Getting back in the saddle....or on the mat...

The past 9 months or so have not been a smooth ride. Who am I kidding, there were some serious bumps in the road and some heavy clouds in the sky.

This would be a great moment to bring up Karma and how I always was convinced that things would work out -- well, I would be lying. I tried, as I always do, to look at all the hurdles I was faced with and rationalise that it would be OK.... but my body started to send out different signals. I can confirm that being faced with a situation that has a huge negative impact on me but where I am not in the drivers seat really stresses me out - the yogi way of acceptance... not my cup of tea.

Now that the sky is clearing and the first rays of the sun come down, I'm ready to pick up yoga again.
Over the past months, I didn't practice a lot and defenitely not regularly.
I started doing cardio training on the crosstrainer while listening to pumping rave music - it felt great. 30 minutes me-time, sweating, enjoying the beats.... was that OK for a yogi? Or, was I still a yogi?

I did miss doing yoga. So I started wondering, how do I get back on my yoga mat.
I remembered a tip that my prana yoga flow teacher once gave me. He said that he would never ask his students to do x asanas or spend y time doing yoga -- he just invited them to do one thing every day: roll out your yoga mat, stand on it and take 3 deep breaths. Than, you are free to stop.

In reality, I never stop after the 3 breaths - I find myself doing a sun salutation quickly after that and than start doing some asana's - not a real flow yet, but asana's I feel like doing.

I'm focussing a lot on hip openers now - pigeon pose, lizard, happy baby, squat..... I figured that I need to loosen my hips again to be able to do my bends properly,  with a straight back. In the asana's that I do, I really focus on keeping my back straight....

My plan now is to do cardio training 3 days per week - I turned 40 last year and suddenly my weight started a life of its own.... I need to burn calories..... seriously. Then, 3 days that I want to focus on yoga asana's again..... and 1 day of rest (and I don't mean spending hours in savasana ;-) ).
Sounds OK?

Yipee ki-yay namaste -- 40-day challenge completed!

Yipee ki-yay namaste -- 40-day challenge completed!

When I started my routine of daily asana's on December 25th 2012, I was really curious if I would make it and what it would do to me.

So here's the recap:

• I enjoyed the daily "moment for myself" on the mat -- the me-time, even if it was just 20 minutes was great. It freed my mind and generally left me with a good feeling after practice.
• Daily practice improved my alignment and my postures in general. I've spent more time deep diving in the sensations of the postures - where do I feel what, and is that good or is that my body saying "You're doing it wrong buddy!". Still, I have a long way to go when it comes to flexibility -- need to improve on loosening my hips and keeping my back straight. The road ahead might be long, but the first steps have been set.
• Integrating daily asana's into your life is achievable - you need to agree with yourself that it doesn't have to be a full hours of practice but a balanced routine of 20 minutes is OK as well. There are 24 hours in a day and you need to choose wisely where you want to spend them on. 20 minutes a day never was a problem for me, in a lot of cases I easily practiced 30 - 40 minutes.
• Being well equiped certainly helps -- comfy clothing that makes you feel yogi-like is step one. Having a good mat is a defenite benefit. Keeping the mat open on the floor all day is an invitation to step on it and start practising - simple as that.
• The first 2 days of a Saturday of practising 5 hours are really really hard -- All my muscles were sore so I kept it very light and relaxing. I don't know what I will do next time when I have the "5-hours-Saturday", I'll just listen to my body and let it decide over the mind.
• Mentally, you go through an amazing change..... who am I kidding..... never expect that 40 days of doing some daily asana's will change your life instantly --  What it did is have me think more about life, about yoga values, about yoga in general as a way of living. At this stage, I'm glad to have integrated daily asana's in my life. As for the first 2 limbs of yoga, I don't see any changes in myself versus the start of my 40-D-C, not even since the start of my teacher training. And to be honest, that was not the purpose for me either - I'm quite happy with myself, not saying that there is no room for change (I don't want to call it improvement, as that would mean it's not good now, so that would leave me dissatisfied with myself....) but if change will happen it will happen gradually and slowly. Evolution over revolution....

I'm glad that I managed to incorporate daily yoga practise into my life, and that I am reading more about it in general. The reason why I started this challenge, is because of an article in a yoga magazine -- according to that article, this daily practising should now be integrated into my life..... let's wait and see if they were right.

A small victory

Day 17 of the online challenge - day 23 of my own 40-day challenge.

Fact: I'm feeling great about daily yoga, and although only half way my challenge, I feel the urge to get on the mat and start doing asana's.

Fact: I've seen my routine growing over time. The first few days, I always did 3 variants of sun salutation (A, A1- with mini vanyasa and B) and the first 4 - 5 asana's of the complete Prana Yoga Flow. Took me about 10 - 15 minutes - but I know from the past that starting something new to vigorously always backfired at some point. I've seen it happen when I picked up running - skipped the first weeks of the start to run program and got injured quite quickly as my muscles just weren't used to the exercise. I also noticed it this summer when on holiday -- there was daily beach volley and although I have only played volleybal at school, I thought it would be a good idea to join all the youngsters for an hour every day. My wife always warns me that I only seem to have two settings when it comes to sports, full on or off - and I agree, if I participate in sports, I always give it 110% - no guts, no glory - no fear - but alas, my body is not always aligned with my mindset. I had to stop playing beach volley after 5 days as I was no longer able to completely stretch my right arm and my elbow was getting quite swollen. Still, it wasn't as bad as 5 years ago when I joined football instead of volleyball during the holiday week, and ended up in the emergency room with 2 swollen elbows and a bruised shin. Guess I'll never learn.

Back to the subject - and the fact that I have learned from the past - good for me. So I gradually moved from the 10 - 15 minute daily routine to a 20 minute routine, as described in the prana yoga flow book that I have. 3 sun salutations and 12 asana's -- good thing is that this mini flow is more complete as it has everything: twists, back bends, forward bends,.... it is all in there.

And now the last few days I do a 40 minute flow - not every day, but when I can make the time - 4 sun salutations and 21 asana's. It gets me a bit more sweaty, but I never want to skip any asana's 'just to get it over with'.

I practice in my living room - in front of a big window that actually works a bit like a mirror when it is getting dark and the shutters are closed. The "mirror" really helps me to correct my poses which is a good thing for a rookie like me.

And finally, I succeeded yesterday for the first time to maintain the shoulder pressure pose for a full 5 breaths -- a small victory (I here Faith No More in my head now.....)!!!