Reformed Ashtangi

I can see ashtanga yoga becoming a big priority now that I have the time to practice. Doing less hours of work has meant that I can really throw myself into it and do at least an hour almost every day that Dale is at work. If I can commit to practicing for an hour five days a week, my vinyasas (sequence of synchronised postures, breathing, and movement) will improve greatly.

Even though I haven’t needed asthma medication for years, I’m really noticing the lowered lung capacity I’ve ended up with since the last time I practiced. I need to work on my ujjayi (controlled breathing) a lot. Short breaths mean I finish quickly; I have to count to keep them long, which distracts me from my point of gaze, or ‘drishti’, which is crucial to completing the postures correctly.

I have also significantly diminished upper body strength - particularly in my shoulders and wrists - so every day in May I will challenge myself to do tolasana every day until I can get elevation for the full ten breaths. During the primary series, yogis do tolasana for ten breaths three times - I can currently manage it once for three breaths! Not good!

I miss how much better my concentration span and general strength and endurance levels were when I was practicing yoga when I was younger. I’m excited to get there again. I’m impatient and stubborn with my body. This is my fourth week back into guided practice and I don’t expect results overnight, but I hate waiting.

I keep re-watching this video of Kino MacGregor talking about the promise of ashtanga practice, and about why we need to be patient. It needs to sink in:

“There’s a certain lesson that each posture, each movement, really contains; and the yoga practice makes a promise to you: you won’t be allowed to move on from your lesson until you really get it.”

GOALS.