Obstacles & Distractions

It's been quite interesting to watch my mind as I have experienced a large amount of obstacles and distractions the past few weeks. Since living in Asheville (almost a year now) I have had a very consistent, with very small ups and downs, practice that has allowed me to personally experience a lot of the benefits of an asana and meditation practice.

The recent set of distractions/obstacles have been the biggest challenge to my practice since moving here and I look forward to regaining the momentum and daily benefits I was experiencing before.

On July 1st I joined Michael Johnson's 365 yoga/meditation challenge. (So I'm on day 6.) It is certainly a lofty goal but the benefits that come from working towards such an accomplishment are well worth it. I will get back on track when it comes to blogging my experience as well.

So this blog post is more of an outward voice committing to getting back on my asana/meditation feet with a modest, consistent, and growing practice.

द्रष्ट्रदृष्ययोः संयोगो हेयहेतुः - drashtr drshyayoh sanyogo heyahetuh ~ "The cause of our pain can be eliminated by seeing how we see." Yoga Sutra 2.17

Sunday - Day 63 - I did a very light restorative practice that fit within the dentist's guidelines. It was nice to stretch out a bit. Looking forward to getting back to the regularly scheduled program.

Yoga cabin fever???

Day 62 - no asana (not allowed through Tuesday when I go back to dentist...)

Feeling a bit down and discouraged with it all today. Left the Hatha Yoga Pradipika workshop that the lovely Michael and Stephanie Johnson are teaching an hour into it due to feeling uber wonky. Definitely need to stay horizontal. Standing up rocks my world.

Asana today consists of prolonged periods of śavāsana. Ha! No, but really.

Yikes.

Four antidotes for the obstacles to yoga from sutras 1.32-40 of the Yoga Sutra:

1. maitrī – kindness

2. karunā – compassion

3. muditā – joy

4. upekṣā – equanimity

Obstacles.

Day 58 - Tuesday - regular home practice

Day 59-61 - Wednesday-Friday - no physical asana as I have a terrible toothache/infection set in my body that has rocked my world. On strict orders to not intentionally increase my heart rate or tip my body upside down. That plus a lovely cocktail of strong antibiotics and painkillers and I'm down for the count. No asana through next Tuesday I'm afraid.

My asana practice (currently defining as work with the outer body in order to help produce happiness in the inner body) has consisted of doing my best to keep good food in my belly so I don't get sick from the meds as well as doing my best to drink plenty of water as my immune system could use the extra help.

Surprisingly, I don't feel as though I have lost my momentum. I just feel like it has shifted momentarily and I rejoice in this growth. I will continue to count the days, as obstacles are also a part of the journey.

My "ritual" meditation practice has also been on hiatus as sitting peacefully and closing my eyes with awful pain pretty much seems to be a one way ticket to the loony bin. So instead, I've been watching my mind go in and out of fight or flight mode and doing my best to bring it back to the present moment and attempting to be content with the moment at hand.

I'm doing my best to fight the lovely mental afflictions that arise in me when my body is in freak out mode. It's quite interesting to watch especially as I learn more about the brain, instincts, etc. My body really wants absolutely nothing to do with being in pain and it's fun to watch the great lengths my mind will go through to try to get out of the pain as soon as possible.

May any obstacles you experience be as informative for you as this one is for me!

Pro. Gress.

Day 57 - Jivamukti at AYC with Michael

I hadn't been to that class in a long time and was a bit worried that I was going to die as I remember it being a whole lot harder than it was tonight. Perhaps I'm learning to use my energy more efficiently?? Noticing progress is a beautiful thing.

May you notice progress in your endeavors this evening.

Blog ketchup!

Day 54 - (Friday) light practice. Super tired from the week.

Day 55 - (Saturday) another light practice. Light practices consist of 5-10 sun salutation A, B, and Cs followed by an inversion and shavasana.

Day 56 - (today!) full home practice.

I have been doing Prana Vayu Vinyasa (push ups) and Samana Vayu Vinyasa (sit ups) every day though. I'm starting to notice slow improvement over time. And I feel like I'm stronger from my core out.

I have much gratitude today for being inspired by people that I surround myself by. I imagine many people go through life without being inspired by others and I wish I could help change that. Inspiration carries me when I am not motivated for myself.

Here's to taking a moment to be thankful for those in our lives who inspire us!

Triangles.

Day 53 - Jivamukti with Michael at West Asheville Yoga.

Triangle pose (trikonasana (may have butchered the spelling...) used to be an asana I despised and I seem to like it a lot lately. Here's to realizing that every thing I dislike or could definitely do without is just as capable as changing as triangle pose.

Day 52 - light practice. I meant to go to Joe's Anusara class but as I was driving I realized I forgot my money. Oops!

Light practice and early to bed.

Strap.

Day 51 - Yin/Restorative with Michael at Lighten Up Yoga.

I think one of the goals of happiness and wellness is to find the happy medium between yin and yang in our overall lives and all the little details in it. Those that find the middle area and know how to balance seem to have found the most efficient use of their energy, (physical, mental, etc.) Here's to working on finding that balance.

PS. Yoga straps are where its at.

day 50 - very light restorative practice.

You?

By the way, happy day 50!

Paint.

Day 49 - home practice in the morning.

