WEEKLY VLOG #1:
3 REASONS WHY I CAN’T DO YOGA
Transcript
Hello and welcome! Dear wonderful people! I am Totally Zen Tadeja from Andromeda Yoga Atelier. This is the first time I have started a vlog in my life. Every week I am going to answer a real-time question we might all be struggling with considering yoga, mental health, and well-being. The vlog is specially dedicated to people who are:
- Tired
- Tired of being tired and
- Tired of explaining how tired they are to everyone else.
You can substitute the word tired with exhausted, feeling blue, stuck, busy… Whatever pops in your head. USE THAT!
And the title of today’s vlog suggests the question is:
Why I don’t do yoga?
I know, I know!! I do yoga now, three sometimes more times a week, and meditate regularly but meditation is a topic for another vlog entirely. I wasn’t always like this and yoga wasn’t placed in my crib at birth. It certainly was not a part of my daily routine even five years ago.
Here are my three reasons why:
- I’m not flexible,
- I’m a newbie,
- and I’m not that religious or spiritual.
1. So you’re not flexible
Great! Neither am I. I am not some super-duper gymnast that can put both legs behind her head. Actually, I can’t because my psoas (the big muscle going from the lumbar region of the spine to the inside of the femur just below the hip joint) and piriformis (a muscle that connects the inside of the sacrum to the top of the femur) are TIGHT. I am sorry for all the anatomical jargon so let’s just say I am tight as hell and used to be even tighter. But Yoga helped to release the tension in the muscles immensely.
2. You say I have you convinced but you have no idea where to start
Everyone was once a beginner. I was a yoga beginner just a couple of years ago and now I am a yoga teacher. There are tons of great free yoga courses for beginners out there. You can always contact me if you need any info about them. My classes are also designed with beginners in mind. If you have never done yoga before you would have no trouble following my instruction. For my cues, I just use the clearest possible language so anyone can follow without being fluent in Sanskrit or knowing anatomical terms. You don’t need any fancy yoga clothes or props. Wear something you feel comfortable in. You only need a good fitness mat for beginners. They are available almost everywhere by now. The quality you are looking for is padding (4 mm or more) and a non-slip surface. If you really want to take your practice further I recommend buying two blocks.
3. By now you are pretty sure you want to start yoga but you are not into all the religious or spiritual stuff
While yoga is a religious or spiritual practice for a great number of people, it is a philosophy. For example, I love science above all. Exploring, discovering, and learning about everything that is beyond the naked eye keeps me creating all these new yoga sequences. But yoga is a highly individual practice and you can make it to suit your needs at any particular moment. Everybody is unique and yoga is for every body.
In conclusion, from random online videos alone I was able to progress so much in just five years. However, the live classes are where I evolved the most. After all, my plans for 2020 went down the toilet. I had to leave beautiful Thailand but I could not and would not abandon the idea of me finishing the Yoga Teacher Training. Here’s why! Because I want to show people you can practice yoga even if you have no flipping idea what you are doing, you are not even close to flexible or you are not a fan of religious or spiritual “mumbo jumbo”. And here I mean “mumbo jumbo” in the most non-judgmental way ever. Whatever works for you it is always the right approach for you.
With that thought I bow the head to the heart; may the wisdom of the body and the wisdom of the mind unite together to support our collective healing and evolution.
