19 March Ray Child March 19, 2012 Preventing Injury: Accept Your Body Hot Yoga accept your body, body mind life, dallas hot yoga, mindfulness, prevent injury 1 Comment “Set your intention before you begin, and accept where your body is in your practice today.” If you regularly attend Sunstone Yoga, you know we consistently tell you to listen to your body and honor it. Do you truly hear those words . . . and do you listen? Accepting where your body is each day--whether you are attending a Fire class, walking up stairs, or just bringing in the groceries --is key to preventing injury. Start by becoming aware of how you are feeling at any given time. Maybe you’re tired from a late night, or sore from the Wood class you took yesterday … maybe you’re recuperating from an injury or coming back to your practice after some time off... or maybe you’re feeling strong, hydrated, and ready to go! Become mindful of how these feelings change even throughout the same class. Now listen carefully to your teacher’s words. They are precisely chosen. Instructors at Sunstone Yoga are trained to help you find your alignment in each posture and to get you into and out of postures safely. We focus on strength before flexibility, keeping our muscles engaged throughout a posture. A great example is learning to create a strong standing leg - crucial to preventing injury. Enter your practice mindfully. Whether you are feeling 100% or recovering from a surgery, notice what happens with each movement and make adjustments accordingly. This may entail standing quietly in Mountain pose, lying in Savasana, or kneeling in Child’s Pose during postures you are not ready to do yet. Give yourself permission to not go “all the way” into postures as you build strength in order to maintain alignment. Allow yourself to develop your practice over time. Your teachers want to challenge you, but you choose how to act on their encouragement. Become more aware and do only what your body is able to do in this moment. Even if you could kick out in Standing Forehead to Knee yesterday, your hamstrings may be tight today. Be okay with this. Judgement and negative self-talk can often lead us to make decisions we later regret. When we are attuned to our bodies’ limits and accepting of them, we create healthy, self-imposed boundaries and expectations that later allow us to grow. We are less likely to over extend ourselves just because we feel we “should” or because the person next to us has a different range of motion and more likely to correctly assess the right moment to advance our practice and embrace our potential. Accept where your body is in your practice today. Stay engaged. Listen to the words and follow the cues. Check in with yourself throughout class to assess how you’re feeling. Feeling lost in your postures? Maybe it’s time for you to try a workshop. Throughout the year, you have the opportunity to practice with Sunstone teachers as they re-certify to teach Fire, Wood, Earth, and Metal -- and as a participant you’ll get tons of hands-on adjustments and guidance from not just our teachers but our Series Masters (the instructors charged with teaching your own teachers)! Related Articles Be Engaged Throughout Your Class Last week, we introduced Sunstone’s vision as well as the Five Teaching Principles that guide our teachers in helping our students cultivate their very best selves. These principles are our core values, the foundation on which we've built our studios. They are equally valuable for you, our students. They create the landscape for what your experience with us can be like. Whether you're in your second class, or well on your way to building a body, mind, and life practice, these words describe behaviors that can turn what seems to be the simple action of taking a yoga class into something truly life-changing. Why You Should Invest in Coaching in 2020 Consider a few questions: Yoga Tips for Beginners: What To Know Before Your First Yoga Class Yoga Tips for Beginners: What To Know Before Your First Yoga Class If you’ve been thinking about getting into shape, you may have considered taking a yoga class. Yoga can be a great way to either get in shape or maintain your level of fitness. It builds strength and flexibility while simultaneously allowing you to focus on your breathing. By practicing yoga, you learn how to control your breathing, even during some rather challenging poses. This in turn helps you in virtually every other area of your life, as it allows you to remain calm and stay in control of your emotions. Yoga also helps you become more in tune with yourself. Therefore, you have the chance to reap both physical and mental benefits of practicing it. Here are some top yoga tips for beginners: Set Your Intention — Focus Wristbands as Guides What does that colorful piece of plastic on your wrist mean to you? These days, everyone — from politicians to tweens — seems to sport a wristband as a simple reminder of something meaningful to them, whether a way of living, memorial to a friend, or a special occasion. At Sunstone, we acknowledge certain steps along your hot yoga journey with colorful Focus Wristbands to remind you of your focus for that point in your practice. Taking Care of Your Hair and Skin So you are regularly attending classes at Sunstone, working hard, sweating like crazy, all the while loving the change that your yoga practice has created in your life. BUT, as you spend more time with your practice, you are noticing changes in your skin and hair. How to Really Advance Your Practice As yoga teachers, we sometimes hear students categorize themselves and others as “beginner” or “advanced.” It is interesting to hear people talk this way because they usually base the label on the number of classes attended, length of time they’ve practiced, or whether they can do certain postures. The fact is that everyone is advancing--it just looks different for each individual. Comments are closed.