I spent 26 of the last 48 hours painting. I'm physically exhausted. At this point, I think that tomorrow morning will consist of no physical asana, and I'll instead do a light, restorative practice in the evening and then get back to the normal home flow practice Tuesday.

I am thankful for the amazingly abundant amount of generous people I have the fortune to interact with daily.

DAY 48 - home practice in the morning.

Don't have much else to say as I am happily exhausted.

The judge.

Day 47 - very light practice. mainly inversions.

I had an unplanned late evening last night and an already planned long day/evening today. It seemed like the most compassionate thing I could do was take it easy and use that time for sleep. The real practice on days like this is to do my best not to beat myself up for not staying 100% consistent.

I'm finding that as I get better at not lecturing myself about inconsistent days that the inconsistent days are smaller and smaller obstacles. It seems as though berating myself was (and still is) the majority of the obstacle of inconsistency. Getting past that part seems to automatically allow for a nice and gentle transition back into consistency without losing much, if any, momentum.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is a beautiful book with a lot of commentary on the part of ourselves that kicks our own ass daily, repeatedly, and not always in ways we're aware of. He calls it the judge. And my own judge is damn loud. We have very intense battles and I just do my best to take away its weapons one at a time.

Fire.

I heard a beautiful teacher say once "yoga is like fire. It can help you cook food, heat your house, etc. or it can burn your house down."

I have spent a lot of time burning my house down with my yoga practice (figuratively speaking of course...) and lately I feel as though I have the resources and knowledge to cook, heat, and use yoga as a beautiful tool.

I have spent a lot of time feeling helpless and that I'll never have a yoga practice that doesn't hurt me. Out of the kindness of two teachers I have been given the tools, and continue to receive updates and add ons that are necessary for me to have a quality, flourishing practice that changes my world on the mat and off in quite large ways.

These two teachers have taught me the workings of my body, etc but more than that when they look at me, teach me, they don't see a finicky body, stuck in pain. They see a changing, morphing, limitless potential that could use some tools on her trip.

The person they see when they look at me is a holistic perfection that isn't rooted in an idea called Stacy. They see a ripple effect. They see the potential to change the world.

They make me believe that yoga in its true essence is not only possible, but potentially around me all the time.

They're Teachers.

Day 46 - Jivamukti with Michael at West Asheville Yoga and a mini home practice in the morning.

Mornin?!

Day 45 - home practice. Still trying to figure out my schedule as I have to be at work at 7:30. Having the time to get in a substantial asana practice AND a substantial meditation practice seems to be an unrealistic goal at this point in my world. Perhaps a good one to work up to but it's not where I'm at right now.

I'm considering picking a wake time (like 5:30) and every week waking up 5 minutes earlier than the past week. This kind of strategy (picking a time and edging it up little by little) has been a very successful practice for my meditation and I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work with waking up.

Who knows. I'm fairly stuck for ideas at the moment.

Day 44 - home practice. Got up at 5:30 and was practicing by 5:50. Asana is a totally different ball game in the morning than in the evening at least for me. Does anyone else notice this?

I definitely prefer to practice in the evening but 6am yoga got me in the "nothing to it but to do it" mindset and I do my best to practice joyfully that early. Tough business but I feel great the rest of the day so it definitely is worth it.

Fuzz

Day 43 - home practice. Same flow as I've been doing. I've decided that my plan is to do the same flow on the days where I do purely a home practice but on the days that I go to a class I'll do 2 sun salutation As and 3 sun salutation Bs to stay in the habit of practicing in the morning.

Here is a good video on why we would want to practice in the mornings. It's unfortunate that it's labeled specifically for yogis. I think most people that would identify themselves as yogis already know and benefit from this information. Its those that tend not to that could benefit from the info the most I think.

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/03/the-video-every-yogi-needs-to-see/

Art

Day 42! Tibetan Heart Yoga with Michael at West Asheville Yoga.

I remember in a class with Joe Taft once he was talking about making yoga your art. That whatever you do on your mat could be your art. He defined art in a very brilliant and poetic way. To summarize (and definitely not as beautiful as he put it) he defined art as being something that by you shining your own light on something so purely that you automatically encourage and help someone else to shine their own light. He said that by practicing your own art you help others' practice theirs.

This sure does seem to be the case with music. I imagine other art forms would agree.

Somehow I remember this quote from Joe at seemingly random moments but I have yet to remember it while on the mat. Perhaps by writing it here I will be more likely to remember to make asana the beautiful dance it can be.

Dedication/Purpose

Yoga Sutra 1.22 mrdu madhya adhimatratvat tato'pi visheshah ~ "The measure of our success depends on whether our dedication is feeble, medium or intense." - MJ

mrdu - feeble

madhya - medium

adhimatratvat - intense

This blog will be dedicated to joyfully working towards intense compassion for all beings including one's future self and having the art of asana and meditation be a daily vehicle for strengthening one's practice.

Please comment/post and share your practice and experiences as we move past day 40!

For example, today (day 41) I practiced the same flow I did Friday morning when Michael let us do our own thing. I find it interesting and certainly challenging that Friday the sequence I chose resonated with me big time and today it was a chore. I think I will try to stick with the same sequence for my home practice for a bit as a routine can be a helpful thing.

What about you?