts of imperfection I also feel when
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I'm practicing yoga so that connection that compassion and that courage but just towards myself and
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not you know she's writing it about you know having connection with other people and compassion
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towards them and courage and how you interact with them but I find those things towards myself when
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when I'm practicing yoga so connection you know connection with my body and you know as I'm doing
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the poses finding my center of balance and knowing my surroundings and you know as because as you're
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holding some of these poses you have to be aware of like all your muscles and are you tense here
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do you need to relax it are you are your hips in alignment where are you holding you know where is
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your weight at you know especially in like the balance poses right like if your balance is in the
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wrong part of your foot you know your center of gravity or whatever if it's in the wrong part of
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your foot you are not going to be able to hold your balance as I'm as I'm talking about this I'm
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like balancing on my foot right now because you you have to be connected with your body and
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aware of where all your muscles are and what they're doing yeah so so that's the connection part
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and then the compassion part is you know as you're doing the strength poses or the flexibility poses
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especially balance maybe not so much but especially those other two if your body is not ready to go
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to a certain level you will hurt yourself if you push yourself and so you have to be aware of what
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your body is doing and telling you and if it's saying that's too far then you have to just kind of
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have compassion on your body and be like okay thanks body for letting me know and especially some
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instructors will really guide you towards compassion on your body and you know having gratitude
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as you practice that your body can do what it can do but I yeah I feel it too especially when I
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sometimes get frustrated when I've you know I've been practicing for years now why
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why when I'm in down dog do my heels still not touch the floor but I mostly only get frustrated
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with that when I'm not practicing when I'm practicing I'm I'm just there and that's just what
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my body can do and that doesn't mean that I don't continue to strive for that I do I keep striving to
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get my my heels to touch the floor but but I have compassion on it and I'm not mad at my
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calves and my hamstrings for not yet being flexible there but having compassion doesn't mean
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again that I'm not pushing myself and so then here's where the courage comes in especially when
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it comes to the balances because sometimes you do not feel ready to hit the balancing poses just
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my practices lately have had me just standing on my tiptoes just for balance and that has been
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surprisingly hard but then there's some other really fun parts of yoga where you do like arm
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balances and you know as a kid I could do cartwheels but I was never able to do handstands I saw
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other kids you know they would just do a handstand and my arm strength was just never strong enough
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for that and but a couple years ago you know I had an instructor who was like hey do
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do a headstand and I could just like I was like okay I'm just gonna I'm just gonna try it I'm
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gonna have some courage I don't I don't feel ready for this but I am I'm gonna try it and and I could
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do it and that was such a fun feeling oh that was so fun like oh my gosh like I'm I felt so
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connected with my body like I know what my muscles are doing I know where my center of gravity is
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and I've pushed myself past what I thought I could do something that my body is not normally doing
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right a headstand standing on my head but here I am and I'm doing it and yeah just felt that felt
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really good um yeah I had another friend who posted her like 30 before 30 bucket list basically
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like 30 things she wanted to do before she turned 30 and crow pose was one of those I'd never
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even heard of crow pose before that um but I was like hmm that okay that seems like a good goal so
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I like looked it up and I was like yeah okay I want to try that and um I remember trying it before
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I felt like I was ready and being just really surprised at how how my body was able to do it especially
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now that I knew where my center of gravity was and and what all my muscles were doing and how to
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lean you know push my elbows against my knees and um yeah that's that's just really fun and so
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so that's one of the re that's probably the main reason that I really love yoga is just the
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connection and compassion and courage that I feel like I'm able to feel within my own skin while I'm
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practicing yoga my first introduction to yoga was in high school during our physical education class
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I think ones or twice a semester they would have us do a yoga class because they were trying to
