I’m linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Cynthia from You Signed Up for WHAT?!, and Mar from Mar on the Run. This week’s Friday Five theme is Five Things I Love about ____ . . . And I chose YOGA!
I’m still running and lifting, of course, but I’ve been focusing a lot more on yoga lately. So, to celebrate that, I thought I’d share five things I love about yoga.
- I can practice in my pajamas! They say you can just roll out of bed and go running, which you can–once you put on shoes. But you don’t need shoes with yoga! You don’t even need a mat. You can begin your practice anywhere and at any time.
- I know what utkatansana, vrikasana, trikonasana, and savasana mean. Being the word nerd that I am, I love that I know a little Sanskrit. 🙂
- Yoga helps me center myself. I can be pretty high strung and stressed out, but yoga helps me focus inward and let my worries and stresses dissolve. I can better live in the moment through yoga.
- Yoga makes me happy. And happy people just don’t shoot their husbands. They just don’t. . . . In all seriousness, though, I can honestly say that yoga has improved my relationship with the world around me, myself, and my husband. I’m a much happier and nicer person after I’ve practiced yoga. And people want to hang out with a happy person, right? No one likes a downer. Sometimes the Engineer and I practice together, and he is calmer and happier too. Everyone benefits from yoga in my house! 🙂
- Yoga meets you where you are. This is why yoga is a practice. You don’t have to force anything. You can just be where you are, whether you’re a beginner or you have been practicing for years. With yoga, I always see improvement–in my flexibility, my strength, my focus, and my heart.
Rebecca from Strength & Sunshine encouraged us in one of her posts to find our own yoga, which is different from others’. I’d like to share with what my yoga is, and I hope you’ll read her post and contemplate what your yoga (or running or favorite activity) really is and be mindful of that.
Here’s what I wrote:
My yoga is fulfilling, strengthening, contemplative, calming, and invigorating. It helps me center myself and look inward. It is a spiritual experience for me, and I feel this way whether in class or at home. After spending years in competitive sports in my youth, yoga is the perfect opposite for me. It’s all about my personal practice and no one else’s.
So do you love yoga? Why?
What pose are you working on right now? I’m trying my darndest to get into bakasana, or crow pose.
What do you love?
What do you love? It's #FridayFive with @eatprayrundc @yousignedup & @marmaone1. Share on XDon’t forget to #taketheleap with prAna and Fit Approach. Details here.
It’s not too late to join in the 12-day #bringingyogaback mini challenge. Details here.
I’m also linking up with Jill Conyers’s Fitness Friday and B.J. for #FitGeekFriday. Be sure to check out the hosts’ pages and find other fun blogs to read!