Story Time!

When you have kids, breaking out for a Yoga class at your local Yoga studio may not be an option (yet).

So what do you do? Instead of quitting Yoga altogether, use these tips for practicing at home when you have kids.

LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

Everything changes when you have kids. Your body changes. Your hormones shift. Your mind races with all the possible scenarios that could cause harm to your sweet little one. Your free time vanishes.

Of course your yoga practice is going to change, too. Big time! This is especially true if you plan on practicing at home while your little one is in your care. If you don’t prioritize it, you might never get time to unroll your mat. And when you do, might have to stop what you’re doing to go pick up a crying baby or refill a snack bowl. So be it.

BUT DON’T LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS TOO MUCH.

I hear so many people say that if the best you can do is to take a few deep breaths while you’re feeding the baby, you’re still doing yoga. This is good advice in theory, but I have a couple problems with it. There’s value in taking a big, mindful breath.  However, it’s far too let your practice slip away for weeks and weeks if you keep telling yourself, “Oh, I breathed today, so I did my practice.” Trust me. I have made this mistake.

A daily mindful breath is not enough to help you be your best self. You deserve better than that. Your family deserves better than that. You have to actually DO your asana practice to reap all the benefits. Take time to unroll your mat, move your body, feel the breath in your lungs, and be in the present moment–no matter how crazy and chaotic it might be with little ones running around.

SQUEEZE IT IN WHEN YOU CAN.

If you’re like me, it’s next to impossible to practice for a full hour when the kids are home. So I practice in little bits and pieces whenever I can. I get my longest stretch in in the morning when the baby is practicing her crawling skills and my big girl is either at school or playing close by.

DON’T WAIT UNTIL NAP TIME.

When my first was a baby, I’d wait until she was napping peacefully to get my yoga practice in. Unfortunately, nap time was also the only time I had to shower, answer emails, fold laundry, do my actual paying job, and a myriad other things. Guess what was usually last on the list? Yup. My yoga practice.

There were some days when she didn’t nap more than 10 minutes when I didn’t have time to do any of those things. Those days sucked.

INCLUDE YOUR KIDS IN YOUR PRACTICE.

Little children have short attention spans. It can be incredibly difficult to do a full, serious practice with those hyper little beings bouncing off and on your yoga mat. Still, it’s always a treat for me when my girls will actually spend some time practicing yoga with me. When I’m feeling particularly playful, I make up little stories to go along with the poses (Let’s plant a garden! Or go surfing! Or go on a safari!).

But most of the time I just ask my big girl to practice along with me. She will try different things, and we’ll both delight at how amazingly strong she is for a 5-year-old. (This little girl has an effortless Tittibhasana! I am equal parts amazed and jealous.) After about 10 minutes, she gets bored and I have to help her find something else to entertain herself with so I can practice… which brings me to my next tip.

BRING OUT THE SNACKS, VIDEOS, AND TREATS.

Here’s a scenario that will be familiar to every mama who’s ever tried to practice yoga with kids at home: I unroll my mat just start to do my first Sun Salutation when my daughter comes running up to me and says, “Why do you always have to do yoga. Will you play with me instead?” Cue the mom guilt.

When my yoga practice is going like this I realize I need it just that much more. And I will do almost anything to make it happen. I’m not above bribery. Cookies at 9 am? OK, but you have to promise to be quiet until I finish my yoga. You want to watch those annoying YouTube videos with the surprise toys inside the eggs? Go find the headphones. You know what babies love? Buttons! Here, have the remote control and mama’s phone.

I will cook them a healthy meal, read books, and spend the rest of the day being super mom. But for just a few minutes a day, Mama needs her yoga time. And I’m going to get it one way or another.

Read The Original Article Here

Yoga at home, even with young children, is completely doable. All it takes is some persistence and the decision to do it.

If you want to fit Yoga into your daily routine, even as a busy mom, put these tips to use!

Join a community of like-minded Yogis that are supportive and uplifting when you need it on my Facebook Group: Yogi Hearts, Business Minds. 

It’s also where I go live to give exclusive advice on Yoga Life, Yoga Biz, and Yoga Practice.

When it comes to our bodies, we focus so much of our time on how it looks, and less time on how we feel about it.

You only have 1 body. It’s the same body you have always whether you lose or gain weight, tone up or let yourself go, even when you get plastic surgery.

The body that you’re born with is the body you will have for life, so why not treat it right and learn to love it?

The idea of a “new body” is a myth we’re sold. Plain and simple. It could never be anything but that because we all logically know we’re never getting a new body — that even if our body changes, in any way (which of course it constantly does), it’s not new.

Losing weight doesn’t make your body new. Neither does gaining weight. Neither does gaining muscle. Neither does having an injury. Neither does having an illness. Neither does dying your hair. Neither does plastic surgery. Neither does having a baby. Neither does breaking a bone.

Some of these things may make your body feel different, but feeling, looking or even functioning differently does not a new body make.

This is as true for Trisha Yearwood as it is for me. Trisha’s body isn’t new — it’s just different (for the time being) in a culturally approved way. 

