Far Beyond The Stars: The Archives

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

Yoga is one of the most important things you can do for the balance of your body mind and soul. It’s also one of the most minimalist forms of stretching and exercise tools that exists.

This is probably why I’ve been so drawn to this particular method of strengthening myself, because it requires nothing but what you already have.

There are only two requirements for doing yoga.

1, a mat or blanket.
2, your body.

Modern corporations are trying heard to teach us that we need much more than these two things to do yoga. At a typical yoga studio you will find ropes, blocks, heated rooms, clean white towels, and other assorted gizmo-gadgets.

Have you ever picked up a yoga magazine? Stocked full of ads and stories trying to sell you more equipment.

You don’t need anything but yourself to do yoga. It doesn’t matter how skinny or fat you are, how tall, or how old you are. Anyone can do yoga, and you only need a mat.

You certainly don’t need Lululemon butt-grabber pants (though they do look quite nice) to be able to do downward facing dog properly.

All of these additional things serve to distance you from the origins of yoga, which is an incredibly simple practice.

You don’t need to buy anything else to do yoga.

If you feel like it, make a promise now to never buy anything beyond a mat for your yoga. I certainly haven’t. Some people spend thousands of dollars on yoga junk they don’t need and never manage to do any yoga. I don’t want you to be that person.

This is a guide to doing yoga by yourself without spending a dime. You won’t be asked to buy anything. There is no catch at the end asking you to give me money. My intent is only to demystify the basics of yoga enough that anyone can do it on their own for free.

A little background on my experience with yoga.

I’ve been studying yoga for around two years now. Most of my training is from Yoga to the People in Manhattan. The school promotes yoga for everyone, and is run on a donation-based payment system. I am not a certified yoga instructor, though I plan to become one when I eventually have money and time to invest in the training.

However, to offset my non-yoga-teacherness, I have an undergraduate degree in dance from New York University (I double-majored in journalism), where I studied modern dance and ballet. I’ve studied movement for over ten years, and many of the principles of yoga carry over into non-yoga forms of movement. I do feel I am qualified to instruct the fundamentals of yoga, even though I may not have the blessing of the Yoga Alliance.

Why do yoga independently?

Yoga is expensive. Individual classes can run anywhere from $12-$20 at most commercial yoga studios. To benefit the most from yoga training you need to do it regularly, and this can become expensive if you have to go to a yoga studio every time you want to take a class.

Sometimes you only need a few yoga poses or sequences to center yourself, in these cases a trip to a yoga studio isn’t practical.

By learning to do yoga on your own you will master self-discipline. You will train your body and mind to work together. A lot of people never learn how to do yoga outside of a classroom, and this is a shame, because the biggest breakthroughs in yoga can come when you’re going at you’re own pace.

The best reason to learn to do yoga independently is you will have a free way to train your body for the rest of your life. You won’t have to spend a dollar more, unless you want to.

Please be careful practicing yoga independently. Some yoga poses are incredibly difficult. Don’t force yourself into uncomfortable positions or into balances that you cannot control. The flexibility and the strength will come with time and regular practice. Forcing any stretch in yoga is counterproductive.

Yoga should never hurt you. You will feel challenged at times, but the pain of injury should be avoided at all costs. Yoga is not about torturing yourself, it is about bettering yourself.

Step 1, Find a place to do yoga.

Clear a space somewhere in the place that you live which is large enough to fit your yoga mat with at least 1 ft of space around it. I like to face a window, but that isn’t a necessity. Ideally give yourself as much space as possible, you don’t want to be worrying about knocking over a lamp or falling on your desk.

This space doesn’t need much, but it should be free of distractions and objects that you may bump in to. That is all.

Step 2, Learn a few basic yoga poses. There are hundreds of yoga posed to choose from, you probably won’t need to do them all right at this very moment. Here are five basic yoga poses that you need to know now.

Click each of these poses for pop-up images showing you the pose.

