Yoga practice for Pregnancy

Yoga Fit magazine's Oct. 07 edition had an article called "Listening: Your Practice for Pregnancy." The entire article is available online so you can see the suggested postures or asanas.

The content of the article focused on how to be mentally during your yoga practice and how to listen more to your body through different methods, which is invaluable, pregnant or not. Photos of postures specifically for pregnant women accompany the article - the whole reason I purchased the magazine - but of course I didn't try it until this morning. :)

Since it was kind of short (estimated 15 minutes), I integrated it with another yoga sequence I found online for women in their second trimester - I wrote about it on Dec. 7.

Beginning in flapping fish pose from the yoga sequence was comfortable to rest in and prepare for the practice. Then I moved into thunderbolt or hero's pose and gracious pose. Following this I did the cat/cow (or dog) stretch, recommended in both practices, and afterwards did the squat flow in the Yoga Fit article. After that I did all the standing postures in the online sequence and practiced the remaining postures from Yoga Fit beginning with pigeon and ending in savasana with props.

The way the Yoga Fit article suggested being in savasana felt really good, by the way. I've been having a hard time completely releasing into corpse pose or savasana since having to do it on my left side due to not being able to lie flat on my back during pregnancy. However, the article suggested using a block/pillow or a bolster underneath your head and back to prop you up. It was very comfortable and much easier to melt into my mat and really let go.

To make this a more complete practice, I would add some sun salutations after cat/cow to warm the body up more - pigeon pose was a little harder to get into than normal. I also added some seated postures towards the end like head-to-knee pose or janu sirsasana and cobbler's pose. Plus I also did happy baby (to make my baby a happy baby!) and an easy spinal twist on my back.

Try it out and tell me what you think. Hopefully you can follow my madness - otherwise just follow the two sequences as separate flows.

Life is like a tea bag

A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

This quote was posted on Breathing Space and really spoke to me. Especially since I love my daily cup of green tea (no I HAVEN'T given up caffiene, but I do drink less of it), the metaphor resonated.

It's been a week since my husband was laid off, and it was really tough going back to work, albeit a three-day work week. I only told one of my coworkers the news because I didn't want to deal with the looks of pity and worry. However, not sharing meant hiding my sadness and fear of the unknown. Honestly, I do believe it helped to not talk about it because focusing on it is not the answer to making the situation better.

To help gain a better state of mind, I've been waking up an hour earlier to read some inspirational books like You can Heal Your Life and then do yoga for about 30-60 minutes. Having this time in the morning has helped me prepare mentally for the day. Today was the first day in a week I truly felt happy, although I wonder if it had something to do with it being Friday - TGIF!

I also want to meditate more so I reserved a ton of meditation books at the local library. Can't wait to start digging into those. Meditation is definitely an area I need to utilize more, and I think my husband would enjoy it as well.

Power of positive thinking

During my last business trip, I purchased the October Fit Yoga magazine in the airport. However, I left it at my parents during Thanksgiving and picked it back up again over Christmas. It has tons of great articles for pregnancy, but I'll get to those another day. A recurring article called "Bernadette's Blog" talked about a particular Yoga Sutra. Check out wikipedia to learn more in general about the Yoga Sutras, but in general it's considered the "guidebook" of classical yoga, is about 2,000 years old and has 195 sutras or threads within it. (Yoga is much more than the postures or asanas.)

The Yoga Sutra referred to is 2.33 - vitarka-bandane pratipaksa-bhavanam. In English it means:

When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of.

In light of my husband's job loss, I've been having a hard time staying in the positive. I can feel it weighing me down physically and mentally. Dwelling in the negative only multiplies that action and result. This sutra reminds me to flip my negative thoughts and come into gratitude for things we do have to bring more positivity and energy back into our lives.