The Yoga Tip That Will Simultaneously Save You Money and Up Your Yoga Game
There are few things that give me the kind of joy that watching Beyoncé’s Lemonade for the 3,767th time will certainly give me. Which is why, when I moved into a downward dog position at Queen Village’s Three Queens Yoga last Friday evening, settling into the first few minutes of their NamaSLAY event — a yoga series that always opens with “Formation,” and continues with music from the likes of Ja Rule, JLo and, of course, more Beyoncé — I nearly started screaming “YASSSSS,” before catching myself and reminding myself to be the courteous human my mother raised me to be.
The two-hour long class was the perfect balance of tough (lookin’ at you, goddess squats) and fun, and I left feeling like I’d a) accomplished something on a Friday night (rare) and b) had earned a glass of wine. Wine is usually a given on a Friday night in my house, but it is not always earned. I also left thinking, I wish every savasana was set to Beyoncé’s “All Night.”
And then I realized, when I’m at home, it can be.
When she started the class, the brain behind the NamaSLAY series, instructor Adriana Adele, gave us some background on where the idea for the NamaSLAY series came from. She mentioned that when she first started trying to do yoga at home, she had a tough time getting into the zone. (I can relate: Rolling my mat out next to my TV and getting into the zone is simply more difficult than when you’re in a studio and have a teacher’s stare encouraging you to get into the zone, lest you feel like a slacker.) Adele’s fix to this problem: Top 40 music. Sure, doing backward bends to Bruno Mars might not fit into the zen idea many of us have of at-home yoga, but it worked for her. And I’d imagine that being able to get into the zone at home upped her yoga game.
This idea of pairing at-home yoga — a practice that can be a bit dread-inducing (at least in my case), but is necessary if you want to work more yoga into your life without spending all your disposable income at a studio — made me think about temptation bundling. The idea that if you pair something that you need to do (yoga at home, for mind and body’s sake) with something you love (in my case, Beyoncé), you’ll actually do it. Part of temptation bundling is only allowing yourself to do the thing you like (listening to Beyoncé) while doing the thing you need to do (yoga at home). And because podcasts are my go-to media of choice for my daily commute, I think I can commit to this.
So, taking a cue from Adele, I’ve decided that I’m going to start committing to getting on my mat in my living room — probably next to my TV — at least twice a week, whilst blaring Beyoncé, sans shame. Hey, if an honest-to-goodness yoga teacher does it, why shouldn’t I? Not only will this make me look forward to practicing yoga at home, rather than dreading it (hey, temptation bundling), I will also be getting more yoga into my life at zero cost. If you’ve also been meaning to up your at-home yoga game, I dare you to do the same (with the guidance an online yoga guru, if you’re not confident in your sun salutation game) to whatever music — be it death metal or Dashboard Confessional (hey, we’re not here to judge) — you choose.
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