We’re all still us — for better or worse. Because the other side of this “new body” coin is that it presupposes that new = better. Not only does this insult your “previous” body, it also implies that all change is for the “better,” so that when we have something “new” about our bodies we don’t like, we’re doubly hard on ourselves.

Why Oh Why

Because sometimes, the idea that you’re stuck with your same body no matter what really sucks. Why? Because remember how I said we’re sold the idea that we can get a new body? Well, when we don’t get it, we don’t usually blame the people who sold us a bill of goods.

Instead, we blame ourselves.

Ourselves!!

In very few other circumstances would we blame ourselves for not being able to do the impossible that someone else tried to tell us was possible (and probably charged us lots of money for). We’d blame that person for pulling the wool over our eyes.

But when it comes to our bodies, we’re sensitive. We want to believe we can get a new body. Sometimes we even want to believe it desperately.

So instead of calling a spade a spade, we keep trying for that new body. And then we keep beating ourselves up when we don’t get it. Or celebrating ourselves when we think we do — only to hate ourselves even more when the weight comes back, or we get injured and can’t run every day, or life gets busy and we get tired of pushing ourselves so hard, or we get sick/get in a car accident/or otherwise have our bodies change due to circumstances beyond our control.

The Good News

So here’s the good news about the fact (yep, FACT) that you’re never getting a new body: you don’t need one.

And lest you think I’m cracked at this point and think I’ve never wanted a new body, let me set the record straight. I’ve wanted a new body, all right. I’ve longed for one. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars and years (decades!) of my life “working” for one. I’ve wasted time I could have spent with friends, not let myself enjoy truly joyful moments of my life because I thought I didn’t look good enough, and blamed everyone this side of the equator for me not being able to get a new body — directing the bulk of that blame towards myself.

And this hasn’t only been about weight. Because during years of terrible migraines, I’ve also wanted a new, pain-free body — one that never gets sick or otherwise “lets me down.”

But here’s the truth — for me, you and Trisha — no matter your body’s shape, size, age or ability, it’s yours. And that means it’s with you for the long haul — an ever-present reminder that the only thing any of us can ever really learn is how to accept and love the one body we have.

Because even though it will change in various ways over time, nothing and no one is with us more than our one, never new body. It shows up more for us than anyone or anything ever will, even when we’re not happy with it, even when we wish it was different, even when we talk poorly about it and to it.

You’re never getting a new body (and neither am I). And that’s the good news.

So, I’m not saying not to care at all how you look or where your body is at. What I’m saying is to treat it right and don’t abuse it. Feel good about your body, no matter what stage of improvement you’re in.

For a positive, uplifting a supportive tribe of Yogis that are there for you anytime, join my Facebook Group: Yoga Hearts, Business Minds. It’s also the place where I give exclusive advice on Yoga Biz, Yoga Life, and Yoga Practice.

There’s so much that you can learn from Yoga. Practice, self-discipline, and more about who you are as a person.

But most of all, it teaches you to love yourself for who you really are… Not who others tell you that you should be.

Check out the different ways that Yoga can help you show up for yourself below.

Have you ever found it hard to take positive and kind action on your own behalf?

Me, too.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I was President of that club for about, oh, a couple decades.

Knock, Knock

Of course, it’s hard to practice self-care when you don’t know what’s going on with your body. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it?

I spent so many years living in my head, that looking back I just don’t think I was capable of treating myself well and doing things that would make me feel good — sleeping enough, moving my body in ways that felt good, figuring out what my migraine triggers were, knowing what my boundaries were, etc.

I mean, how could I have? In order to do any of those things, you first have to know how you feel in the moment.

And I pretty much never knew that.

Who’s There?

It was only after I’d been practicing yoga for a while that I started to live more in my body — not all the time, or even most of the time, but more than I had been.

As I began to identify what was happening in my body on the mat, I began to take back my ability to do it off the mat, too.

I say take back because I think we all have the ability to do this deep down. Many of us disconnect from or lose that ability, though — due to any number of issues. It’s not that we lost it completely or never had it, but that we have to forge a new relationship with it.

That’s what I feel has happened for me, and is continuing to unfold the longer I practice. I’m taking back my ability to act on my own behalf, my bodily agency.

Empowered

I usually hate quoting the dictionary, but in this case I think it’s relevant. In it, empower means “to give power to” and “to promote the self-actualization of.” Sounds pretty fitting to me.

For people who have become disconnected from their bodily power for any reason (AKA 99.99% of us), yoga can be a way home.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Reconnecting with your body after not feeling or listening to it can be difficult at best — feeling things you might have been avoiding, remembering things you might have hoped to forget, mourning the time you spent seemingly apart. All of that is stored in our body on a deep level, so the more we move it and know it, the more things come to the surface.

What I’ve found, though, is that feeling it all — the good, the bad and everything in between — is better than the alternative that I lived for such a long time.

Showing Up For Me

Yoga that points people back to themselves as the experts on their own experience is what helps people reestablish this connect and empower themselves. Because while someone else might be able to help you open the door of empowerment, it’s ultimately an inside job.

No one else empowers you. You empower yourself.

