Yoga With Kelly

Recently I was asked what my motivation is for getting on my yoga mat. I took a minute to think this question over. What was my motivation? Because I often find myself struggling to get on the mat, especially recently, since I’ve been having a hard time at my new job. It has been a tough, emotional transition. However I still make time to get on my mat and I wanted to share with this person my motivation for showing up and now I am going to share it with all of you. Yoga for me is what you make it. I told them; living daily with purpose and intention. For me yoga is more than just the poses, whether it be coming home and cooking a delicious meal with love, intention, and purpose or laying in bed knitting while watching a movie or getting lost in a show. For me these are yoga practices. These actions for you will look different, but what matters is how you do them. Setting your focus and attention on every action and how you perform those actions. The dictionary defines intention as: ...

Today I feel it is necessary to talk about the breath. Lately it seems like I am being constantly told to take a breath... I began to see that I have not been taking enough time to take care of myself. I was wound up tight. And the spool was just getting tighter and tighter. I had too much going on.  Eventually it seemed like everything was falling a part. But in hindsight I am only human. I was asking too much of me. And not doing enough to properly care for me. I cannot expect me to take care of everything all at once, even though I am the only one taking care of myself. There is no one around to help me. No one is going to come around and do my dishes or clean my bathroom or sweep the floors let alone make sure the bills get paid on time. If things do not get done they don't get done. I began to realize I was putting too much on myself. I was working too much and having a hard time switching over my mindset between managing a gymnastics gym front desk to teaching relaxation yo...

You... Yes you. Sitting there on the couch, 4 seasons deep in a Netflix binge. You say you can't do yoga?! I say you can. Part of yoga is just showing up to the mat. The rest we can work with. Yoga is a learning process. It is about progress. It's about dedication, commitment, time... It's about connecting with yourself, finding out who you really are. And these things are scary. But they don't have to be. Yoga instructors are there to help guide you to a better you. They want to help you succeed. They want you to feel relief. It is difficult to let go of things. These things that we hold on to, cling to. We have a hard time parting with them. They hold memories, maybe pain, maybe pleasure, happy/sad. They may no longer be serving us, but yet we refuse to let go. Yoga is about letting go. It is about release. It is about finding joy when you can now stretch a little farther into a pose you were struggling with. Yoga is about balance, unity, dev...

Last post I introduced you into the world of Restorative Yoga. Now that we have a better understanding of what Restorative Yoga is... Let's talk about the benefits we get from doing restorative yoga. We've all heard that yoga is very beneficial to our lives and to our health. This is true when living a true yoga life.  When we continuously practice, when we listen to our bodies, when we have the right mindset, when we nurture ourselves, body and mind, when we live life to the fullest this is when yoga is most beneficial to us. We've all seen those people on social media who can bend themselves into crazy poses. But just like all athletes it takes continual practice to get to where they are. I have worked over many years to get to where I am at. However, that is not solely what yoga is about, the asanas (poses) are only one part of a much bigger yoga picture.  Yoga is a much deeper practice one that can be very fulling to our lives and our health, for everyone... not ...