At various times in my adult life I have tried to get into yoga. It always seemed such an elegant way to add movement to your life and something you don’t need a lot of equipment to do.
I knew this would be a bit of a struggle for me at first because I can best be described as a klutz. I don’t always feel like I have total control over my limbs. No, I’m not having seizures, I’m just awkward. But I was really interested so I wanted to give it a go.
In the 90s I bought a couple books but they were confusing. Plus it’s hard to get into a flow when you need to turn the page all the time. In the early 2000s I had a couple DVDs that were supposed to be for beginners but either had no clear directions how to get into the poses, included poses that I doubt anyone than Olympic gymnasts can achieve, or both.
You might be wondering why I didn’t just go to a class. I live in a small town and there aren’t the options for live classes you have in larger cities. Plus, given what I’d found in the “beginner” section of guides I’d had in the past I was scared of making a total fool out of myself even in a beginner class.
But a few months ago I stumbled upon a game changer. I found the YouTube channel Yoga with Adriene. There are MANY people posting yoga content on YouTube, but I really like Adriene’s approach. She is all about making yoga accessible to everyone. She spends a lot of time discussing safety- how to properly do the poses and transition between poses so that you don’t hurt yourself. Her mantra is “find what feels good” and she talks extensively about how yoga isn’t about turning your body into a pretzel for the sake of it, but about “having an experience in your body”. She encourages you to test what you think your body can do, but stresses you should never be in pain.
This is the first time I truly feel like I’m really learning about yoga and not just guessing what I’m doing. And I am really enjoying it. The catalog is huge- she starting posting 9 years ago and still uploads new content weekly- so I won’t run out of videos anytime soon. If you ever wondered about yoga, I cannot recommend Yoga with Adriene enough.