YOGA WITH ADRIENE
THE CONCEPT
With 5.7 million subscribers and innumerable more people watching her free videos on Youtube, Adriene Mishler has built a vast, loyal following. Known as ‘the people’s yogi’, she has captivated an army with her laidback brand of yoga, pulling in thousands to her live events worldwide. The videos are doable, no matter how busy you are – many of them are only 10 or 15 minutes – and Adriene doesn’t edit out the parts where she stumbles over her words, or her dog gets in the way. It’s like doing yoga with a best friend, who happens to be an expert and have the patience of a saint.
THE JOURNEY
I used to be a person who went to an early morning Pilates class, or a post-work dance-like-beyoncé session, but then I had children. Now any time that I’m not working, I want to hang out with my kids, and I try to squeeze in a social life and occasionally talk to my husband, too. Exercise had fallen so far down my priority list that I had basically forgotten about it until I started to feel stiff, lethargic, fuzzy brained and generally rubbish.
Then Adriene Mishler came into my life. I would normally be extremely cynical about the idea that a perky American with a dog called Barney could convince me to exercise. But her short, focused yoga videos (the ‘11-minute wake-up morning yoga’ routine is my favourite) are so manageable – they can fit into any busy person’s life. Her slogan is ‘find what feels good’ (search #FWFG on Instagram to meet the Adriene army), which is so relaxed and pressure-free that, if my two-year-old starts climbing on me during the plank, and ‘what feels good’ is to stop doing yoga and tickle her until she screams with laughter, then that’s what I’ll do.
Adriene’s worldwide events are attended by thousands of devotees, who ‘pay what feels good’, and her online tribe – or ‘kula’, the sanskrit word for ‘community of the heart’ – is warm, welcoming and uncompetitive.
You might think that 10 minutes a day would make no difference but, because it’s so easy, I actually do it – and I feel stronger, calmer and more clear-headed as a result. I thought I didn’t have time for exercise, but the joy of Yoga With Adriene is that you don’t get that nagging feeling that you’re not doing enough, or doing it right. This is yoga for people who don’t have time for yoga.
THE COST
Her Youtube videos and Kula community are free, although she recently launched www.fwfg.com, where you can access premium content like meditations, accountability series and ad-free videos that you can watch off-line for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.