Welcome back to my EDTC300 Learning Project!! This will just be a quick post to update all of my followers on how this past week has been. No podcast this week sadly, I have been up to my eyeballs in work and am also dealing with a bit of a sore throat 😦 . Despite my hectic schedule and slight illness, I am proud to say that I have remained on track with my yoga practice! I am proud of myself for being disciplined and keeping up the hard work, even though it is not always easy.
I have still been following along with the video series “Breath – A 30 Day Yoga Journey” on the YouTube channel ‘Yoga with Adriene‘. This video series is great since each practice carries over into the next, with Adriene building on things covered in earlier videos. Rather than post every video from this past week, I will just discuss one of my favorites from the bunch.
In the video “Day 16 – Discipline“, the focus was put on further developing breath control and awareness of how this control affects the body. As I discussed in earlier blog posts, Pranayama is the term given to overall breath control in yoga. There are a variety of Pranayama exercises, and this video in the series from ‘Yoga with Adriene’ introduces another, adding to the Ujjayi Breathing, Breath of Fire, and Alternate Nostril Breathing Pranayama techniques already covered. In this video, the viewer is introduced to the technique of the Sama Vritti Pranayama (also known as ‘equal breathing’ or ‘box breathing’).
Essentially, Sama Vritti consists of inhaling for a given length of time, and then exhaling for the same amount of time (this link will take you to an easy reference for performing Sam Vritti Pranayama). Adriene builds the viewer up to that level, initially asking for slightly longer exhales than inhales. You can follow this link to find a great post discussing the benefits of box breathing/equal breathing. The greatest effect of this practice is that it acts to reduce stress and anxiety. It takes a significant amount of concentration to control ones breath to this degree, which can help with drowning out whatever is causing stress. There is also a physical effect that I personally experienced, namely a significant lowering of my heart rate. I also felt light-headed towards the end of the practice when I was taking 8 second inhales and exhales, but it was not an unpleasant feeling.
Interesting Blog’s I’ve Found
In addition to my continued practice of yoga, I have also been reading more and more about yoga and trying to gain a better understanding. Blogs dedicated to the practice of yoga have been a great resource for me, so I just wanted to share a few of those with all of you.
My favorite yoga blog so far has to be ‘Daily Cup of Yoga‘. This blog contains a significant amount of information, ranging from opinion pieces to more informational posts. One really cool post I found to be quite enlightening was on discussing the Eight Limbs of Yoga. I had been practicing the majority of these Eight Limbs, but it was very cool to gain a deeper understanding of yoga through this reading. I am learning more and more each day that yoga is about more than simply performing poses. A significant part of yoga has to do with attitude, concentration, and removal of outside influence (like distractions and stressors)
Eight Limbs of Yoga:
- yama (attitudes towards our environment)
- niyama (attitudes towards ourselves)
- asana (physical postures)
- pranayama (breathing practices)
- pratyahara (sense restraint)
- dharana (concentration)
- dhyana (meditation)
- samadhi (complete integration)
Another great blog that I found is the ‘J. Brown Yoga‘ blog. The first thing you will notice about this blog if you visit is the pleasing esthetic. It is very nicely put together and contains a significant amount of very thoughtful posts. The frequency of posts isn’t as high as other blogs like ‘Daily Cup of Yoga‘, but the quality of the posts is top notch! It is clear that the blogger is very thoughtful, knowledgeable, and cares a lot about yoga. The most recent post on this blog, titled “Dawn of the Post-Pandemic Yoga Teacher“, discusses how yoga teachers and places of practice have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The author outlines how many brick and mortar yoga centers have been forced to close, with the majority of instruction taking place online. As with any industry, the yoga industry has required flexibility and adaptation over the course of this past year.
Well that does it for another post. Thanks for coming by to check it out! Please feel free to leave a comment, suggestion, or critique down below. I look forward to hearing from you 🙂
Ian Mansfield's Education Journey 
Hey Ian!
I enjoyed reading your post for this week! I have also been finding it hard to keep up with everything, and you’re right it isn’t easy at all but good for you for consistently putting in the work- you should be proud of yourself! The breathing practices/ techniques you wrote about sound interesting and very useful! I’m sure practicing them really help to reduce stress- if I ever find some free time I might try them out sometime!
Thanks for sharing!
-Janelle
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Hey Ian,
It is awesome that you’ve been keeping up with and enjoying yoga. You might have mentioned this app in a previous blog, so I apologize if you have discussed it already, but have you have heard of an app called Insight Timer? It is a meditation app that has a ton of free content including some content that is designed specifically for yoga. I downloaded it years ago, but have never really given it a chance. I was scrolling through my phone earlier and remembered I had it downloaded and I thought of you and your learning project!
Take care buddy,
–Branden
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Fantastic job, Ian! I really like all of the elements you include in your Learning Project posts. You included multiple images, videos, links, and even a poll at the end. Your post was polished, well-organized, and well thought out. The online resources you are using to learn more about yoga sound incredibly helpful. You do a great job of reflecting on the sources of information. I’m curious if you have anymore critiques of the resources you are using or if there are any that you’ve tried that haven’t worked out. I would also love to hear your perspective about online learning in general. What are some take-aways that you have with this process in comparison to learning in a physical building or classroom? Thank you so much for a well-written post. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your yoga journey this semester!
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Hi Amanda,
Thanks 🙂 . I’m trying to get better with my posts. I am still learning as this is my first blog ever, so it is definitely an ongoing process. I will start adding some critiques in on my next post. I haven’t had any real negative experiences with apps/websites/blogs I have referenced, but some were certainly better than others.
For instance, I would criticize the ‘Yoga for Beginners’ app from an early blog post for being quite bare-bones, with little room for customization and a very early pay wall (with no real selling point to encourage giving up the money). When compared with the ‘Down Dog’ app the ‘Yoga for Beginners’ app looks pretty bad.
The blogs I gravitate to versus the ones I don’t pretty much just comes down to personal preference. There are certain aspects of yoga that, while they are important and meaningful to many people, just don’t appeal to me. So I tend to be turned off by blogs that focus too much on the mystical side of things. That is not to say they are bad necessarily, just that they are not my cup of tea.
As for learning yoga (or anything for that matter) online, I think it cab be wonderful for someone like me. Where I prefer to learn certain things (like the majority of university courses) in person, learning something like yoga online is much easier for me. I have been too self-conscious to try joining a physical yoga class for many years, so getting started like this is perfect. For something like mathematics or sciences on the other hand, I feel that I thrive in the classroom setting, so the appeal of online learning really depends on the subject matter for me.
Thanks for the great questions! Talk to you soon.
Ian
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