When I am Doing my Best...

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What does it look like when you are doing your best? How does it feel? What inspires you to do your best? Since the entire purpose of starting Your Best Yoga is to encourage everyone to simply do and be their best, I thought it may be fun to start a conversation about what that actually means and looks like. I asked some amazing women from the Yoga and Wellness community here in Winnipeg, as well as some of my international favourites, to help me start this conversation by sharing with me what it looks like for them when they are doing their best. I think you will find their words inspiring and motivating - I know I did! For me, I am doing my best when I am living in my truth, even if it is scary. I am my best when I am kind and compassionate with myself when I don't have it all figured out or when I fall out of a balancing posture in class. I feel my best when I see the best in others and reflect it back to them. I am inspired to be my best when I am surrounded with other people who are passionate about life and living it fully. I am my best when I try my best - even if that means that I try something that doesn't succeed, because to try at all is always best.  

Here is what some of the amazing women I reached out to had to share...  

"Doing my best means living a way that feels balanced and inspiring. Infusing plenty of play into my practice, whether it's on or off my yoga mat, and taking time to be quiet and marinate. Doing my best feels good in my body and puts my mind at ease."

- Mary Beth LaRue - Yoga teacher, life coach and writer based in California and co-founder of Rock Your Bliss  

http://www.marybethlarue.com/

 
"To me, doing your best is the action of putting your whole self into a project, a conversation, a new opportunity or a relationship. When we show up all in, I am talking our darkness and light, owning all of our sh*t and all of our gifts, we grant ourselves (and others) the permission to truly be ourselves and give our best effort genuinely possible. A reminder: we don't always have all the answers or the skills or the athletic talent, what we do have is heart and willpower to connect, create, ask for help and contribute. If we operate from this space, for ourselves and through the lens which we see others, we can get up to some major magic, together." 

- Jacki Carr - Goal Coach and co-founder of Rock Your Bliss

www.jackicarr.com

Instagram, Twitter: @jackicarr

Facebook: www.facebook.com/goalsontherocks

" I am doing my best when I am being as real as possible. When I realized my voice in the community was growing and starting to have an impact on people’s lives I made a promise to myself… to be real. For me its not about being the strongest, the most flexible, or having a big yoga following. Physical strength and flexibility come and go… same with yoga followers, which is good. I always tell my students if they want to keep growing they have to experience lots of teachers. Being real doesn’t come and go. I am doing my best when I stay true to who I am. It’s not about sharing what I think people want me to share. It’s about being myself. When I made that promise to myself to be real, that’s when I got the strongest response from the community. I don’t think it’s necessarily because of what I am saying, or teaching. I believe people are connecting with what I share because I’m just being myself. Keep Shining!"

- Samantha Squire - Samantha has a passion for many types of yoga, and different meditative practices. Recently Samantha started her own business, Om at me Bro Bootcamp here in Winnipeg. In the future Samantha plans to teach more meditative practices, but for now she wants to shake up the fitness community with Om at me Bro Bootcamp. She approaches fitness with the intention that when you do what you love the body that you want will come!

"Doing your best is giving yourself whole-heartedly to your passions while still knowing when enough is enough. Going beyond your best is a disservice to ourselves. Working hard while maintaining balance in our lives and relationships is what makes us soar."

- Kathryn Budig - International Yoga Teacher and Author

http://kathrynbudig.com/

"Doing my best means showing up, for whatever the task may be, with patience, compassion and curiosity. It means pushing myself to do things before I feel "ready" or "perfect" enough. And at the end of the day, remembering to not take myself or whatever it is I’m doing too seriously…reminding myself to have fun, smile and laugh!"

- Sarah Colatruglio - Winnipeg based nutritionist and blogger

http://tuttalavita.ca/

 Now it's your turn!! What does it look like when you do your best? Share with me in the comments below and you will be entered to win passes for you and a friend to come to a "Go with the Flow" class in November for Free! Also, like us on facebook and leave a comment there for another chance to be entered into the draw. I will be randomly selecting one winner on October 31st - Good Luck! And don't forget to sign up now for the beginner class that starts November 9th - tell your friends, parents, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas if they have never done yoga before this is the class for them! 

I would also like to extend the largest THANK YOU to all the amazing women who shared and contributed to this post. Very sincerely - Thank You. 

