The Morning Muse

One of the side effects of doing Kundalini Yoga every single day for over two months now has been that I have actually gotten better at doing more flowing types of vinyasa and hatha yoga, “regular” yoga that is.

Some of it is that as if by some magic, my mind and body (?) seem more focused and stronger in the poses. I seem to have more flexibility, with no discernable physical cause, and my ability to sync breath to movement has shot through the roof (but this makes sense considering it’s a focus of Kundalini yoga).

However, the most surprising factor has been my ability to maintain a level of consistency with Hatha yoga, and to achieve a meaningful practice even when I feel some resistance. I was reflecting on this yesterday, and finally realized that it was the first time ever that I had been able to maintain such consistency, and after some thought, I know exactly why!

A lot of yoga classes (in-person or on Youtube) can be a little jarring. It starts as a workout, the practice doesn’t ebb and flow, and as opposed to a balance of meditative movements, flow, and strength, the whole thing turns into a jangled workout where you’re just focused on keeping up. Then there is Yin yoga or restorative yoga, and those are too slow for me on most days. So what’s a girl to do?

What Works Now

Well, I decided to start with what felt intuitive: resting in child’s pose, as if a fetus in the womb. I begin my Hatha/vinyasa practices in child’s pose, and when I am ready to move, I just shift my weight onto my hands and move into cobra, extending my legs back. From cobra, back to child’s pose when I’m ready.

I keep up this flow at a speed that feels good (truly following my intuition and holding as long as feels good), and eventually, I might move from cobra to a full upward facing dog and from child’s pose I might sit up into a rock pose where I can do some spinal flexes. Then back again into child’s pose. And on and on, until eventually, about 5-10 or sometimes 15 minutes into the practice, I feel the urge to do some stronger standing movements.

At that point, I move into a full standing vinyasa. I begin with downward dog, bringing my legs forward into a warrior variation perhaps, doing some balancing movements, making sure to repeat on both sides. I will usually sweat and sometimes my breath will get shorter. That’s when I go back to the floor, with the gentle exercises, until my heart has calmed and I’m back in child’s pose.

Then when I’m ready, back to a vinyasa, a new set of movements on each side. Sometimes I will repeat the previous sequence if it feels good. Sometimes I will add a few new asanas, and sometimes I will do something new entirely.

There are no rules.

There’s just what feels good, what feels right. The secret ingredient is a deep connection with the ebb and flow of the practice, and how to flow and modulate my own energy, which mirrors perfectly the living of life in a graceful ebb and flow.

Perhaps at first reading, starting in child’s pose and building up a momentum and flow doesn’t sound revolutionary, but in practice, it is. Maybe going back to laying on the mat again and again between flows doesn’t sound necessary, but it actually nurtures and expands your stamina. When you give your body as much time as it needs to energize at first, then to rest between flows when needed, the result is both profoundly meditative and physically satisfying.

If you’ve ever struggled to motivate yourself to get onto your mat or join a yoga class or follow a Youtube video, it might be (and I believe it is!) because you’ve simply been following the wrong methods.

If you’re a beginner with little knowledge of the basic asanas, you might want to watch yoga videos even if you don’t feel like following them in the moment. These will give you ideas to flow with later on, when you are practicing intuitively on your own.

Let me know if you try this method, and if it makes a difference in your practice and consistency! Yoga is absolutely magic, but the consistency and quality of our practice determine how quickly and easily we can experience those wonderful cognitive, mood, and physical impacts.