Day 40

“The good, the bad and the early”

And it certainly *is* early. I promised myself that if I took this contract, I would not compromise my daily practice so I've built my mornings around 90 minutes of the Primary Series.

My three readers should brace themselves: In order to pull this off, I've started to get up early. And I mean EARLY. I used to get up around 5 or 5:30. That's fine and doable for me, not even very difficult actually. Now? The fun starts at 4:30 a.m. Yeah, no joke. I'm seriously nuts.

At 4:30 a.m., I pull myself out of bed, put the kettle on and put the futon up (it folds into a couch to create more space in my small city apartment). I splash some water on my face, get dressed, then set up my yoga things for practice (so when I return from my walk, there's no avoiding it).

Then I go for a walk - it's always an hour (that's how long it takes to get to the park and back). This morning, I watched the sun rise as the full moon set in the west. Really lovely! I share this hour with my little dog, who loves the exercise, the smells and my undivided attention. The walk is also good exercise and it works out some of the stiffness before I stand on my mat for that first sun salutation.

I'm back home by 5:45 a.m. I do my practice, wrapping it up around 7:15. I get cleaned up, get my work things together and do a quick email check and by 7:40, I'm getting ready to leave. I ride my bicycle - it takes about 15-20 minutes, depending on my pace. By 8 a.m., I'm sitting at my desk, facing a long day in the office.

Time will tell whether I'm able to sustain this, but so far, I love it! The mornings are so cool and quiet. Practising in the morning has a different feel to it. The only downside is going to bed before it even gets dark, and feeling sleepy at 7:30 at night, like I do right now!

This morning's practice was great. My knees are feeling much better, though I'm still being careful. Utthita Trikonasana felt particularly good this morning and my Kurmasana is really coming along. I've noticed that I'm really savouring breathing in the poses and when I feel 'stuck', it's breathing that gets me through.

I've decided to start skipping backbends in my morning practice because they just don't work for me at that time of day. I added a backbend to my evening practice last night - it was fantastic! So I'll continue to do that from now.