This last week I have been on holiday in Portugal so unfortunately missed my usual yoga class and this Tuesday I decided not to go. As relaxing as our holiday was, adjusting back to normal life has caused a slight disruption to our feeding so instead, my husband went. Initially I felt a little sad at missing my usual class two weeks in a row but then realised that this is the life of a mummy, sometimes my routine will be disrupted and I will need to find other ways to do the things I enjoy. In fact, recently I’ve been thinking about this a lot. When the lovely structure of a class isn’t available – baby, work or home commitments – how do you incorporate yoga in to daily life?
Obligatory holiday beach yoga
This wouldn’t be a true yoga blog if it didn’t have some pictures of yoga on the beach now, would it!
I spent our entire holiday wearing my little girl in our sling as we chose not to take the pram (side note: this made life a lot easier. Stairs, hills and restaurant space were never a problem!) so if I wanted to do any yoga whilst away, it needed to be with baby or close by. There is obviously a limit on what asanas you can do with a baby strapped to you, but I found the following ones worked well.
Little girl slept throughout!
Do less when carrying more
Obviously I couldn’t do a whole range of asanas with little girl strapped to me, but I also found I couldn’t quite go as low or as deep into a pose as I would usually. I was after all carrying a 5kg weight on my chest! This was mostly because I found that my knees hurt or it put too much strain on my back. Again, I am brought back to balance: benefit (& desire) vs harm. My ligaments are still returning to normal after all the Relaxin floating around my body during pregnancy and I’m not used to doing a great deal of physical exertion so need to build up my ability with each asana slowly – without or without baby on me! Carrying a baby will naturally place extra stress on joints when under pressure.
Short but sweet sessions seem to work well too. I don’t often get a large expanse of time to do with as I wish any more. Even if little girl is sleeping, there are chores to be done or showers to be had. I found myself doing a couple of asanas for a couple of minutes as a time on a very ad hoc basis. On a rare occasion when I found myself darting off sans baby to fetch some laundry, I ended up doing half moon poses in the lift, simply because that’s what my body was asking for and I had the opportunity.
When the mood strikes
As I’ve already mentioned in this post, a plan doesn’t often survive first contact with baby. I have found that if I want to do yoga or a particular asana then to do a small bit (literally just 1 asana sometimes…) whenever I felt the desire. This included whilst playing on the beach and pottering in our apartment at the start or end of the day. It wasn’t always much but I did feel better for it. One thing I could always do whilst carrying little girl in the sling was remember my posture and engage my deep abs, and what a difference that has made. More on that later though….(in my next post).
In other news
Whilst on the beach, during a brief spell where little girl kicked back in her travel bouncer and enjoyed being entertained by Daddy, I took the chance to carry out a 10 minute “mini session”. Afterwards I looked down at the pattern I’d left on the sand and it made me smile, physically seeing the evidence that I was able to keep doing this! Long may it continue!
New Page Yoga 