Up to 5 times this week, 5 primary series, and for now, this is the peak, maybe I'll do 6 days but I am so glad to have 2 days off a week.
Something happens with a 5 day practice that simply would never occur. You see most of us think that by doing yoga once or twice a week things will get a little better, and this is the truth, but the actual path of yoga is a journey that continues to unravel, and the message lies in the journey, not the destinations, and following this travel analogy, it may be that we enjoy the view from one part of our journey, but to find and reach our destination we must continue, sometimes uphill, and sometimes downhill, but continue we must, for abandonment means no fulfilment, no dream realised.
And this path of yoga involves pain and discomfort, a form of body modification, much as tattoo or piecing, though the path of yoga is more concerned with internal modifications rather than external visual signs, so for the yogi, change is subtle, personal and internal, but can any practitioner not speak highly of this path?
Yoga is sometimes presented as a spiritual path, but I would disagree with this, on the premise that it does not truly define the use of the word 'spiritual'. For me Ashtanga is a combination that permits increased engagement and awareness within my physical body, allowing an increased energetic flow, creating less physical shutdown, thus improving health and well-being, as if we retract from this, our closest object, our body, how can we engage with anything or anyone?
So, now I can hug, with an open heart and open body... want some?
Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
AN ASHTANGA DIARY 4
Tell me about your practice? What is the worst bit? I'll confess.. For me it is taking the decision to start, to actually clear the floor and unroll my mat.
For there is always something else I need to do, like write a blog, or make a cup of coffee, or look out of the window... You know this feeling?
But this year, thus far in 2010, I have been good and I am practicing, usually 4 times a week. It is a lonely and thankless task to drive myself to the mat each morning, and the rewards, though there are obscured from me. For after a long period of practice, maybe 5 years, progress is subtle and slow, and the rewards of practice are almost obscured by the relative familiarity of my body to me.
For as I practice yoga, the depth of experience, married with a relative flexibility, becomes the norm, and thus it becomes taken for granted, for to engage with the wish to go further, stretch deeper, practice at a higher level, is not contained within my understanding of yoga practice.
But this I do question - what might I feel like, what might my body be had I never taken up the practice of asana? Would I feel entrapped, might I be stiffened and locked? Well, I will never be able to answer that specific question, as all I know is what I am now. But I do think that I have the benefits of a healthy body and system, that is in part due to my daily practices, keeping my inner organs stimulated, and my muscular system activated... It feels good most of the time.
But honestly? What I really dread? A's and B's...
Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
For there is always something else I need to do, like write a blog, or make a cup of coffee, or look out of the window... You know this feeling?
But this year, thus far in 2010, I have been good and I am practicing, usually 4 times a week. It is a lonely and thankless task to drive myself to the mat each morning, and the rewards, though there are obscured from me. For after a long period of practice, maybe 5 years, progress is subtle and slow, and the rewards of practice are almost obscured by the relative familiarity of my body to me.
For as I practice yoga, the depth of experience, married with a relative flexibility, becomes the norm, and thus it becomes taken for granted, for to engage with the wish to go further, stretch deeper, practice at a higher level, is not contained within my understanding of yoga practice.
But this I do question - what might I feel like, what might my body be had I never taken up the practice of asana? Would I feel entrapped, might I be stiffened and locked? Well, I will never be able to answer that specific question, as all I know is what I am now. But I do think that I have the benefits of a healthy body and system, that is in part due to my daily practices, keeping my inner organs stimulated, and my muscular system activated... It feels good most of the time.
But honestly? What I really dread? A's and B's...
Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA