A Friday of Poses and Mats

Well hello Friday, you sure did take a LONG time to get here. But at long last you are here, so no more complaints from me. It was a really long and tough week but I did get more kindergarten hugs than usual. It turns out the secret is to make a big deal out of how much you like hugs and then, BAM a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds will be out to please you. Also, one of my kids made me a Mother's Day card today...is there something I should know about myself?

Anyway, today is my day to post a pose for Yoga Pose May and today's pose is COW. Cow is a great pose to stretch the front of your torso and neck and is often coupled with cat, which stretches the back of your torso.

In order to do Cow pose, you begin in table top position.

Your hips should be above your knees, shoulders above hands and your spine is neutral. Your eyes are looking at the ground.

To come into cow pose, inhale and push your chest up while pushing your stomach toward the ground. Now, your eyes are looking ahead...

Then, exhale back into tabletop position. You can repeat this several times as necessary. Often, people alternate this pose with cat to stretch the front and back torso at once. This is a great pose to do at night if you are hunched over a computer all day :)

In other news, I told you guys the other day that I got my Aurorae Yoga mat in the mail and I was very excited. I got the violet color which defines my inner self as "spiritual, soothing, calming, telepathic, healing, relief, and meditative." Hmm, accurate? Nope! But something to strive for, right?

I took my new mat to a hot yoga class this morning. I tried out the mat first without a towel on top to test out the grip. Since I usually do hot yoga, grip is essential to me because there is nothing fun about slipping all over once it gets a little sweaty. Here are some things I liked about the mat:

1. It seemed thicker than other yoga mats I have used. When I moved my hand or foot I noticed I left a mark where I had pushed down the rubber. It disappeared after a few seconds, but I think this thickness is probably helpful for any impact you may put on your yoga mat.

2. I had no trouble gripping this mat for the first 20-25 minutes of class. At that point I had to put my towel down, but that's about how long is average for me before it gets necessary to have a towel. Once I had my towel down, I continued to have a good grip on the mat and was not slipping.

3. It was long enough to comfortably complete all poses and gave me extra space for flowing from one pose to the next.

4. It's pretty and I like my yoga mats to be fun colored :) especially if they are practical as well.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Aurorae Yoga Mats. If you are thinking about giving yoga a try, or just want a new mat (it's fun to have more than 1!), check out their website!

I hope everyone has a lovely start of the weekend. I'll be back tomorrow to talk about something other than yoga, I promise :)