HoopYogini

I thought it was gonna be more intense like this pic, but wasn’t.

I had never even heard the word HoopYogini until the other day, but today, after a very stressful morning, I enjoyed two virtual classes presented by the wonderful founder herself.

HoopYogini is hula hooping combined with yoga.  Hooping is done to raise energy or as the teacher said to “create fire”. You also use the hoop as a sort of resistant prop much like one would use a strap in different movements, like holding the hoop above your head as you breathe in, and lowering it as you exhale.  I actually had to use my yoga strap because I as a disabled adult, do not own a hoop.

There of course is way more to it than the actual movements. It’s the idea that the hoop is your own personal circle of power, your center.  The circle is present within so many aspects of this kind of spiritual work that it makes sense to incorporate it in this way.  How I learned about the class in the first place was because Jocelyn (the founder of HoopYogini) had a workshop on Saged the other night discussing the medicine wheel and how it exists across many spiritual practices including the Wiccan Wheel of the Year.

Very informative stuff right there!

Now, as a child I was able to hula hoop decently but as I matured I would have required a heavy duty weighted one and obviously no one would have purchased one for me.  As with everything in my life, my massive mammaries got in the way.  So as of right now, I don’t even know if I could hula hoop again.  Honestly the strap worked out just fine and when it came time to hooping I just rocked my hips from side to side in the same rhythm and that worked pretty well.  I was thinking I should try a belly dance technique I know, but it didn’t have the same effect, and yes I do know how to belly dance my ex boyfriend and I used to practice after school, my mom got us a VHS.  Pre 9/11 was wild man.

After the absolute shit show of a morning I had, which included me crying several times, and then crying again when they showed the news reel of Prince Philip’s life (don’t ask), I needed this exact type of work.  It was highly grounding, and very releasing.  I had been on edge nearly all day trying to get normal things done and then dealing with a situation with Dino, who is ok, but not ok, in that no kid is just ok right now and I wish his father would understand that.

I found myself trying to calm down and release all that pent up anger and frustration and sadness by taking slow deep breaths and exhaling quickly in a huff.  I couldn’t even eat and I could not sit still, I kept pacing from one end of the apartment to the other.  I lit incense at the altar, and turned on the oil diffuser too.  I even lit Shadow’s blue candle because at that moment all I wanted was him to tell me that it would be ok, and that made me fucking cry some more.

Then my Dino came home and I could breathe a bit.  I cooked us all a healthy dinner with the new konjac wonder noodles I purchased from Thrive Market, which I was honestly presently surprised with.  

By then it was time for my class.  Let me tell you dear reader, I am so very proud of myself.  Each class was 45 minutes of standing and movement and I did it.  Not all of it, no hoop remember, but I did the majority of it and kept moving during the hooping part.  I also wasn’t tired afterward or winded.  I guess my dinky little physical therapy exercises and all the walking I do have actually done something for the way my body now moves!  I am happy.  It means I can try more yoga and work on my balance and standing even more.  I’m not looking to be able to stand on my head or contort my body, but being able to stand for longer without pain would mean so very much to these old decrepit bones.

I am relaxed now.  After the second class, I took my shower and I feel so much better than I did earlier today.  Breath and movement work are so critical to not only aligning the body but calming, centering and grounding the body. 

There are two more days of this intensive yoga weekend and I’m gonna try and do as many of the classes as I can.  Everything is free, I already have a yoga mat and strap and meditation pillow (highly recommend by the way), and who knows, I may consider ordering a weighted adult size hoop after this!

Namaste!

🙏