For a better life : Morning routine part 4 - yoga

 

After those first parts of my morning routine :

1 - Morning routine in the bathroom

2 - Morning routine for home

3 - Morning routine : workout !

now comes the time of my favourite part, yoga, a practice that I have been used to doing for years now and that brought me considerable benefits, being more nimble but mostly learning how to breathe and deal with stress more easily.  

 

The first thing to remember while practising yoga is to keep breathing. You close your mouth and breathe through your nose, with your belly and not your lungs. If this looks weird to you, try to remember and take notice next morning when you wake up : this is usually how you breathe while sleeping. Remember that and use it.

Then, as usual with any sport practice, remember to take the advice from your doctor, is it good for you or not, and if you can, follow courses online (for now, Covid and all that). I find it great to practice with other people because you're all there, more or less, for the same benefits : feeling better in your mind and your body. Sadly, for me, there are no yoga courses that fit my schedule.

 

I don't know if you remember that I told you this : when you start a morning practice, when you have trouble getting out of bed, to try and remember the best part of your morning routine, the one that brings you joy. For me, as much as I love my whole yoga practice, the end is it : stretching the whole body,  feeling so relaxed than I yawn again and again, then ending up with the savasana (dead body) pose for 10 breaths, visualizing water sparkling under the sun. I feel energized, relaxed and happy, ready to go on with my day.

 

Yoga is not for young, flexible people only - or I wouldn't do it. The more difficult with yoga, in fact, is when you have cats and you have to constantly remind them that the mat is yours !

I won't describe my session because I built it around my needs over the years (and I change it regularly to avoid monotony), I can only give your links to Youtube channels if you need any references :

 - Yoga with Adriene : not only is her channel at the same time energizing and soothing, she also has useful playlists of videos ranging from less than 10mns to an hour long practices. If you're a beginner, she has a special "30 days of yoga" for beginners" challenge to "ease into yoga", or "Yoga for beginners - the basics",  

- Yoga with Kassandra : she has playlists with courses from less than 10mn to 90mn, including a series of videos on flexibility (just what I need !).

- You have the possibility to learn the basic yoga poses (asanas) in videos such as these. You just have to pick one !

If you follow favourite yoga channels, please say so in the comments :)

Once I have finished yoga, I roll my mat back in its bag and proceed seated on a chair. I sit with my feet flat on the floor, my butt against the back of the chair, but not leaning on the back of the chair. I sit as if a thread was keeping my spine and head up, my shoulders are relaxed, my hands on my thighs, my jaw relaxed. Then I do Kegel exercices and pretend to stop peeing 4x10 times, and contract one last time for 10 seconds. Here is a video to start if you need precisions. 

Last but not least, yoga for the eyes. 

Still seated, I close my eyes and move my eyes left, up, right, down, 10 times. There's no hurry, take your time. Then I do it 10 other times starting right, down, left, up. I rub my hands together if they are not warm enough, I put them on my eyes and count slowly to 5.

Next : extend one of your arms, raise your thumb, concentrate on it, move it toward your face until you touch your nose, then push it away as much as you can, raise your eyes and stare at a faraway point (a tree by the window ?  A lampost ? Works for me), then stare at your thumb again : repeat 10 times. Then, put your left hand on your left eye, do the same exercise with just one eye, 10 times. Change for the other hand/eye for 10 more times. Rub your hands together, put them on your eyes and count slowly to 5.

Finally, do the same as the first exercise, but this time with your eyes open : left, up, right, down 10 times, then right, down, left, up, 10 times. Rub your hands, put them on your eyes, count slowly to 5.

Here are a list of videos on yoga for the eyes, pick one if you wish to.

And this is the end of my physical morning routine. I usually feel great, relaxed and happy ! I then hop to the bathroom and finish preparing myself to go to work. Or for breakfast, that depends.

Next time, I'll tell you about my evening routine, which is a lot shorter !

What about you, do you practice yoga ? Do you have a favourite channel or book on the subject ? Please share !

My favourite book of reference is an encyclopedia on yoga by André Von Lysebeth (in French only, sorry), that describes every asana in every detail and which parts of the body it benefits from. A must have, do you have one ?