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?