Day 3 & Things Get Tricky January 13, 2011
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 21-Day Challenge, Changing Perspectives, Fitness, Health, Mantra, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Philosophy, Twin Cities, Yoga.add a comment
Day 3 of the 21-Day Yoga Challenge
It’s Wednesday, Day 3 of Yoga Journal’s 21-Day Yoga Challenge, and this is when things get tricky.
For the past couple of months I have been subbing classes on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Which means: for the last couple of months I’ve lost a day off; lost the majority of my Wednesday morning class prep/practice time; and I’ve had to run around Minneapolis like a chicken with it’s head cut off in order to teach 4 different classes in 4 different locations. Then you throw in the snow, and, well, let’s just say I’ve had to go out of my way to even pretend Wednesday is Zen-day.
Taking my mom’s advice (to just suck it up and take a taxi between the first two classes) definitely saved me from a couple of melt downs. However, the logistics have been taxing and I won’t miss them. What I will miss about these extra classes are the people who’ve taken the classes and the opportunity I’ve had to learn from their practices.
Even though the people have made this whole situation a treat and a gift, I was looking forward to getting back to my old routine this week. Only, it didn’t happen. This morning I was still subbing and still running around to various locations. To make things extra tricky, now I had to work in this yoga challenge. What’s a yogini to do?
Ultimately, I decided to break up the practice. I did the 45-minute sequence I was going to teach during my second class of the day before I left the house. I had time to also squeeze in the 20-minute video sequence or the 18-minute meditation, but then I would have been rushing to the first class. Very un-Zen-day-like. So, I thought I’d put it off and squeeze the other two portions of my daily practice into my afternoon breaks. Needless to say, that didn’t work out. All was not lost, however. My evening class was canceled so I went through the 20-minute Core Focus with Rebecca Urban while I cooked dinner. Then I finished the evening with the seated meditation.
Energetically, I didn’t have any problem practicing the video segment in the evening. I was a little worried about the level of the practice, because I consider abdominal work to be my weak spot (as a teacher and a practitioner). Also, the classes I taught, and practiced, on Days 2 and 3 were fairly challenging – and yesterday I featured a particularly intense core workout. But, the video sequence wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as I expected. Don’t get me wrong. It was nice – in a hair of the dog kind of way – but I don’t anticipate feeling it in the morning. What I most appreciated about the core sequence was that it was creative and accessible to almost anyone. Sure, there were some fairly standard yoga crunches, but there also some clever isometric moments and some ingenious isolation moves. I’m looking forward to doing this segment again.
On the flip side, I wish I’d done the seated meditation earlier, because I was just too tired to sit still. Part of my psyche was definitely chanting, “I am that Mexican Jumping Bean. That Mexican Jumping Bean I am.”
In the end, I could have easily inserted the core video into my previously outlined plan for the day. And tomorrow, I’ll plan on doing the meditation a lot earlier.
~ NAMASTE ~
2 Days of Yoga Down, 19 To Go January 12, 2011
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 21-Day Challenge, Changing Perspectives, Fitness, Health, Mantra, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, Philosophy, Science, Twin Cities, Yoga.add a comment
21 Days of Yoga (& Other Stuff)
Day 2
When am I going to fit in my yoga practice?
What, exactly, am I going to practice?
And, where did all this snow come from?
Yes, after 40-plus years on this planet, over 10 years of yoga practice, and going on 4 years of Minnesota winters, these are still the questions I ask at the beginning of a January day. While the latter may be unique to me, anyone even contemplating a daily yoga practice in this day and age has to answer the first two questions again and again.
“When am I going to fit in my yoga practice?” translates to: How am I going to work in time for what I need/want to do given my obligation(s) to a significant other, children, pets, work, my commute, my friends, etc.? Also, in order to maintain the practice, the timing has to be convenient, a space has to be available, and you have to feel up to the challenge. All of this, before you ever even get to the question: what, exactly, am I going to practice?
I feel most myself in the late afternoon and evening. If I had a completely flexible schedule, I would almost always practice after 11 AM. That might not be traditional or ideal, but I’d be comfortable with such a schedule. In fact, when I first started practicing, the majority of the classes I attended were during a business/corporate lunch hour or in the evening. More often than not, however, my current work schedule dictates a morning practice. It’s how I begin my day. And, I’ll admit it: more often than not, it’s the way I love to start the day.
