Luiza's Yoga Blog

Before I took this class I thought I knew a good amount of yoga because many of my family members practice and teach it. As the class began and we started learning about different types of yoga I realized yoga is so much more than what I knew. I learned about so many different types of yoga, teachers, and especially doing yoga online. After completing the first few practices in class I realized I was out of shape because the beginner classes were harder for me to complete and I could not keep up. As the semester went by I began to feel more comfortable and confident in my practice. I progressed each week from the weekly practices and I benefited a lot from the in class practices because those were always more challenging. I learned that making the location of where I practiced yoga a sacred and safe space was very important to have a successful practice. By having a relaxing, quiet, comfortable place to do yoga I was able to focus on my posture and breathing much better than when I was...

This week's practice was led by Lesley Fightmaster. It was a practice to balance your chakras. She was very good at explaining how to do all of the breathing techniques and poses. I enjoyed this class because we recently learned about chakras in class so I could connect what we learned to what she was talking about. I have better practices when I know what is going on because I can truly learn it and feel as if I am getting a lot out of it.  In my opinion, the body is a tool to hold your spirit. It acts as a home for your soul as it lives the current life the body is in. This is why some people have “old souls.” They actually have an old soul that has been through multiple different lives. This is only a belief because science has not proved it, but in my opinion, it makes a lot of sense and it makes the thought of death more peaceful. The body is approached as something one must take care of to live a long healthy life. While this is true your mental health may be more important t...

This week's practice was Vipassana Meditation led by Marcello Spinella. I enjoyed how he taught us some science of the brain. I am a science major so it made meditation make more sense to me. Neuroscience is a hard topic to learn, but the way Marcello Spinella explained it made it easy to follow. When meditation is explained scientifically it makes so much sense and also made me want to do it even more. Yoga can be seen as a form of meditation in my practice space. This is because yoga is a way to focus on my thoughts and bring myself to a state of calmness and relaxation. I learned that meditation is not a way to clear your mind completely, but instead to calm your mind and try to bring your thoughts on what the instructor is talking about.  Meditation is practiced for many reasons, relaxation, to calm down, and much more. Meditation can be practiced at a yoga studio or even from your chair at school. First, you have to try to focus on your breathing and be conscious of your surro...

For this week’s yoga practice I chose to do another video led by Lesley Fightmaster. This week she taught a vinyasa flow yoga class. It was a good mixture of relaxing stretches and poses that were not easy. These types of practices are encouraging because it is nice to be able to do some poses well while you still feel as if you are pushing yourself with the poses that are harder to hold for longer periods of time.  I enjoy how Lesley has a nice soothing voice and is very good at explaining the poses. This makes it easy to not have to look back at the screen several times. This is especially nice when I am practicing in my room at school because there is not much space to practice so not having to have the computer very close to me is helpful.  Another aspect of this week’s practice that I enjoyed a lot was the motivational sayings the instructor would say throughout the practice. She nicely explained the poses, what their benefits are, and a little motivational saying. Even i...

  This week I practiced Hatha yoga led by Lesley Fightmaster. It was very soothing in the beginning with all of the stretching positions she had me do. As the practice went on it became more difficult as we had to hold our bodies up with one arm at a time. This was a nice challenge to try to improve my yoga capabilities, but it was definitely not the hardest yoga I have ever done. I would rate it a seven out of ten. The context of my pracice space was different than my usual place. It was at my house in northern Jersey instead of my school house that I rent. It was nice because it is more spacious, my dog was with me and it was much more quiet than my school house with 6 girls. The definition of a practice space is really anywhere where you can focus and practice yoga. It can be in nature, your home or a studio. Connections made outside of the context of the practice space are typically made socially. Since I have been practicing at home and not with a whole class or a live instruc...

This week’s yoga practice was led by Jenn Kretzer from The Yoga Hive. We practiced Shivananda yoga for over an hour which was very relaxing but also felt like a workout. Jen was very good at explaining how to do the poses and corrected us when needed. I did not realize it until we started the practice, but I have done Sivananda many times before. I just did not know it was called that. When I attended Rutgers University during my freshman year I joined a yoga club. The instructor always had us go through the same poses and we finished with three oms. It was nice knowing the yoga prior to the practice because I did not have to look back to my screen multiple times since I knew what I was doing.  After researching this yoga I found that it is one of the only yoga practices that has not been modified from its original form. I find this very fascinating because everyone always feels the need to change things up nowadays to keep people interested. There is also a special feeling of gett...

This week I did a vinyasa yoga class. The class was from a youtube channel called Floating Yoga School. It was about an hour long and there were many students in the class to look at for example. This class was very enjoyable because there were a lot of poses I have already learned. I also enjoyed how there were headstands involved because I attempted it and I was actually able to hold it for a little bit of time. The practice was challenging because it was so long and we had to hold the poses for a good amount of time, but it was also very enjoyable. Yoga was very traditional at first when it started in the east. It was a part of life that enlightened and raised you to a higher level. As it came to the west it became a counter-culture practice because it started breaking traditional yoga. After more time passed it became pop culture. Yoga is now more of a trend middle-class women attend. It is not used so much for enlightenment, but for a good body and to fit in.   Yoga in th...

