Rob - Day 18: Yin

So it's labor day weekend and was feeling quite ready for the impending break. I slept in fairly late and putzed around for a while. Then I remembered my rewarding experience yesterday so I reluctantly dragged myself to the mat knowing that by the time I was done that I would feel much better.

Pretty typical practice really. Lately I've been trying to focus on my hamstrings alot in my Yin practice to support my Ashtanga practice. I'm hoping that the repeated attention will help me in all those forward fold and especially Supta Kurmasana, which is currently the last pose in my practice and a truly POOR execution thereof if I do say so myself. So I've been trying to do Supta Padangusthasana with a strap every time I do Yin and sometimes before I go to bed too. There's already been palpable effects in my practice and even in my daily life. Just walking around I can feel my legs as being straighter and more limber. Awesome!

I found these slightly distasteful yet very amusing examples of "Drunk Yoga" online so I'll leave you with this for the day:
PS: Those of you in the know will recognize Natasha Rizopoulos from the picture on the left. I start my Teacher Training with her in just a week. YEEEEEEES!

Rob - Day 3: Mysore(? Heck yes I am!)

This morning was rough!

This blog is definitely the only reason that I actually made it this morning. Under regular circumstances I would have turned off my alarm and gone RIGHT back to sleep. I guess that means that the commitment is doing it's job though.

I really can't express how groggy I was this morning. I felt kinda like a zombie wandering around in search of brains. I hit the cushion for ten mins of "metta" practice. I think describing it as such is a bit of a misnomer though. It was more like:

"may I be safe. May I be happy. May I...ooooh I have to do blah blah later...oh yeah...metta...why am I doing metta? Why am I up? This is lame...FOCUS ROB...okaaaaaaay...May I be healthy..."

So by the end of the 10 mins I decided that attempting to do some vipassana would result in me sleeping sitting up and that would not be advisable. Instead I opted to try some walking in my living/dining room. I'd actually never done that at home, only on retreat. If you can imagine this only extended the Zombie like feelings as I crept slowly back and forth.

But yes, I wasn't going to stop there. I made it all the way to the studio for my morning Mysore practice. This is really the sorest and most tired I've felt on the mat in a LONG time. I guess it's just the karma for my shoddy few weeks catching up with me. My hamstrings were super sore and definitely tighter than yesterday. This is odd cause normally they progressively open more with each successive practice. I felt like I weighed a million pounds and each jumpback was quite an undertaking. By the end I copped out and stopped at Navasana. (My current practice stops at Supta Kurmasana)

I definitely fell asleep in Savasana. That's okay though. I think it gave all the PranaQi a chance to properly circulate cause as I'm writing this I feel like I've got my mojo back.

I'm pretty darn glad that tomorrow is a New Moon. As per the commitment I'll still practice, but as per Ashtanga tradition I'll hold of on vinyasa. I'm think maybe some lazy Yin/Restorative will suit me just right.

Check in tomorrow to find out exactly what happens!

Heather - Introduction and Day One

Hello Curiosity seekers, fellow yogis, friends, Romans, and countrymen (he-hem women too) alike!

I am Heather: An opera singer, yoga and meditation teacher, Starbucks barista, yoga studio supervisor, and avid reader (The Wheel of Time is rockin' my world!!!). While teaching Yin Yoga on Sunday night, I got an inspiration to begin this 365 day commitment to my own yoga practice. Two years ago I walked into a beautiful little yoga studio in the heart of Red Sox country and walked into the next chapter of my life. I took my first yoga class and was hooked. So within a month I started a daily Mysore practice, and enhanced it with splashes of Vinyasa, Forrest, Restorative, and a weekly Yin Yoga practice. I lost fifty three pounds, got healthier, happier, and more ability to create the life I had always wanted - still a work in progress of course! But, over the last few months, my work has changed, I was in an opera with a lot of late nights, took a meditation retreat that had me reeling, got a boyfriend who is NOT a morning person, and I started teaching three classes a week. So, now, my life needs a new form of balance and my yoga practice somehow became a near fatality in the fray. I picked up a book recently: "Meditations from the Mat" by Rolf Gates which has 365 reflections on yoga - by way of the yoga sutras of Patanjali and the eight limbs of yoga. I have chosen that as my daily inspirational reading along my journey. While teaching my Monday class after a truly delicious Vinyasa class with Nicoline Valkenberg, I was inspired to ask one of my sangha members and ex-co-workers to join me in my yoga endeavor. He was taking my class so, he was set to start right along with me. He said yes. AND, he and I will be sharing the blog spotlight - so to speak.
Now. What do I hope to accomplish with this practice and/or with this blog???? Good question. Everything and nothing. Yoga is union. I hope to reunite with my daily practice which has given me such a solid foundation of health and joy in the past. I hope to inspire others to join me even if it is only for a week or a month or 108 days or some other meaningful number. I hope to discover the truth of the selfless divine that unites every sentient being in the universe - even if only to touch it for just a moment. Am I nervous? Mmmmm, yeah, maybe a little. I hope I can live up to my own goals and ideals. Am I excited? Hell yeah!!!! I freakin' LOVE yoga dude! So, with that in mind, I am not going to set up the structure of how this blog will go right now. I want to see it evolve as Rob and I do.


WishiNg you happiness and metta from a little dot in the universe called Boston,
Heather


PS. Anything that makes this blog look cool is TOTALLY 100% Rob's doing. If I even THINK about doing something more than checking email and using iTunes on my computer I practically have an anxiety attack! It's true, just ask my boyfriend how I reacted to trying to get iChat set up on my computer with him talking me through it step by step. I almost started crying at one point, didn't I, George? =P