And as that inner empowerment unfolds, you step into your agency and can begin to take compassionate action on your own behalf.

Yoga in action. You in action.

Read The Original Article Here

Are you ready to be there for yourself?

Are you ready to be a powerful, conscious, and loving soul?

Take action today and keep up with your Yoga practice.

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Some of the mos beautiful women I know suffer from low self-esteem and poor body image.

While I’d love to blame it all on social constructs and the entertainment industry (this includes the media), it’s not all their fault. We have to take some of the responsibility for what we allow ourselves to believe about beauty and our bodies.

The only reason that they get away with [falsely] portraying beauty and perfection the way they do is because we allow them to.

You are beautiful. Your body is perfect. You don’t have to look like the models on TV or wear a size 2 to be beautiful or to love your body.

If you want to make the shift to a better body image and self-esteem, read the article below. It lays out some great points.

A friend recently asked me how I made the shift towards a more positive body image.

And I froze.

Despite writing about this often and thinking about it even more, an answer didn’t easily spring to mind. I think that’s because it’s a monolithic question in a lot of ways, and I’ve done SO many different things that it’s hard to narrow it down.

Drilling Down

After shaking off my initial brain freeze, I did the next best thing I could think of: spout off some platitudes — therapy, journaling, blah, blah, blah.

Now, those things aren’t blah blah to me — not at all. They’re actually two of my most important tools that I use on a regular basis. But they were blah blah to her at the time because I knew she’d heard it all before, and she was struggling. She wanted to hear something different, and I knew I wasn’t being as real as I wanted to be.

One More Layer

There were a few other friends in the room, so the conversation continued for a bit without me. I listened to them with one ear and to me with the other — asking myself, “what has REALLY made a difference to me?”

And then it hit me.

As soon as I could, I jumped back into the conversation and told my friend, “One of the biggest things I did was completely change my environment.”

That got her attention.

Creating My Life

From there, I went into further detail. I let go of toxic friendships — the ones that drained me of energy because they were all one-sided. But also the ones where all we talked about was how much we hated our bodies and needed to go on a diet.

Now, I didn’t just call up these people and break-up with them in one day; my process wasn’t that quick. But over time, as I saw our relationship more deeply (or, rather, saw its lack of depth), I had less desire to spend time with these people. And we gradually drifted apart — no passive aggressive melodrama necessary.

I also dramatically reduced the amount of media I consume. I used to love subscribing to magazines, but over time I realized that 90% of them were ads designed to make me feel terrible. Even the pages that weren’t actual ads were ads because they were just clever layouts of “best new facial creams” or whatever.

After that, I slowly stopped reading so much news and, eventually, I stopped my old way of watching TV. Now I never flip through the channels and accidentally land on a telemercial for the latest weight loss scheme. Instead, I’m all about Hulu — watching only what I want, when I want.

Finally, I changed my home. I got rid of all the clothes I was hanging onto for the hopes of fitting into one day. I couldn’t believe the shift that created for me energetically. I quite literally felt freer after unburdening myself of the expectations infused in those clothes.

I also hid my scale from myself. Of course, I knew it was still there, but more often than not I didn’t think about it when it wasn’t the first thing I saw every morning. And, again, over time, as I fell out of the routine of weighing myself 2-3x/week, I missed it less and less.

The Myth of Giving Up

As I read through this list, my inner critic thinks — “You didn’t change your environment. You gave up!”

And, my, isn’t that a pervasive myth? We even have jokes about it — how people get older, married, in a busy job, have kids or whatever (it really doesn’t matter the reason, does it?) — and they “give up.” In this scenario, giving up is meant to mean on the way they look.

What a sad social construct.

First of all, I think this is ridiculous, offensive and designed solely to support the diet and beauty industries. Second, you know what looks better on people than a smaller pair of pants?

Not hating themselves.

Truly, don’t we all know those people whose bodies don’t fit the standard beauty norms but who everyone thinks is radiant and gorgeous? I know I do. And it’s not because of their clothes or makeup.

It’s because they have a light within, and they shine it out with confidence.

Change your environment, change your life

I know it can sound like a lot, perhaps even too much, to change your environment. And I can hear the reasons as to why you could never cut that person out of your life. And that’s probably true; it is for me.

I still have people in my life who aren’t 100% supportive of my body lovin’ journey who I choose not to cut out (primarily because they’re family members). So what I do with them is shift the conversation as much as possible, including not participating in fat-talk during family gatherings, which is always a favorite activity.

You’ll also notice that with everything I did, I said “over time” or “slowly.” This didn’t happen overnight — not by a long shot. So if there are things you might like to change in your life, figure out your own pace and method.
And start making the shift.
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Put these principles into practice today. I promise, it’s totally worth it. Instead of focusing on the way you look, focus on your health. When your perspective shifts from how you look to how your body feels, happiness and joy can then be unleashed.

If you want to join a community of Yogis who are strong, uplifting, and supportive… Join my Facebook Group Yogi Hearts, Business Minds.

Not only will you find a tribe of amazing Yogis that are there for you, but it’s where I give exclusive advice on Yoga Biz, Yoga Life, and Yoga Practice.