Health & Fitness

I started renewing my oaths when I had difficulties to bind in pashasana this morning. I was glad that M adjusted me on the right side at least. He must have seen me struggling with this pose. Monday is difficult usually these days. The led class is on Saturday afternoon. Then I have dinner with E, and sometimes too much food and wine. One night is only  between two practices. My body feels this.
Just do it, I told me. I focused on my breath.
To do the headstands after the 5 poses of the second series is so much better. It allows me to do urdhva dhanurasana without feeling resistance of the body and the mind.
I had not the courage to drop back from one of the headstands. I’ll work on this tomorrow.

My body feels excellent right now. The effort was again worth doing.

I plan my home session: 
I think I’ll focus on Advanced A only. Shall it be a more relaxed practice.
Repetition might be good. I’m not able to hold the poses for a long time. Repetition and focusing on the breathing might help.
I’ll do preparation asanas. When I start third series after the standing sequence I’ll be still fit. To have more energy might help, too.
When I practice third series after second series I reach my limits.

At a certain point of the Ashtanga yoga practice one has to be creative, because it makes sense. One has to find poses that can be considered as steps towards a pose. Sometimes also the order or the asanas needs to be changed. I’m happy that M has such insights and a lot of ideas.

My practice in Mysore classes:
- I don’t do the standing asanas.
- After supta urdhva pada vajrasana I exercise the 5 poses of the third series.
- Then I do the handstands, the last asanas of second series.
- M recommended me to add another pose. It’s to do mukta hasta sirsasana A and to go from the backwards, so that the feet will be behind the head on the floor. This shall open the upper back.
- Then I exercise urdhva dhanurasana with all the variations that I usually do. I lift me up from the floor. I cross my arms in front of my chest and bend back and come up three times to get into the correct breathing. Then I drop back against the wall till I feel open enough for dropping back on my mat. Then I usually get an adjustment.

Why all this?
After the 5 asanas of the third series it was almost impossible for me to bend backwards. The asanas of third  (leg behind head in different poses) didn’t prepare back bending, exactly the opposite was the case.
That I drop back from mukta hasta sirsasana A is also good. This can take away my fear when I practice pincha mayurasana. I still need the wall.

This is the program for the next months.

Currently I’m reading a rather interesting yoga book: “The Science of Yoga” by William J. Broad. A fellow yogini gave it to me.

Today is my yoga free day.
Happy weekend.

When practicing yoga we exercise the body and the mind. The mind has the task to concentrate on the breath, i.e.. It can also be anything else. One learns to expand the time of concentration.

In classes it’s easier to work focused. Easier, not easy. When I see yoginis walking around, talking to others, cleaning the feet, adjusting the hair more often than necessary or the clothes, I know concentration is gone, momentum is lost. The flow is interrupted.

At home it’s even more challenging to focus. I worked on my concentration. It’s absolutely doable for me now to practice till after the standing sequence. Then I often feel as if I need a rest. It’s not that the body is exhausted, it’s the mind that is distracted. Thoughts come up. Ideas come up, what I could do. It’s as if I need a break, but I know I don’t need it, I’d be able to go on.

Also concentration can be learned in moderate steps. I built up the time of concentration. First I set the goal to practice the sun salutations without interruption. Then I added the standing sequence, first with the help of Sharath’s CD. It’s possible to add one asana after the other before taking a mental break.

Concentration has 2 aspects:
- What’s my object of concentration
- How long can I concentrate.

The outer and inner circumstances influence this ability. For me it’s easier to concentrate in a crowded room than at home. My inner life, my soul life is rather balanced for the time being. There are not so many disturbances from here. Of course life events might add a challenge to the practice. But this is the reason why we exercise. Exercising yoga teaches us in general how to focus on things we like to focus and not to be distracted by everything.

I had a focused practice yesterday at home. It was primary with some extras, like forward split. At the end my body and my mind became tired.

The advantages when being able to focus:
- Things get done.
- One has more time.
- It can make life easier as one is able to focus on the bright side of life.
- Being able to concentrate speeds up learning.
- Not taking breaks during a yoga practice keeps my body warm and this allows me to go deeper into the asanas.