Winter: Hunker down or heat things up?
“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”
—Yoko Ono
I remember when I moved to Maine at the age of 18 and I wrote back to my family in California to tell them that they had no idea what it meant to be cold. I was both right and wrong. They didn’t know what Maine cold felt like, but that didn’t mean they never felt cold.
Just as in weather, yoga practice is relative. There is no one best type of yoga or yoga sequence for everyone; there is no one best way to do yoga in all the seasons of a year, or even in all the seasons of a person’s life.
The beauty of going to a yoga class in person is that you get to be part of a face-to-face community, but the downside of it is that sometimes the class doesn’t quite fit your needs. It’s nice to have the solidarity of a class, but there are so many times in a woman’s life when it’s either best to seek out a class to meet their specific needs or do yoga at home so they can cater to their own situation.
But then, I’ve had so many students complain that they absolutely have to go to a class or they would just never do yoga. They either lack the discipline or they just don’t know what to do when someone is not guiding them. True, it takes time to develop a repertoire and a feel for the flow of a class, but then once you do, you also develop a better sense of your own needs. What a great skill to have for life!
Even so, you might be a long-time practitioner who has an injury or is pregnant, or has recently given birth and so your body is different and your old approach might not apply anymore. Which brings me to the quote above, but I’d like to say that we don’t only need perseverance for winter. We need it for our whole lives as yogis.
Lately, I’ve been trying out the yoga videos on Gaia. Some I’ve liked and others were okay. I usually opt for the shorter practices, between 15-30 minutes and that has made it more likely that I’ll get on the mat since I don’t have the added time of driving and attending a longer class. Still, there are times when following instructions from a teacher are not what I need. Those are the times when I’ve enjoyed my own silent practice, or simply done something else to unwind, like go for a walk, take a nap, or practice yoga nidra.
Then there are times when you are on your period, or down with a cold or flu. I used to be one of those troopers that tried to practice no matter how I felt, but over the years, I realized I was ignoring my own needs. After all, what’s a few days without yoga postures? As the mother of a toddler, I’ve had to sacrifice a more frequent practice of hour-long yoga sessions. And sometimes I’m just too tired to do a complete practice. Luckily, we also have more low-key styles of yoga, such as yin or restorative, for those downtimes. In the next week or so, I’ll post more on a book I recently read, Yoga for a Healthy Menstrual Cycle by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden. I’ll also share some of my favorite practices for when my energy is low or I’m not feeling 100%.
For now, ask yourself: in the midst of winter (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere), should I hunker down and do some more mellow practices or should I heat things up through a vigorous vinyasa practice or hot yoga? That’s something that you get to decide for yourself, every day. Inquiring into your yogic needs helps you find not only a doorway to a more flexible practice (no pun intended), but also the fun realization that sometimes the door itself provides a valuable prop!
P.S. At the March full moon, I plan to restart my weekly posts for paid subscribers. Each post will have a video and some more inspirational and practical suggestions. Stay tuned!