Last Day of NaYoPracMo!

It’s Day 31!  I have a post brewing about the experience of this month, what it all means, what I’ve learned about yoga practice, etc. but I’m saving that for tomorrow!

I would love to hear everyone’s final statistics and thoughts:  how many days you practiced, how many you missed (if any), what you learned (if anything).  Drop me a note in the comments or via email yogagumbo (atsign) gmail (dot) com.

If you managed all 31 days, you’re in the running for a prize!  If we have more prizes than people who practiced every day, then I’ll draw from everyone who participated.  Again, if you’re in the running for a prize, leave a comment or email me!

I’m so, so grateful for all of you and your enthusiasm and support.  Thanks to all of you for helping keep me on the path!

Inspiration

I only have time for a short post today, as we’re headed out of town (see YogaGumbo for more information, but I wanted to leave you with one of my favorite quotes, for inspiration:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us,
it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

– Marianne Williamson

I may not be able to post here for a few days, but in the meantime, keep practicing, keep supporting each other. Only a few more days of NaYoPracMo…I want to think about how to keep this commitment going, maybe in a different form, throughout the year.

Namaste, y’all!

Developing Character

No, I didn’t get confused between NaYoPracMo and NaYoWriMo. Let me explain what I mean by developing character. I am reading a great book called “This Year I Will,” which was recommended to me by Lisa.  It’s about how to make positive change in your life, how to stick to resolutions, like, for example, hhhmmm, let me think — practice yoga every day for a month?  The author, M. J. Ryan points out that when we take on a new goal, we are working not only on achieving that goal but we are also developing greater strength of character in the process:

“What are the character strengths you’ve been cultivating as you work this change?  The capacity to say no to harmful impulses (self-regulation)?  The awareness that you can rely on your own word (self-trust)?  The ability to pick yourself up and begin again, no matter how many times (resilience)?  Determination to succeed?  Humor?  Compassion?  Humility?  Patience?  Forgiveness?  Courage?  All of the above?”

Something to ponder the next time you’re on the mat…or considering not getting on the mat…

In the Home Stretch

Only six days left of official NaYoPracMo… Although so far I haven’t had much trouble squeezing the practices in, I’ll admit I’m finally feeling a little resistance to practicing every day — just a little “do I really want to do this?” nagging feeling in the back of my mind.  It’s funny how the mind will do its best to sabotage positive changes, however small.  The body and the spirit know that yoga every day is absolutely a Good Thing.  The mind, that little weasel, is always trying to find something else to distract itself.  Laundry, television, board games — the mind will suggest many worthy activities, anything but what I know to be the best thing to do.

This is why it’s so essential for yoga to be a matter of habit — so that there’s no internal debate and the weasel can’t talk you out of it!

Living Your Yoga

I’ve heard that phrase many times from yoga teachers.  Often it is said in the context of encouraging you to practice the yamas or niyamas, such as ahimsa (non-harming) or satya (truthfulness).  I’m finding that this month, as I’m practicing yoga every day, that “living my yoga” is quite different from a conscious attempt to cultivate a certain value or virtue.  It’s more that the feelings that arise when I practice are starting to seep over into everyday life.  Since I’ve been practicing consistently, I find that the peace of the mat is starting to linger longer as I go about my day.  (It’s not there 24/7, but it is lasting longer!)  I find myself breathing more deliberately, moving with more awareness.  I’m friendlier with strangers, more patient with my children.  It’s as though I am using my mind and body, in yoga, as an experimental laboratory whose results are played out in daily life.

Has anyone else noticed this?  How are you living your yoga?

The Yoga Mat Cleanliness Act

Good to know your legislators are watching out for us yogis:

Never fear, she’s apparently not a real congresswoman. I got a good laugh out of it, though!

If You Fall Off the Horse…

Get back on tomorrow!

The Storm

The Storm

Now through the white orchard my little dog
romps, breaking the new snow
with wild feet.
Running here running there, excited,
hardly able to stop, he leaps, he spins
until the white snow is written upon
in large, exuberant letters,
a long sentence, expressing
the pleasures of the body in this world.
Oh, I could not have said it better

~ Mary Oliver

I have been thinking lately about joy, fun, and exuberance and how to let my yoga practice express those things as well as expressing dedication and seriousness. I came across this poem and the image of the dog writing the joy of his body in the snow really struck me. I’m going to try to hold that image in my mind as I practice, and see what transpires.

 

More Than Halfway There

We are now past the halfway mark of NaYoPracMo!  I hope everyone is having as much fun as I’m having.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I have to get over the notion of a “good” practice (i.e. a long, sweaty, physically challenging practice) and accept the idea of a “good enough” practice.  I am getting better at putting more focus and attention into a short practice.  And when I have what I might consider an “inferior” (short, lazy, easy, distracted) practice, I’m getting better at letting it go and just moving on.

I’ll admit there’s a part of me that wishes I could do a full 90 minute, heart-pumping, sweat-dripping practice every single day.  But that’s not going to happen right now, so I have to remind myself that some yoga is better than no yoga.

Be Flexible

It’s always amusing to me that the first thing people say when I tell them I practice yoga is “Wow, you must be very flexible.”

Well, yeah, I guess I am flexible. I can place my hands flat on the floor when I touch my toes, and I can do the splits. But flexibility is only one piece of the yoga equation, and possibly an overrated one at that. Plenty of people are flexible, but are they practicing yoga simply by pretzeling themselves into various postures? BKS Iyengar, in his book “Light on Life,” says:

I remember two students who were top ballet dancers. They could achieve every position without encountering resistance or stress, so the journey to the final posture could teach them nothing. It was my job to take them back into the positions and show them how to create mobility with resistance in themselves so that they could work at the point of balance between the known and unknown. When we extend and expand our body consciousness beyond its present limitations, we are working on the frontier of the known toward the unknown by an intelligent expansion of our awareness. Ballet dancers have the opposite problem to most people in that, because of their excessive flexibility, their physical capacity outstrips their intellectual consciousness.

Sure, on my first day of yoga class I could bend forward and touch my forehead to my shins in Paschimottanasana. But I was not “creating mobility with resistance,” or expanding my awareness of my body. I didn’t yet know about how to breathe properly, where to focus my drishti (gaze), the inward rotation of the thighs and upward energy in the belly, etc. It took me a couple of years and the guidance of several teachers before I really understood what it meant to “do” Paschimottanasana, and I still don’t do it with integrity every time; sometimes I regress into just flopping my chest forward onto my legs.

In practicing yoga, you will develop strength, stamina, balance, breath control, core control, focus, concentration…and flexibility. None of these are prerequisites for beginning a yoga practice; people often say to me “I’d like to practice yoga but I’m not flexible enough.” I always tell them that “all you need is a flexible mind.” With time, the rest is coming…