Today, I write to you from a place of sore muscles and a happier soul.  After too many months of neglect, I unfurled my yoga mat from its hiding place in the hall closet to give it – and myself – some much needed yoga love.

bendy!

Monday night, I set off on my adventure with Xbox remote in hand, hoping to find a simple yoga routine on Netflix so I could justify bogarting the living room for an hour.  To my dismay, Netflix Instant Streaming is entirely devoid of yoga in any shape or form.  Turning to alternative methods, my iOS device yielded a slick little app called Simply Yoga.  Therein lies a simple “level 1″ routine that can be customized to 20, 40, and 60 minutes.  The app boasts a video of a gal doing all of the poses, audio instructions on how to accomplish each pose, reminders to breathe, and a bonus ocean wave track in the background.

By and large, I consider myself to be in pretty decent shape.  Since I don’t drive, I take the bus and walk everywhere, so I get a fair bit of exercise in on a daily basis.  Due to lactose intolerance, my diet tends to be lean protein and lots of veggies.  See?  Healthy, and hopefully in decent shape.  Since I used to go to hot yoga 1-3 times a week, I figured I’d be chomping at the bit to buy the full version of the app and move on up to “level two.”  After two days of doing 30-40 minutes of “level one” yoga at home, I’m so sore.  It’s a good sore, but still sore, to be sure.  Something tells me I’ll be ok sticking to what I’ve got for a couple of weeks while I build my strength and flexibility back up.

I had forgotten what an intense workout yoga can be.  How simple, relaxing, and energizing it is, all at the same time.  I’m looking forward to building yoga back into my daily routine, as it’s been a very nice ‘winding down’ activity for the end of the day.  The last two nights, I have slept so well, and the only thing I’ve done differently is the yoga at the end of the day.

Do any of you have a daily yoga routine?  I’d love to know what online resources you have found to be the most helpful!