1. Child’s pose. This is one of the most basic poses. Return to this pose if you ever feel overwhelmed and just breathe. It’s done by sitting on your heels with your forehead on the mat. Put your arms either in front of you or by your feet. Start your practice in child’s pose, and just notice your breathing for 15 minutes.
2. Flow. This is the fundamental sequence in Vinyasa yoga. I’m cheating a little, as this is a series of poses that you can use to ‘reset’ yourself after every harder pose. The sequence goes like this: start in plank pose, lower to ground by bending your arms, cobra, downward dog. Do a flow between any other pose that you attempt, this will reset your body between difficult poses.
3. Mountain pose. This one is easy, you do it a lot. Stand up straight, with your legs about two-fists distance apart. Reach your arms overhead with your palms facing together. Try to relax your shoulders. Now glance at the ceiling, bend forward to touch your toes and then step back into plank and ‘flow’. Repeat this 3 times or so to get your blood flowing.
4. Chair pose. This is like sitting in a chair. You can enter this pose from either a toe-touching position or from mountain pose. With your arms over your head, lower your butt so that you’re sitting in an imaginary chair. Your weight should be in your heels, your butt is tucked. This pose is kind of hard, so only stay in it for 30 seconds or so. Relax and touch your toes. Flow. Repeat 3 times or until you feel like you’re going to fall over.
5. Warrior 1 + warrior 2. From a downward dog, take your right leg and put it between your hands with your foot facing forward. You will be in a lung with your left foot pointing towards the side of your mat. Reach your arms over your head. This is warrior 1. Stay here for a bit, and then reach your right arm forward and your left arm back. This is warrior 2. Stay here for a bit, then put your arms on the ground, put your right leg back. Flow. Repeat on the other side.
6. Shoulder stand and plow. Lying on your back, roll your feet over your head, position your arms under your lower back and reach your feet towards the sky. Ideally you should stay in this for 15 minutes, but do it as long as you feel comfortable. Then move into a plow — relax your feet over your head, take your hands and claps them behind your back if possible. Don’t flow after this baby, just skip to the next pose.
7. Corpse pose. This is the last pose you do in any yoga sequence. It is done by simply lying on your back, with your legs slightly apart and your arms a few inches from your body with palms facing up. Close your eyes and rest for 15 minutes or so. The point of this pose is to completely relax your body after a strenuous workout. It is the hardest pose of all, because you must learn to relax completely.

Remember, these are only a few basic yoga poses. There are hundreds more, and you can study them online at a number of yoga sources. If you’re feeling up to it, go take a class. A good yoga resource is B.K.S Iyengar’s Light on Yoga, check it out at your local library. Many yoga studios offer free trial classes or a week of unlimited introductory classes for a small fee.

Step 3, Do minimalist yoga.

Now that you know some basic poses, it’s time to do yoga. Find yourself a room that is free of distractions. Lay out your mat or just grab a blanket if you don’t have a mat. Begin in child’s pose, and slowly move your way through the different poses that I described above.

It will probably take you thirty minutes to go from start to finish. Go slowly. Make sure you’re breathing steadily. If at any time you feel overwhelmed, return to child’s pose — this is your safe zone.

Let me know if you have any questions or clarifications in the comments.

Namaste.

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

I believe were all pursuing this minimalist life because somewhere, deep down below the surface, we know being minimalist is the only way we’re going to save the planet.

I spend a lot of time writing articles about how to live a simple lifestyle, I give step by step instructions about which habits to adopt. Then I cross my fingers and I hope that a couple of the 10,000 people that visited this site in the last month will adopt these habits and make their lives better.

But my dream is much bigger than convincing a few people to unclutter their closets.

Embracing a minimalist lifestyle is the best way to save everything.

There’s a double meaning to every post that I write. By spreading the word that living a life without stuff is the best way for us all to achieve a better life together, we also make it possible for the world not to end.

The manufacturing of low quality goods destined for the trash heap, burning of billions of tons of fossil fuel, deforestation, the flawed food we eat.

We know these things are wrong, but a minimalist decides to actually opt out. They make the conscious decision to stop perpetuating the cycle of consumerism that has plagued our culture for the last 100 years.

All of these problems are ultimately connected to us.

We are the ones making these decisions now.

I visited my mother’s house in Chicago this week, and my 17 year-old sister remarked yesterday “isn’t it weird that now is a time that they will be writing down in history books?”

Yes, exactly. These are times for the history books.

How these days will be recalled is our choice though. Do we want this time to be remembered as the age when we dropped the ball and let the planet die? or will we stop spending, stop collecting, and begin to clean up this stupid mess that we’ve got ourselves in?

So share these stories. By these, I don’t mean my stories. I mean minimalist stories. The ones that all of the minimalist bloggers write about every day –the bloggers I’ve interviewed, the bloggers on my blog roll, the bloggers I tweet about every day. The minimalist stories that YOU can write. These are your stories that you tell the world every time you tweet, blog, facebook, or have a conversation in the real world.

By adopting a minimalist lifestyle, you can make a difference.

There is no magic bullet, no treaty, no scientific contraption that is going to dig us out of this mess. Every decision impacts the footprint we have on this earth.

Imagine if every one of the 10,000 people that visited my site in the last month told 10,000 people how they could have less of an impact? What if those 10,000 people told another 10,000 each?

Maybe we’d make a difference.

The choice is yours. You’re the one who makes the difference.

Share the minimalist ideas, save the world.

Interview by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

Every week on Far Beyond The Stars I interview an important person on the subject of being minimalist. Last week I spoke to Colin Wright about what you take with you when you work from anywhere. Next week I’ll be speaking with Chris Baskind of More Minimal.

