My Week in Yoga: Short Weeks & Long Weekends

What was meant to be a quiet week at work (gotta love half term) turned out not to be. Which in turn meant my plans for this to be the first week of #yogaeverydamnday didn’t materialise either.

Ho-hum, such is life sometimes.

A weekend away to Italy, Florence to be exact, with my love more than made up for any disappointment, even if it did mean even less time on my yoga mat than usual.

Monday:  

Busy busy day, so no yoga for me.

Tuesday: 

After another hectic day and no sign of it letting up, I drew a line in the sand and went to the gym at work for an hour whether everything was done or not. Obviously it wasn’t, but that time was invaluable for me to work out some of the kinks both in my to-do list and in my body. So time well spent on all fronts.

Wednesday: 

While I use ‘yoga’ as shorthand for asana practice in this blog, the other 7 limbs of the 8 limbed path are always there in my consciousness. But as we all know. there is a big difference between thinking about things and doing them. Well, today was a big step forward in my observance of ahimsa: non-violence, or kindness.

I am a dreadful cook and as much as my lovely husband does on this front, my lack  of participation on the health food front means I often end up eating a lot of processed rubbish. And more animal products than I would like. 

So tonight we took a cooking class with the wonderful Gem from You Say Tomato. She taught us, well me really, two wonderfully simple and delicious recipes and generally gave me a big confidence boost when it comes to my historically abysmal cooking skills.

Asana practice has taught me the value of seeking out wonderful teachers. Am I am so glad another one has come into my life like this. Now to see whether I can do her teaching justice…. though if it takes me a similar amount of time as the yoga has, then please god let the food poisoning gods to kind to me and my family!

Thursday: 

A synthetic Friday night for me as had the following day off work. Which mean catching up on the winter Olympics and 20 minutes of gentle flows before going to bed.

Friday: 

A multi-session yoga day. At last!

Morning self-practice consisted of 45mins of pretty balanced flows – sun sals, inversions and some baby backbends. 

Then my wonderful friend Alec came over and we flowed for another 45min or so. As well as recording an episode for his amazing podcast Yoga Revealed. I cannot wait to share this with you all. So watch this space!

Saturday:

Up VERY early for a flight to Florence. But the 4 pasta meals that were soon to be in my belly were more than worth it.

My mat obviously came with me (side note: I always take my Liforme mat with me when I travel, always as carry on and have never had any issues, even when I have a suitcase and a handbag with me as well) and I took advantage of a napping husband to flow for 30 minutes in between pasta binges.

Sunday:

Making the most of our last day in Florence meant no yoga today. Just a quick 20,000 steps as we continued to explore this city that we love so much.

• Self-Practice: 3hrs 20min 
• Classes: zero  
• TOTAL: 3hrs 20min