Yoga? Meditation? Anyone?

I use the headspace app to meditate - it's taken me a while to get into it and I still don't do it as regularly as I probably should, but have noticed some benefits. It's short, manageable segments, I like the voice of the presenter, and they have a few themed courses you can do in 10 minutes or less every day. Not all of those courses have really worked for me, but I really liked the one on kindness and will be trying one on mindful eating next.

In terms of yoga, I use that more to stretch, relax and slow down. So I really like yin yoga (you hold poses for longer and a lot of it tends to be floor based) or hatha (again, longer poses but slightly more strenuous in my experience). I have tried vinyasa in the past (which I suppose is better for getting your heart rate up and building strength) but found it doesn't really work that well for what I want out of yoga. I mix it up between going to a class and just doing it at home, but if you're up for trying some home practice, I can highly recommend Yoga with Adriene on youtube. She signposts her videos really well and has lots for specific concerns, both in terms of mental and physical health, and she does have quite a few videos that explain and introduce some of the most common poses.

I found that both with yoga and meditation, it tends to work a lot better for me if I make time for it regularly (ideally daily, but I've never really managed that with yoga!).

What would be your main reason for incorporating yoga and meditation? How much time do you have each week/day?

I have done vinyasa flow for almost ten years. I started casually, stepped it up to three or four times a week following an illness that messed with my joints, and when I started working on my weight last year, I added in Mat Pilates to my rotation and now go once, usually twice, a day. I’ve got two classes scheduled this morning.

I started weights with a trainer in February. The two disciplines complement each other really well. The weights have built my arm and upper body strength up so that I am now able to do some arm balances. My trainer says she never has to demonstrate anything more than once, or worry about form because I’m so attuned to following instructions from yoga.

She constantly yearns for her other (including some world class) lifters to take yoga because she says the added flexibility would help them with their lifts and reduce injuries.

There are a lot of different things classified as "yoga." I think the first thing to ask yourself is what you want from a yoga class. Do you want a workout? Relaxation? Meditation? Intense stretching?

If you are looking for a workout, then you're probably looking for a "flow" class, or other more active types of yoga.

If you want relaxation, go for something like a "gentle" or "restorative" yoga class.

If you want more intense stretching with the option for meditation, go for yin. In yin, you hold each lower body focused pose for 3+ minutes, gradually going deeper into it. You can choose to meditate while in the pose.

If you are looking for meditation without yoga, I would highly recommend the book "8 Minute Meditation." It walks you through several meditation techniques so you can find which ones work best for you.

Personally, I do yoga three times a week. I do a core class, which is yoga with a pilates influence, on Tuesdays. Wednesdays is level 2 flow; at my studio, "level 2" just means that the teacher assumes you know how to do common poses or can pick them up quickly, so we move faster and experiment with a challenging pose or two each week. Thursdays is yin.

I love restorative yoga. Easy poses, hold for longer times, a little meditation. Good stretches.
I like Hatha yoga also. Sometimes a little hard for me—I’m 70, but I just modify and keep going.

I love Vinyasa for getting out of my head, especially when I can get in a lunchtime class to take a break from work. I'm not very good at sitting still or quieting my mind, so a more challenging practice is often the best way for me to let go of everything going on in my head. Depending on the type of yoga you go for you can get anything from quiet and meditative to a very sweaty, strength building workout. I probably only do yoga once a week, since lately I've been exploring other activities.

When I started going to the gym again a year or two ago (I hadn't been active for about a year, dealing with mental health issues), beginning yoga classes were my favorite thing to help me start communicating with my body again, allowing me to explore what I was capable of before adding other types of fitness.

One thing I would encourage if you would like to begin a yoga practice is to remember that no matter what class you are taking, it is still your practice, so rather than struggling to do exactly what everyone else is doing, learn to adapt for your own body (and don't be shy about asking for alternatives from a teacher). The easiest way to hate yoga is to try to force yourself to do something you are not ready for. For example, years ago I used to be able to do headstands with literally no effort - just on the fly, on uneven surfaces, anywhere. I don't have the strength to do that again yet, but I have other new strengths that I didn't have before, so that's important for me to remember. I try to think of my current practice as something new, rather than attempting a continuation of the practice I had when I was younger.

My partner loves Yoga with Adrienne for his at home yoga practice since he doesn't enjoy the studio setting. He's been doing yoga every day for several months now. Her videos are a really great way to ease into a yoga practice since she covers a lot of beginner-friendly content and has some great short videos if you don't have much time available.

I have PTSD so I do trauma-sensitive yoga. I find it works really well at helping me feel calmer.

Shortgirlrunning wrote: »

I use Yoga with Adrienne videos on YouTube for my yoga. She has lots of beginner videos. I always feel great after a yoga session. I should probably do it more than I do.

This.

I attend a class once a week but also really enjoy Adrienne's videos and recently finished her "30 days of yoga" series.

Danp wrote: »

I don't know if 'yoga' and 'mediation' belong in the same sentence.

I tried yoga once or twice and to be frank it was quite possibly one of the least relaxing and meditative thing I've ever done! LOL

Yoga is not one single thing. There are all kinds of yoga, including things that don't connote any type of physical activity. But even the physical practices people are usually referring to in the West when they speak of yoga come in a wide variety. (Plus, meditation can be practiced in lots of different ways, too.)

I have to admit that I did find 'corpse pose' to be somewhat meditative

Danp wrote: »

I don't know if 'yoga' and 'mediation' belong in the same sentence.

I tried yoga once or twice and to be frank it was quite possibly one of the least relaxing and meditative thing I've ever done! LOL

What he said.