The Yoga Diaries | Getting Started

Hello Lovely People !

Welcome to the beginning of a new series that I'm hoping will motivate and inspire me ( and maybe even you ! ) to take up and stick with yoga. Yoga has a lot of brilliant benefits for both your mind and your body and I have recently become determined to improve my mental and physical health. In today's post I thought I'd share a little with you about what you can expect from this series and answer any questions you might have ! At the end of these questions I will write my first entry in my yoga diary for this week all about my first yoga session, but more on that later.

How does this series benefit me ?

I'm hoping that the series will be a good form of motivation to keep on track with Yoga and get to class rather than just getting the bus home and snacking on cake !

How will this series benefit you ?

Yoga can seem hard and unattainable when you first go to a session because it's made out to be so easy and in comparison everyone else in the class looks brilliant and the moves seem effortless. In reality they're practiced a lot and worked very hard .. but as a beginner that can leave you feeling a little useless and disheartened. In this series I'm going to give you an honest account of yoga and how your skills and strength can develop from the very beginning so nobody will feel alone or disheartened.

Can we work together on this ?

We're all beginners here, so maybe it's something we could do together. If there's any point in the series when you feel inspired to take up yoga then perhaps you could leave a few sentences about your journey in the comments.

Why Yoga ?

Yoga is a fantastic way to focus on mindfulness and develop a connection between your body and mind that has endless benefits on your mental and physical health. It can be a great reliever of anxiety and for any mental problem, the focus on a goal of improving your yoga skills can be real motivation to get out of bed and in turn improves your health.

What will be in each post ?

Each post will only be a short paragraph. You're busy people with busy lives and I understand that so have adapted this series to fit in with your everyday life. I will give a brief summary of that weeks yoga class, talk about what I struggled with and what I enjoyed. I will also talk about what I need to improve and how I'm going to work on that in the week. At the end of each post I'm hoping to include a picture of me in a yoga pose that I've got to grips with that week ( these will be very basic at first but I'm hoping they'll develop with my skills ) .

I really hope that this answers any of your questions about the series but if you have anymore questions then feel free to ask away in the comments !

The Yoga Diaries | Week One | 07/11/2016

This week as I ventured into my first yoga class I was a lil bit apprehensive, everyone was dressed in expensive yoga clothes and was so flexible that I was worried I was going to tear a ligament just watching them ! However the teacher was lovely, she smiled at me and said hello. There was an incense stick burning which made the room smell gorgeous ( I'm definitely going to burn one when practicing at home ). I enjoyed the floor work but I found I struggled with downward dog, I don't seem to have enough strength in my arms to hold myself in the position. I also had trouble with keeping my balance and successfully fell flat on my face in almost every pose ( Honestly it must have been quite beautiful to watch hehe ) apparently I don't have very good balance

What I need to Improve : Downward Dog, I think my main problem here was my strength

How I'm Going to Improve : I'm going to start doing weights in the week. I realise this will take a few weeks to take affect but I'm feeling determined !

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx