Postcard from #YogaCamp

I went to camp in January. I went to camp on a blue mat in our little Hungarian kitchen. I went to camp all by myself and with thousands of others. And when it finished this week, I felt so good and strong that I didn’t want Yoga Camp to end.

Yoga Camp is the brain-child of Adriene Mishler of Yoga with Adriene (YWA). I started following YWA when my wonky work-bus schedule kept me from my favourite classes at Shanti Yoga in Edmonton. My brilliant teacher (Hi Amanda! Thank you!) recommended finding a yoga video I enjoyed to keep my practice going at home when winter roads kept me away from the studio. There are a LOT of yoga videos out there. You can type any combination of descriptors into Google or Youtube and find your perfect practice. “45 minute strength yoga workout” and “20 minute morning yoga” will provide you with dozens of options, not to mention what your local library has on offer. For me, I sifted through endless online videos and “Top 10” lists until I finally stumbled upon a bright, calm and quirky Texan yoga teacher who encouraged me to “find what feels good.”

You may have seen her pop up on your social media feed because her Youtube channel is hugely popular. She provides clear instructions for engaging practices that focus on what your own body needs, rather than pushing for that perfect posture. Plus, her banter is brilliant. As a teacher, she comes through the wide web by being a relatable human being (she notes this often by saying “human moment”) who feels like a friend coaching you on mixed with great (or corny?) jokes and references to everything from Titanic to Wu-tang.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be consistently physically active. When the Yoga Camp video popped up in my feed, it was a perfect fit to get my 2016 started. Each day for 30 days, a new encouraging email arrived with a practice and an affirmation. For free! The practices ranged from 20 to 60 minutes filled with great poses, heat, healing and tonnes of variations.

The physical practices were engaging. I have been doing yoga here and there for years (starting from Mom and Dad’s 1970’s B&W instructional yoga book when I was a kiddo). This was the first time I made a dedicated daily practice. I was surprised in the ways I was flexible and inflexible. I feel stronger and more balanced and I actually have abdominal muscles (what?!). My heels still don’t touch the ground in downward facing dog. I was hoping after 30 days I’d be there! But better yet, after Yoga Camp, I’m not discouraged by that fact, but encouraged to keep practicing. And during a month when the winter blahs can take over, it was great to achieve at least one, positive thing (almost) every day. Adriene would often say at the beginning “Great job, the hardest part is done. You’ve made it to the mat” and it’s so true. None of the physical work (though tough!) was as hard as carving out time to get to practice, and it felt great to accomplish that.

The affirmations were another interesting challenge, something more mental and personal. The affirmations were simple but powerful: I trust, I am focused, I surround myself  and so on. Adriene invited the ‘campers’ to complete the affirmations in our own way, to connect to them honestly and to take them with us throughout the day. Early in the month, my favourite practices would be the ones where I felt I got a really great work-out and my body was warm, stretched and then relaxed (like in Go With the Flow). Later in the month, my favourite practices were the ones where the affirmations challenged my mental status quo along with my physical work (as in I am in Control). I wasn’t sure how much I’d connect to the affirmations, but I wanted to stay open-minded. I’m glad I did as I had a lot of great conversations with myself about myself. Perhaps that sounds cheesy, but it was valuable and I’m more honest and happier for it.

The last day of Yoga Camp was a great parting gift. Adriene introduced the practice as a self-guided one, to take everything I learned and experimented with over the month and follow my own routine on the mat. She took off the microphone, put on great music and completed her own practice in silence, inviting a true self-guided, freestyle home practice. I didn’t think I could fill 40 minutes myself, but I did! In the days since Yoga Camp, I’ve still been practicing daily, combining video and personal practice. It’s empowering to be your own teacher and be responsible for your own movement.

A home yoga practice is simple. You need almost nothing to start, just time, a teacher (via internet or library) and a quiet space. I didn’t have a yoga mat on January 1st so I completed my first practices on a towel. I didn’t have a block so I used a thick book I had at home. No complicated regime or equipment, just you and your movement. There are so many high-intensity workouts and expert advice to say what’s right and wrong for every exercise, it’s hard to decipher what works for you. Yoga has standard poses and practices but it is an inward experience. It’s simply about you pushing your own body in a way that is challenging but feels good.

If you’re looking to get into or get back into yoga, I highly recommend Yoga Camp. What about you? Do you have a home yoga practice? Did you try Yoga Camp? What do you think of yoga as physical (or mental!) exercise?