The Minimalist Yogi

I believe that every morning has so much potential; early morning is a powerful and sacred time for personal ritual and practice that can carry you through your whole day. But also, a good nigh sleep makes for the best mornings; when I am well rested I feel that I am more in tuned with the start of the day, more grounded and connected.  Establishing a morning ritual, or routine can make each  morning less unpleasant and more exciting, over time and slowly these practices  can become ingrain. Every morning I like to dedicate at least 6 10 minutes to  yoga, depending on the day I am leaving the house be it at 5:30 am or 7am, I  modify the sequence to accommodate for the day. On days where my morning starts  at 4:50 am I dedicate at least 5-6 minutes of morning to a Surya Namaskara A  and B, or a simple flow that integrates it simple sun salutation. Whereas, on  days where I have leave late in the morning I dedicate at least ...

Among the many things I love about yoga is that it can be practiced anywhere. It can be practiced independently at the comfort of you home, out in nature or in a traditional yoga studio with with yogis.   While I enjoy practicing in a studio with others, my current schedule doesn't allow me the ability to drop in a class anytime I want, particularly the classes I do want to attend. But also, yoga can be very expansive let's be honest, and going t o a studio everyday can be highly costly, which is something a lot of us can't afford. So, home practice provides the opportunity to continue doing what you love without going completely broke. Home practice can be very rewarding and a beautiful opportunity for further developing your practice; after all as Pattabhi Jois said "Yoga is 99%, 1% theory." While home practice can be terrifying and foreign at first it can be very liberating, there is great potential for freedom in one's journey. While it can be ch...

I find bumblebees to be fascinating insects because they always seem to be busy, doing something if not bothering and terrifying people they are doing something else. Among the many things I like about them is the fact that they are hardworking, and highly organized insects. It is this sense of discipline, teamwork and cooperation that draws me to them. It is easy for me to identify with their sense of discipline and perception of constantly being busy or working. Like many I enjoy being busy and buzzing around, the notion of taking a day off to just relax seems so simple to many, yet so foreign to me. I think many of us are satisfied with this bumblebee life, and there is nothing wrong with it because it is within this state of constantly being busy that we thrive and find ourselves most contented. Where the sun shines and the birds chirp. But sooner or later our bodies will send us the signal to say slow down. This is the state I found myself in today being occupied all week ...

Exploring this flow for while now, I've done some version of it, but still not completely satisfied, but here is a version I've done yesterday. Majority of this flow consists of hip openers which has a lot of benefits. According to San Francisco vinyasa teacher Stephanie Snyder we hold stress and negative emotions—such as fear, guilt, and sadness—in our pelvis. For this reason alone, Snyder believes it’s particularly important to do poses that move prana (life force) through  that area.  But before going ahead trying the flow few things to keep in mind, take your time with opening your hips, because hip ligaments are strong, and DON'T PUSH yourself. Be aware of your breathing and and your knees. If you have any knee issues like I do modify the poses, props to help you as you can see that I use a yoga block while doing the split to protect my knees. Lastly, before starting you might be a little tense depending on when was your last practice, so lubricate your join...

“Allow yourself to be a beginner. No one starts off being excellent.” Wendy Flynn As part of my degree requirement I am required to take one language course, and since French is the second dominant language in Canada everyone is expected to take French. So, given the natural inclination toward this language I thought I might as well take the French course as my language requirement. But also, given my previous exposer to French in high school I thought the course would be easy and I won’t be forced to do a lot of work. But few days into the course I came to realize that the course was not going to be as easy as I thought it would be, but also my previous exposer didn’t help me at all. So I decided to drop the course and take an Indigenous language course (Ojibway) instead. At fist I was hesitant at the idea of taking a course that I had no knowledge of. The fear of being a beginner creped in and I found myself questioning whether this was a good idea, and start planning my...

Yesterday I had the most amazing practice or it felts like the most amazing practice in a while; I've recently decided to do all of my practice at home because I am currently unemployed and cannot effort going to a studio every day, so instead I have decided to take control of my practice by doing an hour of yoga everyday starting with simple asana flow sequences than doing challenging poses. Yesterday I decided to do a semi-challenging pose that I haven't done  in a while and I was surprise by how easy the pose has become, all it took was just practice. This is one of those really challenging but great arm balance that requires using pretty much every aspect of you body which I absolutely love because you are not just working on your legs, but also you arms, hips, upper body etc.. It require both open hips, deep twisting and upper body strength, which is something I absolutely lack. The key to this pose is finding a place where you are comfortable and build from there; b...

What Are you up to this weekend? This weekend I have nothing big planned besides helping a friend in his political campaign, doing some schoolwork that I’ve been avoiding all week, and getting some fun reading time.   Recently, I tried to re-read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma for the second time, but I could not bring myself to actually finish the book. This is my second time attempting to read the book, but finding myself completely bored and uninterested. So I’ve decided to go with another book that I’ve been meaning to read for while now; Samuel Huntington “The Clash of Civilizations.” Even though the reading is somewhat heavy and some may even consider boring, I have to say I am enjoying, perhaps it’s my boring personality that’s enjoying it. The author provides an interest perspective into Post- Cold War world, and what we could expect in the future in regards to war; strongly recommend reading it. Apart from reading and canvassing, I’ll be seeing an ol...

So I thought it’s about time I bring back my Sunday top five. These are my Sunday top five, which are things that interest me, or I feel like everyone should know about. Moby-Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville. I am currently reading this book and every time I find myself lost in the adventure, and completely lost in the voyage and the sailors’ pursuit of Moby-Dick. “Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into small still subtler form” p. 268 @cyogalab June yoga Challenge. I love summer challenges, and this is the perfect challenge for me. For the next 30 days I will be posting 30 asana from the 30 days challenge calendar offered by cyogalab.  Orphan Black – I’ve recently started watching the show Orphan Black and I completely love it. I am really big on Sci-fi movies and TV shows and this show falls right in my ally. The thing love about the show is that it asks many questions p...