Doing Yoga When It's the Last Thing You Want to Do

One of my dearest friends, and a truly remarkable yogini, recently told me:

When you don't feel like doing yoga, just do down dog.

Olivia (right) and I combining our love of food and yoga.

For the last week or so, I've been super stressed, but I couldn't really put my finger on why. The boys are back with their mom, I don't have a job that I have to report to everyday. I'm sort of a free spirit at the moment, living everyday however I choose. Which is a truly beautiful experience to have, but with it comes surprising amounts of stress.

Everyday I wake up wanting to make the most of the gorgeous sunshine and the time that I have to accomplish all of my goals. I volunteer at Landstuhl a few times a week and need to develop new menu items for them. I'm going back to school in June and need to start applying for scholarships. I have travel plans that need working out, not only for myself, but also for R&R. I have kids that need my love and attention. I have yoga classes to plan and teach. I have cooking to do and massive amounts of yard work to keep up with thanks to our wacky 1/4+ acre yard layout. I have interesting, fun-filled packages to send to my husband. I have a spring garden to till and plant.

As you can see, even without being employed, I have a lot on my plate. Add to that the stress of my husband being in a war zone, and it's really a lot.

I knew that I had been neglecting my yoga practice, feeling as though I just didn't have the time. But, I remembered what Olivia told me. Just making time for a good down dog seemed doable. I dragged my mat out of corner, spread it out in front of our huge picture window with the morning sun beaming in, and I down dogged.

I stayed there for a good 5 min, before I was inspired to move ahead with more poses. I just let the movements go where they would. At first, I started moving into heart opening poses, but I kept returning to my dog. And, I realized that what I really need was to be upside down. I did headstands. I did long, loooong down dogs. Back and forth, back and forth. I even found that transitioning from one pose to the next I was keeping the crown of my head to the ground.

What did this mean?

Inversions energize your heart, lungs, and endocrine system. They re-energize, revitalize, and literally, for just a few minutes, your whole life is turned upside down. I felt like as long as I was in those poses, as long as my head was upside down, the stress of my life didn't exist. I didn't want to come back up for fear that everything would go back to normal, and I would be just as stressed as I was before.

So, I stayed there. I was upside down in various poses for about 20 minutes. And, finally, after a long, full extension of wheel pose, I felt safe. I did savasana, sat up, and felt that my stress had finally melted away.

It was exactly what I needed to move forward with my day without my heart pounding out my chest.

The rest of my day was filled with peace and a sense of focus that I hadn't felt in quite a while. Just taking those few minutes to do my down dog inspired a practice that totally changed my attitude and feelings for the rest of the day. Committing ourselves to an hour long practice in the morning seems daunting and I know that I can easily talk myself out of it. But if we can just commit to doing a down dog every morning, the results can be amazing...

For more info on inversions, read this article so that you know what you are getting into and you know to BE CAREFUL. And, then, check out these step by step instructions on how to do them correctly.