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expose us to all sorts of different physical activities um but I didn't really resonate with it then
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in my first year of college again I had to take some kind of physical education course
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as part of the general ed's and so I took a yoga class for that um but again it didn't really
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resonate with me then it didn't really become part of my life until maybe about seven years ago
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um yeah I would have been in my mid-twenties then and I started I joined a gym that had
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different kinds of classes and um you know I liked some of the classes but the only time I was
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able to go to the gym was late at night because I had a you know a small child and so that you know
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after he went to bed at night that's when I had a chance to go to the gym and I just was not up for
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like Ty Bo or some of the other like kickboxing classes and stuff um right before I went to bed so
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they had yoga classes and um so I joined them and that's uh yeah that that really started off my
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curiosity with it and my enjoyment um but then it really became part of my life three years ago
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in October of 2020 my sisters and I did a 30 day yoga challenge and where we just did yoga
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every single day for 30 days I really enjoyed that experience and I think part of that is because I
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was doing it with you know my sisters and my sister-in-law we were all living in different places
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but we were all following Adrian's uh yoga on youtube and she has Adrian has a couple different
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30 day challenges and so we did we did one of those and just every day it had a
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20 to 30 minute yoga video and so we would all do it on our own time that day and then occasionally
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you know we would send each other texts like hey I did it or um oh man I didn't get it done till
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10 o'clock tonight or whatever so having that connection and doing it with with people that I
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loved and um you know it gave us that point of connection I think is you know was really helpful
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for that challenge um but I also just really loved what the yoga did to my body um you know I
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was really far from getting my heels to the ground in down dog before I started that um but you know
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through that month I saw improvement now they still they didn't they still did not touch the
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ground and they still don't today but um I saw improvement um another thing that I saw improvement
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was my posture and back pain and you know by the end of the month I noticed that like whenever
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I would sit in a chair I would stand you know I would sit taller and um when I stood I just stood
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with better posture and because of that I had less back pain and um so yeah I think seeing
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the effects that like no yoga really is good for my body made me want to prioritize it more
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after that I just did some more online youtube videos mostly yoga with Adrian um but I also did
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some yoga with Cassandra also on youtube Cassandra does a little bit more intermediate stuff where
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Adrian does a lot more beginner uh I'll I'll talk a little bit more about that in tips later in
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the episode but um yeah I followed followed Adrian for a while and then I kind of switched to
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Cassandra and just did yeah YouTube videos um and then I moved to Asia and I was not planning on yoga
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being much in my life maybe just kind of here or there um but then I'm at a friend who introduced
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me to a yoga class there and you know it was only like five dollars a class or something and it
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helped me meet new people in this city that I was new to and um and it's just really fun to go to
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yoga with an instructor uh again I'll come back to that but it was nice to have an instructor
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I wish I could remember the name of that kind of yoga because it was not vinyasa and it's not
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it's not unlike your normal list of like different types of yoga practices but it was like
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a dance style of yoga so the first half you know we would do a warm-up but then she would slowly
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teach us basically a yoga flow combination to music and then she would just play the music and we
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would just go through the yoga routine and it was kind of dance-like I did dance growing up and so it
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part of that was fun but part of it I didn't the part I didn't enjoy was that I like being able to
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hold my breath or hold the pose to like really make sure that I'm in position and with as fast
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of a flow as she was doing I wasn't able to connect to the breath as much as I personally prefer
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so that was not my favorite kind but it was nice to do it with real people and have an instructor and
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that instructor also liked to push us further in stretching than I was comfortable with
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and I hurt myself because of that so but usually instructors are going to help you
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keep from hurting yourself they're not going to encourage you to hurt yourself.
