Last week, I came across the offer of an introductory month of streaming Gaia yoga classes (and, it turns out, many other resources) for just $.99 (see? Facebook ads DO work!)

I’ve been mulling over a return to yoga for months, but I haven’t yet managed to drag myself to a class. I have busted out the yoga mat that Santa dutifully brought me for Christmas a number of times and for various reasons but I haven’t been able to get motivated to work on getting into a real yoga groove again.

I love yoga. For me it is an extremely enjoyable experience and a deeply spiritual practice. In these days of Bikram and gym yoga, it’s been a challenge for me to find studios and instructors who combine the mind-body experience in the way that I want and that I’m willing to pay for.

When I started to seriously consider checking out all that Gaia has to offer, I enlisted the company of a great friend. Amy. Being the details master and super organizer that she is, she sniffed out the 14-day Fundamentals of Yoga series and that seemed like a great place to start.

Amy and I come from different yoga backgrounds. If I’d known she found yoga intimidating, I would have dragged her out to a class YEARS ago. But because we live in different cities, 295 miles apart, it isn’t like we can just catch a studio class together so this was a great way for us to share the experience. We picked a date to start and decided to debrief after each session.

Here are a few of the questions we asked one another before we got started. These are Amy’s answers. You can find mine here.

1. What’s your yoga background? I’ve never done traditional yoga, outside of a few poses, for which I don’t remember why I would have even done them. I have taken 3 Bikram classes and I imagine it’s very much what hell is like.
2. What has prevented you from trying it in the past? Laziness I guess. And partially fear. Yoga is a topic that feels tremendously overwhelming, and I really never knew where to start. Couple that with my laziness, and it’s a recipe for not attempting it at all.
3. What are your expectations for trying yoga? That it will be relaxing, but I know it will also be difficult after having little physical activity in nearly a year and a half.
4. What do you hope to gain from this 14-day fundamentals series? Flexibility. Create a base for future series and more advanced work. Calm. Routine. Both of which I’m lacking.
5. What is the single most important thing that yoga can bring to you? A level of fitness I’ve never experienced before.

Do you practice yoga? Do you prefer doing it at home or in a studio?