The studio as a ritual space

 For my second yoga session, I decided to stick with an online guided session after seeing how well it worked in my last experience. I switched up the teacher to try and expose myself to different techniques and was surprised to see how large of a following the teacher had on social media. The yoga I was following was a sunrise yoga meant to be done early in the morning to help you prepare for the rest of the day. The instructor, Adriene, walked the audience through the 15 minute session and I truly felt more attentive afterwards.

The session began somewhat simple with a focus on soft, easy, movements making sure to control and steady our breathing. We began to do some general fold stretches to help us loosen up for some of the positions we’ll be doing later on. From there, we moved to the floor and focused on pressing or pelvic bone and the tops of our feet down to the earth to feel more grounded. I found it a little strenuous on my shoulders so I modified to a baby cobra to still try and get the same result. As Adriene walked us through the session, I made sure to pay extra attention to my environment and why it stimulated the emotions that arose.

While this is one of my first few experiences with yoga, I can tell that a female instructor/voice is much more effective for me to get into the correct mentality to engage in yoga. I feel as though I’ve always been more willing to trust in females rather than males and that subconscious feeling allowed for me to fully embrace the session. Doing my yoga sessions in the comfort of my own home adds to the effectiveness of the session because I have no fear of being judged and can completely immerse myself in the session at hand. Finally, I often listen to lofi hip-hop (basically just instrumentals) on low in the background while doing the yoga sessions to try and block out any exterior noise or possible disturbances while I complete my session. I enjoyed this yoga session and can definitely see myself doing sunrise yoga and also listening to other guided sessions by Adriene.

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