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Yeah so that was my experience with that and then while I was in Asia I got bit by a mosquito
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carrying dengue fever and so I was really quite sick for a couple months and during that time my
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muscles just atrophied. I lost a lot of hair because my body just like could not even support
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hair follicles let alone like my muscles so coming back from being sick there I was so thankful
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that I already had yoga in my life now I wasn't I wasn't strong enough to do vinyasas
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but I moved to half a yoga which is just a little bit more gentle a little bit slower
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and I moved I did like more of a yeah not quite as intense half as I could do you know today now
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that I've built strength up. Also during my time in Asia I think I got COVID and after that I got
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reactive arthritis it was a couple of months after that but I I'm still suspicious that that was
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because of COVID but it's you know it's hard to say whatever it was
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somehow I got arthritis arthritis from it and the only thing that really helped was yoga so you
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know my joints would be stiff and to move them slowly and gently through yoga poses was really
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healing on my body and that's one of the only things that gave me relief you know I went to a
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couple specialists and they were able to prescribe me some medicine but you know their medicines
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that you really shouldn't take long-term and they're just kind of hiding you know that one of them
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was dealing with the inflammation but yeah the yoga was was a really helpful healing element in
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my life and so I was really thankful that I had had already developed a practice of yoga and so I
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just kept doing it plus I mean exercise is just really good for you all the time and but when I
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had arthritis or when I was recovering from dengue other kinds of exercise were just like out of
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the question so it was just I really love the fact that yoga can still provide exercise
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but in helpful ways in whatever life sees in your in right that's why I think yoga can benefit
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like anybody because even if you were you know if you're reduced to a wheelchair there is a
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chair yoga you know there's still stuff you can do yoga wise that will help you even if you have
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severe physical limitations all right I have kind of one more thing I want to address about yoga
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and its practice in my life before I go on to tips for you if you want to start adding yoga into your
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life and that is how is yoga hobby so you know I've kind of talked about the exercise part of it and
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that that's just good for your life but how is that a hobby because I have talked in the past about
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like well even this episode I've talked about you know a hobby needs to be something that you do
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just for the fun of it something that you your brain can just be all in and something that you can
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grow and scale in and for some people I think yoga is just going to be something that they do because
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it's good exercise or it's good for their joints or you know it's good meditation practice or
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whatever but for me it just fits all of those things with what a hobby is supposed to be like
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yes I might also do it because it's good physically but I just enjoy it I enjoy
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finding the poses and thinking do I have it all right like are my shoulders over my hips are my
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hips where they're supposed to be are they squared you know I like thinking about that I like that
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it's kind of an art form a little bit you know I feel like I'm making art with my body kind of
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but also because it's movement this is why I prefer some of the flows too is that you're not stuck in
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one place too long but because it combines movement with your breath it keeps my mind all there
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and so when I'm practicing you know I'm I'm constantly thinking about breathing in or breathing out
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finding the next pose my brain doesn't have time or ability to like go somewhere else
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when I'm practicing you know when I go for a run or a walk or something I like to listen to audiobooks
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I don't really walk or run mindfully but I can't do that with yoga like when I'm practicing yoga
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I am 100% there and if my brain is somewhere else I can tell but it's just really easy for
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me to just be all in when I'm practicing yoga and then finally it's a skill to grow in so there's
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some skills right like some hobbies that I do that I could grow in skill like crocheting right
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that I could get way better at crocheting that I am I'm just not really that inspired too but yoga
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you can always get better even the experts could get more flexible they could get stronger they
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could hold their balance is a little bit longer you can just improve forever so you know it's
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something that's not daunting to me because you know there's some poses that are just outside my
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reach so I can just keep practicing slowly but surely and get closer to these poses that I want to
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be able to do that I can't right now I can get there right and then once I get there I'm not going
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to be bored because there there will be other poses but I'm not upset that I can't get to
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you know flying pigeon right now I'm close I can do like a flying half pigeon for like a second but
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you know there's always going to be something to work for but there's something right in front of
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me too that I can work for so it's at this skill that I'm I'm growing it and I can see progress
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but it's not like a speedy progress that I'm going to be bored with soon so I just really love
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I just really love that aspect of it that it meets all of those things that I'm looking for
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as hobby material and it has the added benefits of providing my body exercise and you know those
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three gifts that I was talking about from Bernabé Brown connection and compassion and courage just
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with my body so yeah that's why I love yoga and I think even if it's not going to make it into a
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hobby for you that that you would probably benefit from doing some some yoga in your life
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okay now I want to transition to how do you even get started so I'm going to give tips for