I spoke with the minimalist legend Leo Babauta. For those who don’t know him, Leo writes the top-100 blog Zen Habits and has another smaller blog called Mnmlist. He’s the author of a slew of books on living a simple minimalist existence, including his e-book A Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life, and his print book The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life.

We spoke about doing less of the unimportant, the illusion of control over life, and a few ways you can be more minimalist today.

I’ve decided to release this interview under an uncopyright license. This interview is copyright free, which means that you can distribute, republish, source from, even profit from this article without any permission from me. If you enjoyed this interview, please share it with as many people as you can. There’s no need to link back, but I’d love it if you could.

On to the interview!

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Everett Bogue: When you first started on your journey towards becoming minimalist what was the most profound change that you made in your life?

Leo Babauta: It was the realization that all the crap in my life that I’d been buying and building up and treasuring … just wasn’t worth it. It’s the stuff that’s advertised and hyped, that we think makes us happy, but that really doesn’t. I’ve learned that I don’t need any of that — all I need are a few essentials, and the time to do things that I love doing, to spend with the people I love most.

Everett: Do you have any current goals that you’ve set for yourself in regards to living a more minimalist life?

Leo: No. I no longer focus on goals — I think people are too focused on destinations and not on the journey itself. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to do anything important — it just means I’m focused on doing something important right now, something I love doing and that excites me.

That will lead to something amazing, I’m sure, but what it leads to, I have no idea. There’s actually no way to know … the idea that we can control the outcome is an illusion. We cannot predict or control the future, so I’ve given up trying.

However … to answer the question fully … minimalism for me is a learning process, and I’m continually realizing that I don’t need things I thought I needed. For example, when I move to San Francisco in June 2010, I plan to go carless, because I really don’t think a car is necessary or desirable. (Note: I now live on Guam, where I walk and bike to most places but it’s much harder to go places with kids without good public transit, which Guam lacks.)

I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning about minimalism, or get to the point where I’ve perfected it.

Everett: Occasionally I’ll tell someone that I’m striving to be minimalist and they’ll say something like “Isn’t that boring? How do you stay busy and entertain yourself?” Assuming you’re talking to a stranger, how would you answer that question?

Leo: Minimalism isn’t about having or doing nothing — it’s about making room in your life for the things you love doing the most. In this way, by getting rid of all the clutter in our lives — physical clutter and commitments — we are freeing ourselves, so that we can focus on what truly matters, and not all the extra crap that people tend to do and have for no good reason.

Everett: I believe one of the fundamental aspects of being a minimalist is working less, and on more important projects. I know that you’ve had some experience pursuing this goal for yourself. What choices and changes have you made in your life towards this goal?

Leo: It hasn’t exactly been a goal, but more something that I’ve learned to do better with time. I try to focus on one (or two at the most) projects at a time, so that I can really pour myself into it. I’ve changed my life and my work so that I can do things I really love doing, and not a bunch of other work that I hate. When I find myself being distracted or consumed by unimportant stuff, I stop and question this and change my routine so that I can focus on what’s important.

I’m getting better at all of this but am by no means perfect. Again, I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning.

Everett: Can you recommend one simple way that our readers can start to cultivate a minimalist work schedule?

Leo: Start each day by asking yourself: what’s the most important thing I can do today, that will have the biggest impact on my life? Do this first, before you do email or meetings or read stuff online or Twitter or anything else. Only when you’re done should you consider other things.

Slowly reduce the number of things you do each day, but make each one count more.

Everett: You have a post on Mnmlist titled “On Owning Nothing” which imagines a minimalist society which revolves around shared resources and starts to move away from the idea of private property. If you could recommend one simple step that our reader’s could take to start making this world happen, what would it be?

Leo: There are millions of things, but a good start would be to participate in some kind of shared service — car sharing is available in many places, for example, as are ways to lend and borrow things like books or bicycles or CDs or what have you. Freecycle.org is a good way to give away stuff you don’t need and find free stuff you do.

Over the longer term, I think we should start getting together, informally, to talk about and organize associations that allow us to share things as a group rather than horde them individually. This could apply to housing, food, computers, clothing, work, and more. And these associations should be free (as in not restrictive), democratic (with no authoritarian control). Cooperatives are a good example.

Everett: In your explorations of being minimalist, have you encountered any unexpected benefits that you didn’t initially imagine?

Leo: It’s truly liberating. I can’t even begin to describe how freeing it is to finally get rid of stuff, to break free from the dependence on stuff, to get away from having to do everything and be everything and buy everything. It’s an exhilarating feeling, really, and I never would have imagined it to be so until I gave it a try. I hope anyone reading this experiences some of that liberation.

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Again, this interview has been released under an Uncopyright license. Share it as much as you want, however you want –there are a few good options on the share button below.

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