Design Your Practice To Give You What You Need

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In a recent blog post I talked about interoception, the ability to keep track of inner sensations in an ongoing way. The next step is to use what you feel through interoception to help guide you in designing your own practice for your particular body and mind.

What is your body type? Are you more fluid, and attracted to a nice stretchy practice? Or do you have a more solid musculature, pulling you toward weight lifting or gym workouts emphasizing strength? It’s not about which is better, it’s more about observing the body type you were born with, and using your choice of exercise to fill in the gaps.

Recent research tells us that the best way to have a resilient, strong body is to do a variety of movements – not just the same yoga series every day, or the same game of tennis, or the same gym workout with machines. Give your body a variety of challenges – balance, coordination, strength, flexibility – and you will lessen your chances of injury from underdoing or overdoing.

True confessions: My preference for years has been the Iyengar/Anusara yoga menu of poses, figuring that there is enough variety inherent in the poses to adequately build my strength, flexibility, balance and coordination. But aging shows us the weak points! With recent hip and knee issues, I’m appreciating the benefits of physical therapy to target the weaker areas, and then I integrate those skills into my yoga practice with more fine-tuned awareness of the parts within the whole.

 

I invite you to read my blog “The ABC’s of Yoga” in which I discuss the foundations of any good yoga practice: Awareness, Balance of opposites, and Creativity.

The take-aways:
Know and honor your own body type, its strengths and weaknesses.
Find ways to refine and vary your exercise routine to bring you into balance as much as possible.

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Tiny Habits

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Did you make any New Year’s resolution about your physical health? Many people resolve to exercise more, lose weight, get rid of an unwanted habit, or some combination of those goals. But the complexity of life can so easily take over and dislodge even the best intentions.

The other day, I heard an author speak on NPR about how to establish new good habits and get rid of “bad” ones. His name is BJ Fogg, and his book is Tiny Habits, The Small Changes that Change Everything. As you can guess from the title, the trick is to take small steps toward your goal. Instead of resolving to do an hour of yoga a day or taking class once a week, you can set the goal of doing one or two poses each day on your own. Make the “tiny” effort, and you’ll feel the results and probably want to do more.

Instead of approaching a complex chronic pain issue with the pressure of “solving it”, you can explore one small strategy on a regular basis, like doing ten minutes of ballwork, or one targeted stretch or strengthening exercise. Gradually you will gain momentum and your practice will mature.

For example, watch this short 4 minute video to experience Bodymind Ballwork and how it relieves tension in your hips, thighs, knees, lower legs and ankles.


The next part of the method is to schedule the activity to give you a daily prompt. Some examples: Right after you shower and get dressed in the morning, you can do some stretches to fully wake up your body and your breath. Or: Right before dinner, you can do a few strengthening exercises, or you can meditate for whatever period of time you have – from 5-20 minutes. As another teacher put it, think “Small, Scheduled, and Specific”. It’ll put you on the path, and once you’re on it, there will be enough to learn and enjoy that you’ll want to continue.

You can join me in NYC any time, every week (Wednesday 12-2) for a class with Bodymind Ballwork and yoga. See the schedule of that and other classes here. I also offer multiple workshops throughout the year in New York and beyond. To see where and when I’ll be teaching, check in often here.

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