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the very beginners I'm also going to give tips for you know if you've started but you want to
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progress or you want to know some other things that I like I'll give you that too so I think
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you'll still find something helpful for this even if yoga is already a part of your life
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but I am going to start with some of the beginner stuff also in this podcast I like to talk about
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you know what can you expect to spend when you start a hobby so I'll give a little bit of that too
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so one of the things I love about yoga is that it can be totally free right you don't have to have
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any equipment you don't have to spend money on classes or really anything you can just show up
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in whatever clothes you have have you know your phone playing a YouTube video and you can just go
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so you don't have to spend any money at all but now if you want to be serious about it
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it can get really expensive really quickly I've actually never taken classes well besides
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the college class that I had to do but I've never actually taken yoga classes in the US but I've
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talked to some people in different parts of the US and I'm really kind of shocked at how expensive
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yoga memberships are like between 150 and 300 dollars a month and I'm just kind of blown away
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by that and I'm kind of sad too because I would really love to suggest someone who is new at yoga
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to start in person to have an instructor who can show you you know like help you know if your hips
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are in line or help you know if you're doing the pose right you know they can kind of yeah just
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help you make sure that you're doing pose right yeah I guess I didn't need to say that twice but
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yeah that's just a really big benefit so if you are thinking about getting into it seriously
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and especially if you've never done anything like that before where you've had to make sure your
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body is in correct alignment then you might want to think about can you afford classes and how
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much are classes in your area but if you can't then I would recommend starting with yoga with
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Adrienne on YouTube she does some really great beginner classes where she will tell you what you're
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supposed to be thinking about as you do each pose you know where you want your weight you know you
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want it in the ball of your foot or do you want it in your heel or do you want it spread between
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both feet you know she is going to tell you all of that or you know if you're doing down dog hey
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make sure your your ears you know your shoulders are pressing away from your ears she will
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she will guide you through that well I think so yeah if you're just beginning and you don't have
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the the cash to join a yoga membership then definitely start there I've mentioned I do yoga
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with Cassandra too she's a little bit more intermediate which is more fun you know the more you
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grow in your skill the more fun you're going to have because if you're just starting out you're not
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going to be able to handle some of the balancing poses or especially the arm balances oh the arm
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balances are so fun you got to you got to work up to the arm balances but you know Cassandra is
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going to walk you through some of those arm balances where Adrienne probably won't yeah so that
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can be totally free what you wear you know you can just wear sweat pants in a t-shirt if you want
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I really recommend yoga pants not shorts not sweats and it doesn't have to be yoga pants it can
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just be you know regular leggings or something but something that is tight fitting and covers all of
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your skin because some poses especially like floor stretches it's going to pull your skin sometimes
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if you know you're just wearing shorts or something I find that really uncomfortable so I really
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prefer the tight leggings or yoga pants that doesn't really matter the material unless you know
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the only thing that would matter is your climate and you know how hard are you working how cold or
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hot is it you know that's what you're going to care about for material but just for doing yoga
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yeah I really prefer leggings and then same with a shirt I prefer something tight fitting um so that
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you know when you are bending over to touch your toes or doing downward dog you don't have a t-shirt
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in your face because it's too loose fitting um now you certainly can you know or maybe you just
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want to tuck your t-shirt into your leggings or something and that's totally fine um but yeah
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I just prefer the tight fitting clothes so that it doesn't get in my way um yeah um another thing
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that I have just recently bought a pair of and enjoy in terms of clothing is yoga socks so
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there's socks that have like little dots you know at the bottom of them I think there's several
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kinds of slipper socks like this that would probably be fine so it helps you get your grip on the
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mat um while still keeping your feet warm um so I mostly use it because right now it's winter and
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it's cold and I'm gonna just be miserable if my feet are cold so I start my practice wearing those
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and then usually once I'm warmed up I take them off because even though they have the the grippy
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dots I still feel like my feet are slipping and sliding and I just really hate that feeling
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other equipment that is um helpful is a yoga mat and some space so I have tried out a couple
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different kinds of mats and living in lots of different places I have tried you know different
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areas um and right now the place where I have I feel so blessed I have like my own yoga room
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there's just a bonus room that they you know previous owners built on to the back door
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and maybe they used it as like kind of a mudroom I'm not sure but it's just a small room
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that has nothing in it um it's like what eight by eight by ten maybe it's it's really not a large
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space but it has a um hardwood fluid it's not hardwood floor but it's like laminate wood floor kind
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of between laminate and hardwood I don't remember what you call that um but the rest of the places in
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the house are carpeted or and they're just narrow so I really don't have a good place anywhere else
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in this house to do it but this room is just um yeah it has a solid floor and it's just got a big
