Astanga

Well, that was fun. WoYoPracMo, 2010: Complete!

I’m glad I did this again, even though at first it seemed a bit silly, given that I had just finished a year of daily yoga in 2009. I’m really glad I ‘upped the ante’ and decided to do a daily full Primary Series. Clearly, the time was right for me to dive back into Astanga in a serious way. The first week was a bit shaky, but I was on a roll after that.

If you asked me on the first of the month, I would have never predicted that I would move on to second series by the end of January. So, thanks WoYo, for bumping me into Intermediate! It was an unplanned, more-or-less spontaneous decision, but I’m having fun with it. It wasn’t the kicking-and-screaming transition I thought it would be.

I continue to be amazed by how simple it is to do something *daily* when you build a routine around it. I’m still meditating daily too, just 10 minutes a day. Along with the yoga, 2009 turned out to be the ‘Year of Doing Things Daily.’ I started flossing daily, brushing the dog’s fur daily, brushing the dogs *teeth* daily. I created a cleaning schedule for the apartment and completed a decluttering project. I don’t think my apartment has *ever* been this clean and tidy, my finances in such careful order or my pantry so well-stocked.

I’ve been thinking about the rest of 2010 and what I want my yoga to look like over the next year. Ideally, I would like to continue with a six-day week of Astanga practice, with something lighter on Saturday and the Moon Days (or use the Moon Days to go to classes, something I’ve really missed doing).

I’m not keen on the idea of ‘days off from yoga’ because I find that it breaks my momentum. If anything, the past year has taught me that if I make time for yoga every day, there *is* time for yoga. Even if I’m only doing some light restorative poses and Pranayama, I always manage to squeeze something in.

I’d like to keep my slot of ‘Yoga time’ each day. Sacred time.

Here’s my plan for February:
Sunday: Full Primary, 5 Intermediate poses
Monday: Full Primary, 5 Intermediate poses
Tuesday: Full Primary, 5 Intermediate poses
Wednesday: Full Primary
Thursday: Full Primary
Friday: Full Primary, 5 Intermediate poses
Saturday: Non-Astanga yoga practice (YogaDownload or a live class)

Wednesday and Thursday are the ‘Astanga Lite' days because of my heavy teaching schedule.

Both of the February Moon Days are on a Monday. Neither of my senior teachers have classes that I can attend on that day (unless I snuck out of Teacher M’s class early and RAN to my own class; I’m actually thinking about doing just that!).

I started late this morning because I decided to do some more audio editing (this is way beyond the yoga now, moving into sheer geekery!). I split the short version of the audio for Beryl’s Power Yoga at Setu Bandasana so I could create a playlist that included the 5 Intermediate postures I’m working on (from the audio of the Freeman DVD) sandwiched between Beryl's Primary and the finishing poses. Now they run continuously with no need for me to get up and fuss with the iPod.


Once I got started, I had lots of time and a long, lazy practice. After Primary, I paused the audio and hung over the Ball of Pain for about five minutes, then did my psoas stretches before moving on to my Intermediate poses. Backbends were okay, but not great. Given all the prep I did today, I expected them to be better.

I struggled through the Intermediate section. It’s harder to keep up with someone else’s count. I gave up on binding in Pasasana and really worked the twist instead. If I can get a deep twist going and open the shoulders, the bind will follow. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Now, time for my weekly feature...
The Internet Asks (interesting searches from my access stats)

The keywords were interesting this week. Of course, now that I bought the domain reluctantashtangi dot com, no one is looking for it anymore. Lots of folks are landing here looking for ‘audio Ashtanga’ and I have a lot to say on that topic. ‘Grimmly Ashtanga’ is popping up again too, which is timely since Grim is back to doing an Ashtanga practice again. :-D

lululemon boodiba
Linda probably never imagined that her Lululemon gift card procrastination would come back to haunt her via a keyword search leading to MY website. Bizarre!

yogitoes silver dot
The silver dot was a true mystery to me when I first bought my Yogitoes towel. Since mine was obviously remaindered, I wondered if the dot was covering up something, like another logo. But, nope. The towels have dots and no one seems to know what the dots are for. It’s the aliens, I tell ya!!!!!

astanga practice everyday
January 2010, FTW!