Sunday Yoga!

I can't wait to get on my mat later today.  My legs are exhausted (instead of going to the gym yesterday, I got my exercise by speed-walking about 4 1/2 miles in less than 40 minutes.), and the only two times I've been on my mat this week have been to lead other yoga students.  That's not to say that I mind teaching yoga - quite the contrary - it is so much fun to challenge my practice and my experience by thinking of interesting ways to make the poses flow.  I have a lot to work on in terms of finding the right language to give direction, but it is a welcome challenge, and practicing on my own at home enables me to put together a sequence and see if it "works".
The fact that I can do a home practice speaks volumes to me in terms of how far I've come in my yoga practice.  It used to be that I couldn't practice on my own at home.  I didn't have the patience to center myself and slow things down for a warm up.  I didn't know which sequence of poses to follow.  I didn't want to bother with a cool down or savasana.  This was troubling because I couldn't conceive of how to lead others on the mat if I couldn't lead myself.  It seems all that has changed...
I am looking forward to a warm up, knowing that I should focus on my legs because they are so tired.  I know I can work on a standing pose flow, and I have a new "Challenge Pose" to work on, courtesy of Kathryn Budig, and of course, there's the lovely pose above.  I'm confident that I can do some semblance of Budig's pose, but I'm not so sure I can do the pose above.  If it doesn't work, I will try it against the wall, and if that modification is successful, I'll have yet another pose in my arsenal to play around with!  Wait until my students get on their mats on Wednesday!

"Moksha, or 'Freedom', is the pinnacle of your yoga practice...  You want 'freedom from' and 'freedom to' " - John Friend