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open space um so that's what you want you want to have some kind of space uh yoga mats are usually
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like two feet by six feet ish um and so you want to have at least a few feet on either end
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um like if you can do two feet on either end that's really best some poses you would wish you would
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have a little bit more than that but um if you have you know a six by ten you know that's pretty good
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and so that's like what I have and it's um there's every so often I'm like I got to adjust because
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I'm kicking the wall or something but um in general I just I really love my yoga room and we wouldn't
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use that room for anything else um it just is kind of out of the way and so my yoga mat just gets to
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live there um it's wonderful now everybody is going to have space like that you might be moving a coffee
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table which is what I've had to do in the past um or practice in kind of weird areas
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yeah it can it can get awkward you might have to be adjusting but um you know as long as you can
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get your mat in there you can do that um so yoga mats there's lots of different kinds of mats
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most of them especially the like economic ones are made from like a PVC material and are I think
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they're like five eighths of an inch or some no three eighths of an inch I can't remember um not very
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thick um but they have like a little bit of cushion so it really depends on what kind of yoga
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you're going to want to do if you want to do some of the more restorative yoga I would recommend a
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thicker mat that has more cushion because you're going to be sitting on the ground stretching more
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you're going to want more cushion between you and the ground or even you know on carpet would be
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okay if you're doing like in yoga if you want to do some of the more um cardio active especially
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if you're going to do any balances you're really going to hope for a hard floor and something that's
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thinner I think because the you know the cushion here it is just the more you're going to move on it
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um yeah so you'd want probably thinner and just less cushion um so I was using a PVC
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mat for a long time I didn't love it I was always slipping and sliding anytime I got even just a
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little bit warm you know in my hands would start to sweat I'd try to hold down dog and I just slip
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and I didn't feel like I could actually get into the pose because I'm so worried about
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slipping um and I really didn't like that and then a little over a year ago I found a I was
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I was doing some research into yoga mats and heard good things about pure pure rubber mats like all
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rubber yoga mats and I happened to find one and I found it for $50 and that was on sale I'm not sure
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how much you could find one for if you went out and looked today but I love my rubber mat I love it
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I don't slip hardly at all maybe if I get like really sweaty or something or you know some poses but
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I really don't slip and I love it um the bad thing about it is it's quite heavy so if I travel
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with it at all it's a beast it's heavy um also if you have any kind of rubber allergy like latex
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allergy or something this is not going to be the mat for you um sometimes after I do yoga especially
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when I first got it but even now over a year later my hands still smell like rubber a little bit
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afterwards and I don't love that but as far as like the purpose of using this mat for yoga I love it
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it's perfect um and I don't do a lot of restorative stuff I I prefer the balances and some of the
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strength stuff so um yeah this this definitely meets my need another thing you know that yoga
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people are into are like you know saving the planet and the PVC mats are really not good for the
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planet because they never biodegrade um you know so if you want something that's going to last you
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a while that will do it but if you ever want to get rid of it they're just like it's just there
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it's just going to sit in a landfill where the rubber will eventually degrade um now I've had my
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mat for oh you know a year and I am starting to see it's unraveling a little bit at the edges
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um so I I was told when I was looking into mats that that was a negative of rubber is that they do
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wear down faster than some of the other ones um but you know that's that's life and I kind of like
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the fact that it's not going to just sit in a landfill for centuries um and plus I just
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for my yoga plant practice it is exactly what I want so I highly recommend those
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now if you go to any kind of yoga store or section of a athletic store or something you will see
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all sorts of yoga accessories and gizmos and gadgets like yoga blocks and straps and balls and um
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I don't even know what else so you do not need any of that and I would suggest especially when
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you're just getting started if you are wondering if this is for you or not not to buy those things
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if you need a strap you can use a towel if you need a block you can use cans or books or
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or just the floor um I do have blocks and I do have a strap and I sometimes use them
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if I didn't have them it would be okay um but mostly what they help with is
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extending something so the strap I use when I need my arms to be a little bit longer like this
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morning as I was practicing you know I had a pose where I was you know you stand on one foot and you
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lift up the other one and you're supposed to like catch your toe with your hand and just like stand
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there right like holding your outstretched leg with your hand I'm just not quite that flexible
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or strong enough yet so I grabbed my strap and I used that to hold my leg up and so I was able to
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get so basically the strap is extending my arm and it helps me to work on um extending you know
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keeping my leg extended and so still working on that flexibility and the strength to hold it up um
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you know because if I didn't have it I would just have to like bend my knee probably so I could still
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hold on to it um or just not hold on to it and just hold my leg up but then I'm I'm missing
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the the full strength and stretching that I'm supposed to be doing with this pose so
