Not only does yoga reduce stress, but it's critical to helping you stay flexible and balanced as you get older! I know SO many people who have been injured by falling or tripping or so on. With yoga you get good at being balanced, and usually you can catch yourself in those situations. It is a fantastic injury prevention system!

If you haven't done yoga before, chime in and we can help you get started. It is SO easy to start. For example Mountain Pose is simply standing straight, your feet shoulder width apart, and relaxing. That is the basics of that pose.

Start simple!

I think that I should take this up.
A class would give the opportunity for new friendships, too.

When I was expecting my daughter, I went to 'Active Birth' classes, which included yoga ~ and was great fun.

I really enjoy Kundalini & Vinyasa Flow Yoga. I find that not only is Yoga relaxing, it can strengthen your muscles, create greater range of motion, increase flexibility, and for me, it helps keep me sane.

That's great, Love My Budgies! Do you have a favorite pose?

PDM - I would definitely suggest it! Or you can get a DVD and do it at home if that's easier for you. I've done DVDs but not a class.

I now do about a half hour to 45 minutes every morning on my back porch of peaceful, stretchy yoga. It is a wonderful way to start the day and really makes me feel SO much better - both my body and my stress levels.

I've taken classes and do prefer my DVDs. With classes, they aren't as self-customized. IMO. Some I've taken are too fast and athletic (which is fine but i want my yoga to be peaceful and healing, not a workout) and some are too remedial.

With my assortment of DVDs I can really choose what sort of session i am in the mood for.

For a while I would use the DVDs and I was baffled how someone could do yoga without a DVD. I even would bring my laptop with a DVD out to the back porch. But now that I have my own routine, I just go through that without the DVD.

The only thing I am challenged by is the timing. I used to count "one two three four (etc)" on every pose and count up to 60 or 90 or whatever. It didn't seem very serene that way. So now I just focus on my breath in and out and do the pose for as long as feels good. I wonder if I am doing it longer or shorter now ...

Right, i just do the yoga breathing as Shiva showed us on that one DVD we used. And I move to the next pose as I feel I want to. No counting involved - much more organic.

I think my curiosity is if I hold poses for far less time if I'm just breathing. I think sometime I'll take out a timer with big letters and do my timerless routine - but glance over every once in a while to see how long I actually stay in tree pose for example.

For me, the most beneficial pose on all levels has been Viparita Karani. I try to do it everyday for at least 10 minutes.

I recently watched a kinda funny documentary on yoga, called Enlighten Up - about a yoga enthusiast who believes yoga can transform anyone/everyone, so she takes a non-yoga practicioner and has him take all types of yoga classes and meet with many yoga gurus all over the world. If you like yoga and are well versed in the history, types, and teachers, it is an interesting doc to see.

I had to look that up - that's legs up the wall! I have been meaning to give that a try - maybe tonight is the night!

OK I did it tonight, as my 20 minutes of meditation. I did have books nearby in case I wanted to read instead, but the 20 minutes flew by. It was a little challenging to get into position - my floor is fairly cluttered - but eventually I figured out how to get there. I have *just* enough room between my bed and my tall dresser which I used as my wall.

My legs got a little sore by the end, but I think it was a good start!

True, Lisa, it takes some futzing around to get in the right position. In my mom's guest room here there is a little bit of wall space right behind the door. I hope no one tries to come in while I am lying there. :-)

Okay, i am going to do some floor yoga and then 20 mins of legs up the wall with my books....right now!

I have not done any yoga since I moved to my new "forever" place. I miss it, but don't want to stress myself out over having to make a workable daily life schedule yet. Right now I am working on turning my vampire hours into normal human hours and that is challenging enough!

Eventually I would like to be doing 10-15 minutes of yoga daily, with five minutes of meditation.