When is the best time to practice? (Part 1)

Establishing a regular yoga practice can be rather challenging for anyone...and not just for people who are new to yoga, although they are overwhelmed with the postures, the language, the philosophy and the history behind the practice of yoga.  Even "seasoned" yogis can have a hard time committing to a practice.  I recognize that I am in a very busy time of the year in my regular career (why must the end of the school year always be so crazy?!?), but I am finding it unusually difficult to get myself onto my mat.  There is the time factor, and there's also the motivation factor (who has energy at the end of a dizzyingly busy day - and who has the energy to squeeze in a practice before you get to work?).

It's the ultimate irony that when you need yoga the most, it seems so elusive!  You begin to fall into a pattern:  "well, I didn't get to it this week, but next week will be less busy, so I'll get to it then".  These patterns don't help - they ultimately become patterns of avoidance, and the time between yoga sessions will get longer and longer.  The stress will be building and building, and the insecurities will set in: "It's been so long since I've practiced.  I just don't know if I'll remember how to do anything..."

The beauty of yoga is that you can do it at anytime.  All that's required is a little mindfulness.  Most people forget that yoga is not just the asana postures you see above.  Asana is just one eighth of "YOGA", and even that can be done anywhere - it doesn't require a mat or acrobatics.  Solely limiting yourself to asana is limiting your yoga practice.  Once you open yourself to the realization that yoga is not a physical exercise, not just a "workout", you can see that it's a body-mind-spirit experience, and you can do it at any time.

If you're like most people, you tend to focus on asana, so we can start there in my next post ("When is the best time to practice?  Part 2"), but keep your mind open to the possibility that just sitting quietly for thirty seconds and listening to the sounds around you while you focus on your breath is "yoga".  I can almost guarantee that you will feel more calm and focused, perhaps even energized for the next item on your agenda.  Thirty seconds, that's it.  Try it right now... slide your hand off of the mouse, hold your hands in your lap, and just breathe.  If your mind is so fidgety, bring your attention to your breath by counting how many breaths you take during those thirty seconds - that's a start, and it's a start to your yoga practice.

Did it work?  Do you feel a little more calm?  Thirty seconds is all it took...Next time you can expand your practice to 45 seconds.  You can even do that while you're waiting at the next traffic light!

Namaste.

As I was driving to a yoga class this morning, I passed my time on the highway by thinking about how busy I have been and how long it has been since I blogged.  I knew it was (finally) Friday, and I knew that I have been crazy busy all week, but it dawned on me that if I tried to explain to someone just *how* busy it has been, I couldn't remember a single thing I have done all week!  I would have to pull out my phone, look at my calendar, and then recount how I had some bit of busy-ness every single day (and how nerdy would that be?).  I have just been living day-to-day, focusing on the day's tasks, responsibilities, and events, not trying to think too hard about what the next day would hold.  True "yogic" philosophy - be here now, endure the present, live in the moment.  But because I wasn't doing this fully, I couldn't remember where I had been.  I woke up on Monday morning, knowing it would be a busy week, and now, here I was, on my way to a 6am yoga class on Friday.  And it's still not done.  Saturday has me involved in 5 different things.  I actually have it planned into my calendar for tonight that I have to "plan Saturday".

Why does life get like this?  And can yoga help?  Simply put, "I don't really know why" and "Thankfully, YES."  Maybe life gets busy because we have a hard time saying "no".  Some people have a hard time sitting still and "being".  We like "doing".  But Diann used to remind us frequently that we are "Human Beings", not "Humans Doing".  This morning, I brought myself to the mat because I so rarely get to practice with Marguerite, and I made a commitment to myself last Saturday that I would make it to her 6am Friday class.  Once I got there, I realized how very much I needed to be there.  Marguerite built her class to work us up to crow pose (Bakasana) - a flying posture, but the class began with a sequence to center us, to bring us to the practice, and it was during this time I figured out that I really needed to be grounded for a little while.  I've been flying around for the last 5 days, and I hadn't fully appreciated some of the wonderful things I was a part of.

Now, the class did get us up off our tushes and into some standing postures, and true to her promise, Marguerite got us to fly into crow by the end.  What I can take away is that yoga helps us in these whirlwind times by just slowing the pace down and allowing us to bring our full attention to the task at hand.  We build the strength that will carry us on to the next task and we cultivate the patience necessary to "juggle".  Plus, we get to have a little fun along the way, as we fly like birds into some of the postures.  By Savasana, we get the chance to re-center our spirits, absorbing the benefits of the practice, and perhaps reflecting on how the experience on the mat made us feel different than we felt at the start of practice.  Hopefully, a sense of relaxed confidence will carry us along for the rest of the day - or at least for the drive back home after class.

It's okay to stop once in a while and breathe.  I just have to get through this weekend, and I can start "being" again.  It will be a welcome respite!

The rhythm of life is when you experience your own body, mind, and soul.