Andrew Eppler taught this week’s yoga class. It was called ashtanga yoga which was definitely the hardest yoga I have done so far. The movements were very rapid from pose to pose. Also, the poses at the end of the class were very difficult like balancing on your two hands. I found myself having to take breaks and modifying the poses a lot in order for me to be capable of doing the practice. Yoga is seen as a healing practice because it is meant to enlighten people. In order to heal one must come to an agreement that they want to be healed. After this is done it is like being enlightened so that is how they are connected. This is shown to me by the teachers always helping me improve by correcting me. Correction is a normal part of any yoga class because if it was not then people could get hurt. Also, they would not be getting the full experience if they were not doing the poses correctly. After yoga, I feel happy I did it because I know it is good for me mentally and physically. I enjoy...

This week I practiced Iyengar yoga in class. The instructor’s name was Amita Baghat and it lasted for over an hour. This was a nice practice because it was not too challenging, but we did do some fun poses. I enjoyed how the instructor taught us as she led the yoga practice. She would pause to teach about Iyengar yoga and to show us how to get into poses. It was only difficult for her to show us the full pose because the camera could not capture either the top or bottom of her body, but she did move most of the time for us to see her full body from different angles.  Practice spaces do build a sense of community within all of the yogis in the class. Even though online yoga classes I still feel connected because we are all doing the same thing together. Always when someone asks a question or says they are having trouble doing a certain pose I can relate. Having a relationship with your class is important even if it is just knowing everyone is supportive. It is much harder to have a ...

This week I practiced laughter yoga followed by meditation. The laughter yoga video was instructed by Bianca Spears, unlike the typical mellow yoga teacher she was very cheerful and excited. She led the class very well and made the laughing for 20 minutes enjoyable. We also clapped because it served as pressure points and took deep breaths. It is said there are many benefits to laughter yoga which is why I wanted to try it after a very complicated week. It did make me laugh because I felt silly doing it.  I also tried meditation for the first time in over six months. The guide was named Sara Raymond. She was very calm and had a soothing voice. The meditation was mainly for mindfulness and being present. This was a very big change of scene from the fu laughter yoga to a very relaxing and calm meditation. I did enjoy the contrast and felt the benefits of both. As we discussed in class, everything the instructors were saying could not be true, but the power of the mind made me believe...

This week’s practice was done in class with a guest yoga instructor, Diane Polli. She was a very sweet lady with 50 years of experience. The type of yoga done was called Bikram which is a healing yoga. It was the longest practice I think I have ever done. It lasted about an hour and a half. My muscles are very tired and I will probably be sore. The poses were interesting, but holding each pose for ten or more seconds is what made the yoga challenging. I enjoyed the more difficult yoga because I felt as if I am advancing with my yoga skills. My favorite part was the end. Her chants felt very special. I really liked how they were for safeness/protection, healing and enlightenment. Yoga is definitely more than just exercise. It can be many things like a stress relief method, a way to connect your mind and body, a way to feel more balanced, etc. Different people use it for different reasons. This is why there are so many different types of yoga and yoga classes. Like bikram yoga is done fo...

This week I took a longer class which was an hour long. I found it on youtube by searching an hour long yoga class because most seem to be 15 to 30 minutes long. This class was called “Your Breath Of Life Yoga” which was don e at British Columbia, Canada. The channel was called Boho Beautifu l and the instructor's name was Juliana Spicoluk. It was a very peaceful and relaxing yoga class. It did not feel like a workout at all, instead it felt like a deep stretch. The poses were not hard, but since we had to hold each pose for a good amount of time it was also not easy. It was a nice class after a long week of work and classwork. What makes a space sacred to me is feeling safe, comfortable and relaxed. When you walk into a space that makes you feel this way you instantly feel good which would make it feel like a sacred space to me. In the video the place is a slow relaxing toon in the background. It is not a song, it is like a musical melody which brought peace and calmness to me. Th...

For my first week of yoga I decided to take a youtube class at home. I found a youtube channel called YogiAproved.com. It had 193,000 subscribers so I decided it was a good channel to try. They have many different types of videos for all levels of yoga. I chose the video called “gentle yoga flow 30-minutes all levels yoga class.” I have done yoga quite a few times in the past, but it has been a few months since I have taken a class and I have not been very active so I did not want to push my limits on my first class.  I took the class Friday evening after my internship. I laid out my yoga mat in my room which I consider to be a very relaxing place. I have many plants and I turned on my essential oil diffuser and put in lavender essential oil to try to make it feel more like a peaceful yoga studio. I have been looking forward to this all week, but I was honestly very tired from work so I couldn’t wait to be finished with it. The instructor made the video background minimalist with o...