25 Apr Please The Palate Pick of the Week: 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene

One month ago, a few days into our social distancing and shelter at home started, a friend encouraged some of us to join her for 30 Day of Yoga with Adriene, a yoga instructor based in Austin, Texas who offers a 30 day program for free on YouTube. Now, yoga is not my favorite activity but I was up for the challenge and I am proud to say that I accomplished it! I completed 30 days and that is why 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene is the Please The Palate pick of the week. We have now been sheltering at home for over one month. In our isolation, many of us have taken to cooking and baking but also eating. We have also been steadily drinking our way through these days. And some days, motivation has been a challenge. I am used to working from home and have a home office set up. But, with no events to work on and with the gym closed and activities cancelled, I found myself putting on sweats each day and heading to my desk instead of working out each morning like I normally do. But, when I agreed to do 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene, I committed to myself that I would do this. And, for 30 days I did. Some days I did it after a long walk outside or a short cardio workout in my home. Some days I did yoga in the morning, other days in the middle of the day and a few days, just before dinner. But no matter when I did it, I did it for 30 days straight!

Adriene Mishler is an actress, writer, international yoga teacher and entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. Her mission is to get the tools of yoga into schools and homes through her popular YouTube channel Yoga with Adriene. The online community has more than 6 million viewers.

During 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene, Adriene offers a different yoga workout each day. Some are 15 minutes long and others are 30 minutes long. Some focus more on meditation and breathing and others more on movement. My favorite days were the days we did more stretching and breathing but I hung in there and did the program every day. At the end of 30 days, I still cannot say that I love yoga. But, there are many parts of it that I enjoyed and what I appreciated more than anything was how I felt afterwards. I felt focused and relaxed. I was able to breath through the tension and fear of the world and just listen to my breath and clear my mind. 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene taught me mindfulness. It taught me to pause each day and take some time for myself. And now, I am checking out some of Adriene’s other yoga classes. She offers classes that focus on the hips and back, on breathing and calmness, on stretching and on other areas of the body. There are practices that are under 5 minutes, some for 10-20 minutes, others for 20-30 minutes and some for 30-45 minutes. There is really something for everyone at Yoga with Adriene, even those who don’t think they love yoga, like me. As we continue to stay at home, we need to remember to breathe and to take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally. And, when we are able to get back out into the world and go back to work, we will continue to need to remember this. So, that is why 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene is the Please The Palate pick of the week.