Your Best Yoga

When I decided that I wanted to create my own Yoga Program I knew that I wanted it to align with a few core values. I wanted it to be inclusive, meaningful, motivating, inspiring and accessible – not a tall order or anything… :)

I truly believe that just about everyone can benefit from a Yoga practice, however, I know that a lot of people find it intimidating, out of their comfort zone, too difficult, or even too weird. I wanted to create a space where people who thought all of those things about Yoga  could come and experience it without any expectation besides trying your best. I wanted to create a space where people would motivate each other to do their best and celebrate even the smallest victories. I wanted to create a space that people could leave feeling great about themselves because they knew they did their best (whatever that looks like)! And finally, I wanted to create a space where I was inspired to show up as my best self and encourage others to show up as their best selves – both on and off the mat. This is what I hope the Your Best Yoga program will become and I hope you will join me on this journey as we create this space at Winakwa Community Centre this year.

Please visit the Your Best Yoga Page to register now and remember – just show up on your mat and do Your Best – it’s all anyone can do! 

Want a chance to win free passes for you and a friend to attend  the “Go with the Flow” class in November?! Leave a comment below or "Like" the Your Best Yoga Facebook page and leave a comment there this month, telling me what doing your best looks like, and I will randomly draw one winner on October 31st!! Good Luck! And just so you know…. For me, doing my best looks like – staying present during my practice, even when I’m really hungry and want to think about dinner ;)

Yoga Pose: Downward Facing Dog

Downward Facing Dog (Adha Mukha Svanasana) is a pose that shows up in lot of Yoga classes, but isn't often broken down and taught (unless you take a beginner alignment focused class like this one). It is a wonderful stretch on it's own and also works beautifully as a transition to many other postures - think high lunge, warrior's, plank etc. This pose has loads of benefits (many of the same as this pose), is a great overall stretch, and strengthens the muscles of the arms and shoulders. Keep reading to see how to move into this pose, as well as some different ways you can modify and work with it to find the best expression for your body. Find some visual cues in the slideshow at the end of the post! 

Difficulty level: Beginner

 Step one: Begin in a table top position with your palms pressing into the mat, fingers spread, and elbow creases facing one another. Check to make sure your wrists are lined up underneath the shoulders or just slightly ahead of them. Arms should be shoulder distance apart and legs should be hip distance apart.

Step two: Keeping the hands planted into the earth, curl the toes under and begin to lift the hips up to the sky, straightening the legs as the hips lift. The heels reach down toward the ground, but it's ok if they don't touch - as long as they are reaching that way!

Step three: Breath and Stretch

Imagine your lower ribs are moving toward the upper thighs. As the hips continue to lift, feel the strength in your arms, shoulders and legs supporting you.

Arms are straight and elbow creases continue to face one another.

Take a peek at your hands - is the entire palm pressing into the earth? Sometimes the thumb and index finger do not press down which causes a cupping of the palm, so really focus on releasing the entire palm down to the earth. 

Head rests between the arms.

 Try staying here for 5 - 10 full body, deep breaths.

 Step four: When you are ready to come out of this pose you can either release the knees back down to the mat, coming back to table top OR try walking your hands and feet toward one another coming into a passive forward bend, slowly inhaling as you come all the way back to standing.

 Tips and Tricks!
- Some people may find it easier to come into this pose from a forward bending childs pose - play with it and see what feels best in your body!

- "Walking the dog" is a great way to start in this pose. Bend one knee at a time - walking in place - to help stretch the back of the thighs, calves, ankles and feet. After you have done this a few times, hold the pose for 5 or more breaths.

 - Try doing this posture with your heels into a wall to help feel the sensation of the heels reaching down toward the ground

 - While in the pose, deeply bend the knees - keeping the arms straight - which will automatically send your hips up to the sky! Keeping your hips where they are, straighten the legs

- You can also utilize a chair for this pose or try the wall version 

Downward Facing Dog

Begin in a table top position

Keep the entire palm and fingers pressing into the earth

Lift the hips by bending deeply through the knees

Keeping the hips lifted, straighten the legs and notice if the hips reach a little higher

A passive forward fold is a nice release from this pose :) 

 Namaste! 

Three Lessons from Prairie Love Yoga Festival

I attended the Prairie Love Yoga Festival this past weekend for the first time. Because of my schedule I only purchased two “one-class” passes as I had a workshop for my advanced teacher training on Saturday as well, but I certainly left with a whole lot of inspiring, motivating, juicy goodness – even without being there the whole weekend. Read on to find out what lessons I took away from this glorious experience. 

