I'm continuing to learn and grow both physically and emotionally through yoga. I love the downtime that gives me to breathe and take it breath by breath. Honestly, this past week was very busy for me and my family, so it was hard to "make time" for this, but each time I did I was so glad that I had. A recap of my learning goal: I will know I have achieved this when I can successfully complete by memory a ten-minute yoga flow without stopping, falling over, losing balance, or laughing.
I've found it really interesting how one side of my body and be stronger and more balanced than the other. I am right-handed and have found my right side to be more dominant and balanced.
A flow I recently did focused on balance and I really could feel the difference between my left and right sides. Apparently, this is really normal.
First picture: Left leg balance was very shaky.
Second picture: Right leg balance was much steadier.
I'd like to invest in some foam blocks to help with some of the harder moves. If you have any tips of sizes or brands, please drop them in the comments below!
Bolded below are the instructions from my professor for the course forum, blue is my game plan, progress, and thoughts.
**Identify resources to support your learning process. Resources could be people, organizations, websites, books, etc.
I've continued using Maggie Binkley's workouts from Amazon Prime Video. I've continued to try new moves and positions that I've found on Instagram videos and photos. This week the SMSD health department sent out a yoga video for staff members to try and I really liked participating in that.
**Begin learning your target activity or skill. As you learn, monitor your progress in our weekly Personal Learning Challenge Forums.
I'm continuing to monitor my progress in three ways; duration of plank hold (endurance), headstand without assistance (balance), and yoga flow memorization (breathing and focus).
This week's stats are
Plank Time: 1 minute 51 seconds (Improving, but I had hoped to be at 2 min by this week. I enjoy setting goals for myself, but need reminders sometimes that progress is better than perfection.)
Headstand: I've continued to gain strength and am focusing on modified versions before going all-in with my legs in the air. I can easily compare this to scaffolding in the classroom.
Yoga Flow: An idea I had last week was to write it down on a piece of paper to keep in front of me, this worked really well! I hope to blog post about it later this week.
Here is a clip of a flow I have been working on.
**Use our Forums, AND any social media you would like to connect with a network, share progress, and get both feedback and support from your friends and colleagues. Please share what (if any) additional social media you are using, and any feedback or support you have gained from using the additional resource.
I posted my progress for last week on my blog and Instagram.
My friend Cate/@studioyyoga (instagram) (I've mentioned her before) had great advice this week. Her advice on headstands was very helpful, "Think 30% weight in head and neck - round through the shoulders (like cat back) and approximately 70% of body weight is taken on by the forearms. But for real! Keep up the good work!"
Happy stretching and happy learning. This week's mantra has been "progress over perfection".
