Heather - Days Forty-four thru Fifty-four

I feel like it has been an eon since I wrote here. But I looked back and my last entry wasn't even two weeks ago. That is still too long to go, but not as bad as I thought...considering....

I have just spent the last two weeks working sixty hours, barely seeing my home except to sleep on four of the seven days, trying to work on my relationship, and get at least six hours of sleep a night with varying degrees of success. I am frankly exhausted. I have been practicing - Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Yin, but not daily. In some ways I feel like a failure to this blog. But the truth is I took on this challenge in order to deepen my practice of yoga and develop a stronger understanding of my life and body and mind so that I could create a better balance of work, spiritual endeavor, and human relationships. Unfortunately, my first two months have been more about watching how out of balance my life really is - ironically. I obviously spend A LOT of time working. Sixty hours is way too much, but I have been working about 45 minimum for much too long and without a regular weekly day off - ever. The days I get off are the ones I take off to go somewhere or do other things like yoga workshops, visit family, etc. And much of the rest of my time is spent one of three ways:
1. With my boyfriend (yay!), but even he is so busy we have to schedule ahead to make a date - and it is a weekly commitment that we have set up together.
2. traveling between jobs, home, practice, the boyfriend's
3. sleeping.
I rarely see my friends anymore, I am not able to get in a daily practice because I am so exhausted so often, and I don't have ANY time to grocery shop or cook so that I can eat foods that fill me with energy and nourishment. I want to emphasize that I am not whining here. I am just coming to realize that my life is not going the exact direction I need and want it to. And before I was just trying to get through on a daily basis, making schedules that I was too exhausted to follow through on and not knowing exactly what to do to fix anything and feeling a little lost. But this past week has been some revelations for me. I had a meeting with the owner of my yoga studio where I teach and work and we came to the conclusion that working the desk may not be supporting my teaching and practicing. So I am going to step down in November, increase my hours at Starbucks, and practice more, teach more and have a real day off each week. I am nervous and excited. The money is good right now. But in my heart, it isn't worth the sacrifices I am having to make.

Another exciting endeavor is a workshop I am taking with Kate O'Donnell, my Ashtanga teacher. She has been working with and studying Ayurveda for quite some time and has graciously set up a fall and spring workshop series to offer guidance on all things yogic that aren't covered deeply in an asana class including an organized cleanse. It started this morning and we were set up with learning neti and nasya, toungue scraping, some simple hatha yoga, and nodi sodana. We discussed, lightly, doshas, and food. This week is the prep week of cutting out or at least down things like meat, dairy, caffeine, refined sugars and flours. The cleanse is the 9-day Kichiri cleanse. She is asking that we decide if we can do 9 days or make a decision in advance of how many days (4 being a minimum) that we can commit to. I look forward to this month and the journey within the journey I am taking. This month will not only be about cleansing the body, but about cleansing my life and clearing it of the obstacles that stand in the way of health and happiness. What a life!!!


So, as hard as this is for me to say, maybe the initial rules that I set for myself need to be thrown out. This is indeed 365 days of yoga, but not 365 days of asana. Maybe it will become 10 months of asana or 9 or six or two, but I can promise that I am putting yoga into practice everyday whether it is the added patience in a difficult personal encounter, a period of seated meditation, a yoga class or self-practice or some time for personal reflection and evaluation.

Wishing you hapPiness and metta from a little dot in the universe called Boston,
Heather

Rob - Day 37: Yin

Well, I actually woke up in plenty of time for Led Primary this morning. But something just wasn't right. I was tired, but not groggy tired. I could really feel it in my body that it was stretched thin. I've been busy busy busy and my body was telling me to chill out. This could only mean on thing - YIN!

I rolled out the mat at home for the first time in a little while for some AM Yin. I popped on a Dharma talk by Rodney Smith about mindfulness of the body and proceeded to practice for about an hour. Afterward I did a relatively short sit (About 20 mins) but dropped in really deep! My mind felt very calm and still.

I'm super glad I opted for Yin today. I can definitely tell that I've had an excess of Yang going on today and I needed to balance it out. I've been neglecting the calmer side of my practice quite a bit so I think I need to renew my efforts on that end.

Not too much to report otherwise other that I'm feeling really balanced and calm. I'm a little concerned about when I'm going to practice this weekend as I have a LOT going on. I guess that's an issue for another time though...

Rob - Rest Day: On Music And Life

So throughout this process I've yet to do any great deal of reflection on how this practice affects my outside life. I guess it's been enough of a change just delving so deep into my practice. Well yesterday, after my generally wonky practice, I got reminded just why I'm doing this. Well, at least one of the many reasons.

I haven't really mentioned much about it but at this point my life is focused into two main areas, yoga and music. Whenever I'm not busy doing yoga related activities there's a 90% chance I'm doing a music related activity. My day job is as Head of Publicity at a music promotions company. I own a small business that does recording/production and also sells recorded music and publishing. On top of that I play bass in a band and compose my own music. I play (in approximate order of proficiency) bass, drums, guitar, piano and voice. I also live in a house with five other musicians. So as you can see music is a HUGE part of my life.

But back to relating this to yoga. Since I first started practicing years ago I noticed the profound affect that my yoga had on my music. I noticed that my instrumental skills increased technically and that I would be suddenly infused with new ideas. I also found a direct parallel between the discipline of yoga practice and the discipline of practicing an instrument. In both cases the more you give the more you get back (to a point of course). To top this off, the confidence and ease that I've learned from yoga has all but eliminated my once immense stage anxiety. I used to tense up horribly on stage but now I let loose and have SO Much fun!

At first I wasn't really sure why all this, but after a few years I think I've gained some insights as to why. Music really is a form of meditation. Years before I became "spiritual" I can recall getting absorbed in my music, coming into incredible flow states. Time seemed to disappear as I connected with my instrument and just let the sounds come out. Since then, as I've learned the incredible focus of yoga and meditation my musical abilities have exploded. The flow state has become a regular occurrence.

So to come back to yesterday, a common passtime in my house is to have open jams in our basement. This is great because most of us play more than one instrument so it gives us a chance to switch it up and play different things. Last night I sat down on the piano (not my main instrument) and JUST PLAYED. Normally I'm a bit hesitant and uncertain, but yesterday my fingers just knew where to go. I made up great chord progressions and melody lines. Most importantly I just let it go. It was wonderful.

After some time my little brother (who lives with me) got tired of playing drums and stepped down. I enthusiastically took his place (drums are my favorite instrument to play). Now if ever there was an instrument that yoga is made to help it's drums. Since starting this project my skills on the drum kit have gotten infinitely better. It really makes sense if you think about it. Asana is all about isolating different parts of your body and making them do independent things in support of each other. Playing drums is just the same! As on the keys I just let it go on the drums. And it was wonderful!

Since starting this practice project I've noticed more and more times like these. Even if I'm not spending as much time practicing my music somehow my time spent practicing yoga compensates for it. It's a strange but incredible correlation.

To summarize and tie this all together, yoga will take whatever you're passionate about it life and help you realize it to its fullest potential. For me this is music. In India music is traditionally taught in the same Guru-Disciple paradigm as yoga is traditionally taught. When a student takes up an instrument it is a life's devotion and is immensely spiritual. Lately I've come to see the logic to this parallel and have been approaching my music, yoga and life as a spiritual devotion.

I think that I will continue to expound on this music parallel as the year goes on. It certainly seems relevant and is absolutely important to me.

Wishing you all happiness and good fortune!