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using the strap helps me to still get the same strength and flexibility out of it
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without you know while even before I'm quite there um so it just helps me get there
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better faster um and then the yoga blocks bring the floor closer to you so I rarely use
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yoga blocks but there are a few poses that I use it every single time so one of those poses is
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half moon um so it's where you're like leaning over to the side on one leg um you've got one leg
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out and the other one's supposed to be like touching the ground um but if I use that without a block
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my hips are just not aligned right and so by using a block I can make sure that my hips stay
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aligned right so just as as Adrienne would say brings the floor to me um yeah so it just it makes
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those positions safer and helps me to stay in alignment um but most videos that you do are not
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going to be showing you the poses with these accessories um so what I've done is I've looked at
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just specific youtube videos on how to use blocks or how to use a strap um and then I kind of took
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those principles that I learned from those and now I just apply that anytime I do some other kind
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of video and that helps me um you know like I I think I learned the strap saying from a video like
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hey look you need to do this and you just you're not quite there yet use this strap and so now
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you know even though I'm following a video and she's holding on to her foot with her hand
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I'm like I know I can't do that but I know this strap can help me um so I grab my strap even though
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the video is not saying hey grab your strap for this um yeah so those those I found helpful
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um I've not found any need or desire to have any other kind of accessories and again without those
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it would be fine um yeah okay but the last but not least um of my favorite things that I have
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spent money on for yoga is an app called Down Dog now I first got introduced to this
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and I think it was December 2022 so a little over a year ago and um they were giving out you know
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free subscriptions to students and I was a graduate student so I was like hey I'll try this
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and I loved it and um still I'm technically a student but they just had a promo for a $20
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year long subscription and usually it's like $10 a month I think um or $60 a year yeah it's
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$60 a year so it could be you know if you pay for the year subscription that comes to $5 a month
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way better than $150 a month right but I had I got this promotion for $20 for the year um so this
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is like $2 a month um so in order to get that since my student identity is going to be ending soon
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I figured I better just spend the money on this now it'll save me money in the long run
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but anyway I love Down Dog um I should really try to get some money for doing an advertisement for
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them here but um I really really like it um yes it's you know it's the money but it saves me a lot
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of time then trying to like look up YouTube videos um you know because I'd be you know searching
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scrolling scrolling scrolling and then you know I'd find a video that I liked and would just keep
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doing that one and kind of got bored I never get bored with Down Dog and they have so many options
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um you know they have vinyasa but they also have hatha and they have yin and they have I don't know
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a dozen or so just different kinds of yoga and then within that you get to decide you know do
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you want to focus on anything like core strength or hamstring stretches um how fast do you want to go
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through the poses uh what voice do you want to hear giving you instructions and then they have
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somebody you know going through the poses too and it's just really well done I've never had the
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same practice twice um oh and you also get to tell it how long you want to practice so if you
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I think eight minutes is the shortest or something like that um you know if you want to practice for
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ten minutes if you want to practice for an hour if you want to practice for 18 minutes you there's
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a setting for that um so I just really love how I can I just I don't feel like there's any
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any roadblock now when I'm like okay I'm ready to practice and I just tell it what I want to do
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and usually it's just a 30 minute vinyasa practice with no boosts and I just go right but every
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so often and I'm like ah my hips are tight I want to focus on hip stretches um you know okay I
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add that in or you know what I've got a little extra time I'm gonna go for 35 minutes um or you
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know what I'm really I really don't have time but I got to do something I'll just do it for 20
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minutes today so yeah I just I really love it it takes out the the roadblock for me when I'm ready
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to um practice some yoga takes away you know 10 minutes of scrolling through different videos um so
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yeah I really recommend that oh last okay one more thing so it has like five different levels too
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so all those other things that I've already talked about they have all of that available in beginner
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intermediate um advanced and elite like I think that I'm missing one more I think there's two
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intermediates anyway they have all sorts of levels so if you're just beginning they have videos for
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that they're not gonna take you to flying pigeon in beginner um yeah I regularly practice at like
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inner intermediate two I think right but like it's the last one before expert and you know so they
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they do some arm balances in there but it's not as many as I think I would get in the in the next
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one who knows if I'll ever get there um you know who knows I keep practicing but yeah so I think
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those are my tips and tricks um and how I would recommend you get started you could get started
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today if you want um but there's yeah a lot of room to grow and just really make this practice your own
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okay well there you have it thank you so much for letting me share my hobbies with you
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and don't forget to share your hobbies with me too by following me on Instagram at hobbies 101
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podcast and letting me know what hobbies you're up to all right I will see you at the next episode