Should You Try a Free Week at CorePower Yoga?

I started working from home just a few weeks ago and this meant a lot of changes to my lifestyle. I no longer had delicious (but often unhealthy) catered meals for lunch (and often leftovers for dinner) which means I now have to cook my own lunch. Although perhaps not as exciting, I was looking forward to this. I am so much healthier at home than when catered food is in front of me. I made plans to make and eat egg salad, tuna salad, and salmon cakes. My snacks are healthy too: carrots with peanut butter, protein bars, and smoothies. Workout plans had to change too: I no longer had a gym right in my workspace. Instead, I have to think of other options. I belong to a YMCA, but it’s not quite walking distance. Thus, I wanted to try a few places walking distance to my now-home office. I saw that the Hollywood CorePower Yoga offered a free week. Perfect!

Fun story: the first CorePower class I went to was a hot yoga class. I thought, there must be some mistake–it didn’t say that on the schedule! Boy, was I in for a surprise. I don’t like saunas, I don’t like being in overly hot areas, it’s miserable to me. Thus, I have never wanted to go to a hot yoga class…ever. To me, yoga is more of a spiritual exercise than a physical one. However, I ended up in this hot yoga class and I wasn’t going to turn back now. Thankfully, I brought water. I entered the room and was hit in the face with sweltering heat and could hear the heaters turn on, pouring more torture into the room (why?!). By the end of the class, I had taken my shirt off and I was pouring sweat. It was definitely one of the sweatiest I had ever been. As the teacher asked us to sit lower into chair pose, I mentally threw insults at him in a very non-yogic way. However, my mentality shifted from workout class to survival class. If I treated it like I needed to survive through torturous heat, I could actually do it. I even found more focus through that and could drop deeper into poses. Who knew. Whew, I made it through my hot yoga class–and hopefully the last!

My reaction to accidentally going to hot yoga

Nov132017

Our Weekend(ish) in Pictures

Accidentally went to hot yoga too many times

Sep012017

Posture in the Workplace

We invited Wayfair to share their graphic and article about how to keep good posture in the workplace. We hope you enjoy it!

If you’ve ever had to sit at a desk for several hours at a time, you know what it’s like to constantly shift in your seat in search of the most comfortable position. Fortunately, there are all kinds of methods you can use to help improve your posture at your desk. That’s why Wayfair asked the experts to put together a helpful guide on ergonomic seating. It talks about everything from posture to ergonomic accessories to exercises you can use to help improve your comfort throughout your day!

May102017

Meditation for Peace

Life is tumultuous. It’s not easy and it’s certainly messy. Our own life can be stressful, and then add on all the events happening across the world. It’s hard to find clarity, balance, and peace among the mess. It’s hard to pause and take a moment to be, instead of stressing over this or over-thinking that. However, it’s paramount that we take a second and stop. We pull in the gratitude and focus on being in the present. We realize life’s not so bad and that perspective is important. I’ve designed this meditation to focus on peace. Try it out!

Oct242016

You DO Have Time to Meditate

When it comes to anything health-wise, people (including myself) find many excuses to avoid doing said activity. It could be a physical workout or, what I’m focusing on today, a mental workout. Yes, I’m talking about meditation: slowing down your life for a couple of minutes to find center and balance (though I’m sure that’s not the exact definition). Meditation has astounding effects on one’s day-to-day life; it can cheer you up, help you find perspective, give you new revelations, fine-tune your focus and so forth. Wow, sounds like great benefits, why isn’t everyone doing it? Well, one big reason is that people don’t think they have time to meditate.

Not enough time to meditate?! Claiming that for a full-hour workout, but for a meditation that can be as short as two minutes long… try searching for another excuse. But, hey, I do it too. It’s funny, the thing that can help us most in life (exercising, meditating), we try to avoid with any excuse possible: it’s too cold out, it’s too hot out, that cloud looks ominous, I’m too tired, I don’t have time, yadda yadda yadda. Nobody is innocent to this. We all do it, though perhaps on different levels of severity.

Jun092016

Visit These Yoga Holiday Spots

Please enjoy this article by Christopher Austin and Shaktihimalaya.com. Namaste!

Get a more meaningful travel experience with these Yoga holiday spots.

Yoga has become an increasingly popular pastime for many people. It allows you to still your mind and body in a hectic world and build you inner strength. It is something that many people continue to do whilst on holiday, however, it is actually possible to go on a yoga holiday; here are some of the best places to visit:

Les Passeroses, France

Feb292016

Our Last Week or So in Pics

We worked hard on waking up early and kicking butt!

Feb172016

Meditation for Positivity

In our hustle and bustle world, it’s easy to get down. It’s not always easy to get out of these feelings, so you get stuck in a negative bubble. Maybe you had a rough day at work, maybe you and your partner aren’t getting along, or maybe you’re just in some kind of funk. You may be working hard and getting nowhere, but staying in that foxhole of negativity is NOT going to help you in any part of your life. Try this meditation to keep your head up and your mind clear of negative distractions.

Jan312016

An Absolutely Free Way to De-Stress and Unwind

Sometimes after work, your brain is cramping and the world seems especially bleak. You just want to collapse on your bed and sink into it forever. You find it difficult to relax and unwind. I’ve been there! Many of us have! It’s very important to have a reservoir of tools that can help you de-stress and chill out. Things like yoga, meditation, a hot bath, workouts, and so forth. But what if you want to do next to nothing to get there? I have a solution that I discovered by accident!

Have you ever heard of your Third Eye? I’m no mystic or anything of the sort, but I do believe in certain places of our bodies being able to manipulate our mind and other areas of the body. Such as Reflexology, where putting pressure on certain parts of your feet can help de-stress or alleviate pain in other body parts. It’s a little above the brow, in the middle of your forehead. During a yoga session, I was doing a child’s pose with my forehead to the mat. The instructor told us to move about gently, doing what felt right. So I did. And I discovered a wonderful sensation that instantly calmed me down and lowered my stress. Follow these steps to find a little slice of bliss:

Dec192015

7 Ways 30 Days of Yoga Has Helped Me

I told you awhile ago I started a 30-Day Yoga program. Well, I have! And I wanted to share the benefits that I found throughout this program. If you’re wondering, I used “Yoga with Adriene“–a down-to-earth goofy Texan lady who spreads good vibes. It’s a program of variety–one day you’ll work on breathing, the next on sun salutations, the next on Warrior poses. She keeps it fresh, interesting, and offers variations on each pose. If you know me, you know that flexibility is one of my weakest areas. So even though I’ve been doing yoga off and on for years, I’m still not close to an advanced level. My problem is keeping up with it! So how have 30 days of yoga helped me? Let me count the ways…