1. “What isn't true will fall away” – Ally Maz 

She is my new hero! I went to Ally’s talk called “Confessions of a Yogi in Business” on Saturday and left vibrating on a whole other level of inspired. She speaks the truth - her truth - and you can’t help but feel motivated to do the same. She said a few times in her workshop that “what isn’t true will fall away” which I really needed to hear. I have recently found myself fighting against some changes in my life. Change can be scary for a control freak like myself – lets be honest. But if I think about what Ally said, I can see the things that are changing – falling away – are not in line with what I am feeling is my truth right now. So I will embrace this change because what will be left after the rest falls away is the truth – my truth – and I am a-ok with that! 

Me & Ally and some of the gorgeous scenery at the festival

2. “Teach to who you want to come back” – Ally Maz

Ok – I promise this is not just a regurgitation of quotes from Ally, but this was a big one for me. As a Yoga teacher, I often find myself thinking at the end of the class – did everyone enjoy it, was it accessible for everyone, did it make sense to everyone, was it too “woo woo” for some people. Now, I know you cannot please everyone and I learned that early on in my Yoga career. However, when someone doesn’t return to my class, I often still take it personally, even if that student was maybe not best suited for the style of class I was teaching. I want to teach from my heart (see point # 1), and I want to teach people who connect with that – so if the person who was talking through the class because they didn’t “get it”, or was playing on their phone during savasana because they don’t know what the point of laying down for five minutes is, doesn’t return – it’s ok. It’s nice to have high numbers in your classes but if you’re not teaching from your soul because your trying to reach the most amount of people, then what’s the point?? 

3. There is no such thing as Yoga Music

Singing along with a group of Yogi’s to “Sweet Caroline” while holding a one legged balancing posture, or clapping along to Queen while in Utkatasana, really drove this point home for me during the “Get the Funk out” class I attended on Sunday. I think that at some point in my life I was told “we don’t play music with lyrics in Yoga because we don’t want to take people out of their experience”. So as I made my playlists for classes I would google “yoga music” or just download something from Deva Premal. Now I really do enjoy some of that music, but I was using it because I thought I should, not because I necessarily wanted to move my body and practice to it. So, after leaving the festival I had a strong urge to reassess my playlists and choose the music that I want to practice to (umm see point #1 AND #2). And if the group wants to break into song – I will encourage it, because BONUS Lesson – Yoga should be FUN and make you feel good. Period. 

PS... I picked up two more opportunities to bare my soul on the mat this week! I'm subbing the Yin Flow class at Yoga Centre Winnipeg Friday Sept. 18th @5:30pm & leading the in-store Lululemon Polo Park class Sunday morning @ 9:00am - hope to see ya there :) 

Yoga and Social Media

If you look up #yoga on Instagram you get over 14 Million results. It is everywhere on social media (#yogaeverywhere – 880000 results :)). Do you know how many of those posts include arm balances, deep and complicated backbends or hands-free head balances?  A lot.

Now, I understand that to a lot of people, seeing these amazing men and women in these amazing poses is inspiring and motivational. It may encourage them to practice on a day they weren't feeling like it or try that pose they were feeling frustrated with last week, one more time. I’ve certainly experienced that and I think it is wonderful and I hope people keep on posting! However, if I had a dollar for everyone who has ever said to me – “oh Yoga.. I can’t do that I’m not flexible enough”, or “I can’t do Yoga! I can’t touch my head with my toes or turn myself into a pretzel!” along with many other variations of “Yoga is hard and unattainable for me” – I’d have more than a few dollars.

I would like people to know that you can do yoga even if you can’t touch your toes. You can let those hands of yours rest on your shins when you fold forward from your hips – it’s still Uttanasana and you’re still doing Yoga. Yoga is not all handstands and backbends – however there are some major benefits to incorporating those types of postures into your practice when you’re ready. Yoga is about breathing and moving in a way that feels good in your body. It’s about connecting to your body in a way you may not have before. It is about having fun and relaxing! It certainly can be about sweat, work and creating some gorgeous postures, but it certainly isn’t about expecting someone to turn themselves into a metaphorical or literal pretzel.  So, in an attempt to show that to people, I am going to work on keeping my social media representative of my daily practice, and although some of the poses you may find on my instagram may not look as impressive as others, I promise the benefits are. Please feel free to follow along! 

Instagram: @sandrayogawpg