"And then wherever you are, my darling friend, inhale, lift your elbows up, and then exhale to unravel." - from YouTube video Office Break Yoga | 14 Min. Yoga Practice | Yoga with Adriene
I discovered the Yoga with Adriene YouTube channel during the long lonely days of quarantine in summer 2020. At the time, I was actively surfing the dating apps and was in a rare "let's include girls" phase of my search (I'm bi but generally find myself in the boys end of the dating pool). A young lady I was chatting with mentioned that she was doing a 30-day yoga challenge on the channel. Things didn't end up going anywhere with the girl on the dating app (we mostly talked about plants), but I'm deeply grateful our paths crossed because she led me to the wonderful Ms. Adriene.
Watching (and stretching along) with the first video of the 30-day series, I was struck by Adriene's warm, friendly tone. There was no pretension in her language or attitude - it was so refreshing and reassuring. She even has a faithful costar in her dog Benji, whose presence provides a sense of comfort (he's usually fast asleep) and occasionally a bit of comic relief.
Adriene's self-deprecating sense of humour and encouragement to just do my best without self-judgment put me at ease and helped me to further my practice. I'm somewhere in the beginner-to-intermediate range and while some of the poses in her videos were beyond me (as they are in most yoga videos), the classes were generally very accessible. Even better, they felt healing on multiple levels.
Admittedly, I didn't complete the 30 days - I think I got halfway through at best - but I've come back to her channel from time to time ever since. She has an impressive range of videos to offer, from morning and bedtime routines to videos targeting social anxiety and depression. No matter what state you're in, Adriene has a video for you.
Adriene's self-deprecating sense of humour and encouragement to just do my best without self-judgment put me at ease and helped me to further my practice.
The video I've been using the past week is an awesome series of standing positions: Office Break Yoga | 14 Min. Yoga Practice | Yoga with Adriene. Sometimes I can't be bothered to lay out the yoga mat - having a routine I can do standing up is a great option.
I "should" be doing yoga every day - it's in the bucket of my other daily "shoulds": meditating and doing Reiki self-treatments. But "should" is not in Adriene's vocabulary. It's why I loved her then and why I love her now.
If you're into yoga and haven't checked out her channel, give yourself an act of self-care and check it out today.
- M.B.
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