Post-Hurricane Practice

Waterfront_Hurricane_Sandy_(Williamsburg,_Brooklyn)

I’ve been fortunate in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Although I’m in downtown NYC and surrounded by buildings without power or water, I’m lucky to live in an enclave where we’ve had both.

The subways aren’t running and most of the studios where I teach have been shut down, so I’ve had plenty of free time. Hence my return to blogging. (This time I promise to stick with it and post on a more regular basis!) It’s also been a chance to catch up with various friends needing a cell phone charge or conversation.

It’s been an opportunity for home practice, too. I love my home practice because it’s so free-ranging. Sometimes it doesn’t even look like yoga. Before the hurricane, I had been going to the park to work on tumbling. Today I started with foam rolling, which took me into a series of shoulder and thoracic spine openers. That morphed into shoulder strengthening work with sets of urdhva dhanurasana pushups, lateral lunges, headstands from prasarita padottanasana into handstand pushups. Tiring but lots of fun.

I hear people cheering outside and just got a text from a friend that power has been restored. For those who still have an enforced vacation on your hands, I encourage you to try a home practice, especially if you normally only take classes. If you’ve been practicing at home, I hope it’s encouraged you to keep it up after classes resume.

If you’re not sure what to do, I suggest starting with a few sun salutations and standing poses. You’ll find that you’ll get interested in exploring something along the way. Let your interest guide you, wherever it leads you. And have fun.

Copyright Joseph Miller

Image: By lookcatalog [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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