Thank goodness for the Courtney‘s June Yoga Challenge.

Hello, My name is Lea and I’m a yoga addict. And I’m very okay with that.

This week has completely rekindled my love for yoga. It’s sad that I have periods were I completely neglect yoga and ironic because I love it so much. How I manage to forget my love for it I don’t even know. But it’s so good to be back in the habit.

So here’s the yoga I’ve been up to lately

• Saturday: I did the Gentle Flow podcast from yogajournal.com. These podcasts are awesome because the are FREE, 20-30 minutes and have lots of options. And I can do them in my living room. Perfection. The Gentle Flow sequence felt awesome on my sore post-5k legs.
• Sunday: Another podcast, Morning Sequence this time. I woke up at 6:30 on Sunday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep so I did yoga instead. Early morning yoga is really nice, I’ll have to try to make more time for it in the future.
• Monday: Gentle Flow podcast again. I ran and did a LiveFit workout on Monday, so I wanted to give my body a nice relaxing stretch afterwards.
• Tuesday: I went to a yoga class at the gym. The girl that taught it also teaches at a local yoga studio, so it was much more spiritual(ish) than the usual classes and I really enjoyed it. I need to get to a yoga studio stat!
• Wednesday: Hip Opener podcast, my hips are pretty open thanks to so many years of dance, but I’ve started to notice them tightening up as I’ve been doing more running and lifting, so I’m trying to do some pre-emptive stretching. I definitely felt the poses much more than usual.
• Today: I skipped Thursday, things got a little busy and I haven’t done any yoga yet today, but I’ve got a 5 hour road trip ahead of me so I will definitely be doing some tonight!

I’ve been working hard on tree pose this week. My balance is pretty decent (all those years of ballet paid off for something), so I’ve been working on really clearing my mind and becoming more aware of my body.

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I’m working towards closing my eyes and balancing at the same time. Closed eyes is a complete game-changer in this pose and it takes a lot of concentration, and just letting go. It also gives me a great change of perspective which is always a nice thing. Definitely a fun little challenge and I’m starting to see some improvement!