The Woo-Woo Factor

I’ve done a fair bit of yoga, on and off, over the years. I find it really relaxing. The end of a decent yoga session is one of the few times that my mind is properly quiet.

I mostly practise Astanga yoga, a fairly flowing form of yoga in which you move from one pose to another, although I have also done Hatha and Iyengar.

Edinburgh is a fairly good place to do yoga as there are several yoga centres and lots of classes in all of the types of yoga.

However, classes are not for everyone, and a lot of them begin too early for me by the time I have got back into town after work. Although I do practise on my own using books and things that I have been taught in class, sometimes it is nice to have a guided practise. So, the other week I bought a yoga CD.

I read lots of reviews on the web. These include useful information such as the level of the 'woo-woo' factor or how 'new-agey' the CD is. Yoga CDs tend to have background music which can be a little bit too cloying and some instructors do go a bit over the top with the touchy-feely language, not to mention you need to find someone who doesn’t either sound like a dalek on Valium or a sugary version of Nanette Newman after her vocal chords have been washed in fabric softener.

I chose a CD that was broken into tracks (some of them are one long track that takes up the entire CD) and that is relatively low on the 'woo-woo' factor, although she does occasionally tell you to move with compassion and mercy or some such.

It is called Yoga Sanctuary by Shiva Rea. It is Astanga yoga. It runs a pretty good pace- as you have to breathe in time to yoga, depending on the instructor’s pace, you can either end up asphyxiating or hyperventilating if they haven’t got it right. The sequences are spread over two CDs and it comes with a poster to help you with the poses.

I find it really useful as I can just do a few tracks here and there is I need a quick stretch and unwind or I can do a whole CD if I fancy a good work out.

Week commencing 04/09/06

Medication: None
Exercise: 8.5
Alcohol: 12
Anxiety: Anxiety level has been pretty low in general. I think I may have had one anxious morning.
Anxiety Level (0-10): 1
Number of Panic Attacks: 0
Severity of Panic Attack (0-5): NA
Depression: Still having the odd blue moment.
Depression Level (0-5): 2
Mania: Still buzzing about a fair bit but mostly in a fairly productive way, although occasionally I do have a few too many plates spinning at once and lose track of what is going on.
Mania Level (0-5): 2

Summary

A better week than the week before but still with its up and downs. Getting things done is keeping me a reasonably buoyant mood and I haven’t done anything totally outrageous yet?or not that I’ve noticed anyway.