Day 252

Great practice this morning. After days of sleep deprivation, I finally got a good, long night of sleep. I woke refreshed, but not ready to do yoga, so I didn't. Instead, I ate breakfast, cleaned the apartment and ran errands. I finally hit the mat around lunchtime and had an amazing practice.

I know this won't be news to most people who read this blog, but vinyasa is breath-synchronized movement.

So today, I synchronized my breath with my movement. I know this sounds very simple, but it's not - for me, at least. I tend to get caught up in everything that is not breath. Like what the dog is doing or the state of my cuticles or the speck of lint on my Mysore rug or the bird that just flew by past my window.

When I finally get around to checking back in, I realise that five minutes has gone by with me sitting there, on my mat, not doing yoga. The DVDs help me focus, but I”ll admit that they're a crutch.

One thing I really liked about the Darby DVD I used yesterday was its emphasis on what the body is doing on each breath (I understand that Sharath's CD is even richer in this regard and I have it on order...). I didn't use a DVD today. Instead, I challenged myself to do the entire practice, start to finish, focusing on linking every single movement with breath, including all the transitions and those little in-between parts. No stopping, except for holds (for five breaths!)

It was difficult. In fact, it was so difficult that I had to take a few little breaks from being so deeply focused. Because my brain was tired.

As I'm getting better at the Primary Series, I'm finding that motivating my tired, distracted little brain is the greatest challenge, the final frontier. I can do this whole thing from start to finish. I can do the poses. But can I do them while linking every single movement with breath, engaging my bandhas and not thinking about what's for lunch?