Waking up a little late on Day 2 of the Yoga Journal challenge, I was naturally concerned about how I was going to answer my first two questions of the day. Imagine my pleasure (and relief) to discover that the recommended video sequence was a 15-Minute Morning Sequence with Kate Holcombe. Boy, was this perfect – and refreshing! After a minor hiccup with the downloading, I was waking up with the flow. Again, the sequence was well thought out and, in this case, I felt like it was simple enough for anyone to follow along and get energized. I also felt like the fitness level was exactly where it needed to be to serve as positive reinforcement for someone new to the mat. Part of me wonders why this wasn’t the Day 1 sequence. In fact, as I continue to encourage people to take the challenge, I am recommending that my students start with Day 2 as their Day 1. I can only imagine how joyful it would feel to start with this simple 15-minute practice and then, 21 days later, find yourself flowing through the current Day 1 hip openers. (Maybe, at some point, even putting together the sequences from Day 1 and Day 2 – but in the opposite order.) Sublime.
The video sequence turned out to be a perfect integration sequence for what I was already planning to teach and practice on Day 2. While I did not teach this sequence to my students, I easily segued from the video into my own personal sequence. Best of all, I felt prepared for the challenging sequences I had outlined. With the dulcet sound of Sammy Davis Jr. singing I’ve Gotta Be Me playing in the background, I ended my practice and started my day on a high note. I felt balanced, focused, and ready to take on the world. Even now, going on 14 hours after the morning practice, I still feel that way.
After teaching my first class and having lunch with two of my favorite people, I sat in the back of a coffee shop and completed the So Hum meditation. The recording is fairly quiet and I was in a semi-private room, so I wasn’t worried about disturbing the other patrons. In hindsight, I should have used headphones to block out some of the ambient noise. However, I was amazed to observe how my mind and body tuned into the audio for the meditation and tuned out the competing elements. Yesterday, I counted 9 sets of 12 as I went through the mediation. Today I timed it. At some point I will use an actual mala, but right now I’m interested in noting how I tap into the practice without the beads.
~ NAMASTE ~
21 Days of Yoga (& Other Stuff) January 11, 2011
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 21-Day Challenge, 40-Day Challenge, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Fitness, Health, Karma Yoga, Mantra, Meditation, Philosophy, Texas, Yoga.add a comment
Day 0
We all begin somewhere. {Check back for link.}
Day 1
I’ve never done a 21-Day yoga challenge. I have, however, done several 40-Day yoga practices – and each one has changed my life. The fact that I have a fairly well established home practice (something I started with my first 40-Day practice) and teach yoga classes, may lead some to believe that the Yoga Journal event is a no-brainer for me. In fact, I’m looking at it as a true challenge. I’m also looking at it as an opportunity for change and growth. Finally, I’m looking at it as an opportunity to deepen my practice.
The funny thing is, we all have opportunities to change, grow, and deepen our yoga practice every day. But it’s easy to miss them. And, in some ways, teaching can create scenarios where we take these opportunities for granted – and, in doing so, miss them.
As a result of my teaching, I practice asana 5 – 7 days a week. However, a lot of my personal/home practice time is spent getting ready to teach, thinking about how various sequences will work with different groups, how I’ll cue them, and what modifications I can offer in a limited amount of time. More and more, I treasure the time I get on the mat and just focus on myself and what my body needs – and more and more, that treasured time seems to be decreasing. So, during these 3 weeks I want to re-focus and re-commit to my personal practice, while also finding a different kind of balance between how I practice as a student of yoga and how I practice as a teacher of yoga.
I’ve recommended the challenge to my students and, on the day before the challenge, I included a few poses featured in the most recent Yoga Journal in my personal practice and in my three regular Sunday classes (Day 0). In my personal practice, I did all of the recommended poses at the end of the practice. During the classes I taught, I worked in variations of almost all of the poses at the beginning or end of the practice. These poses, as well, as the accompanying article seemed like a perfect way for anyone to get started. It wasn’t super challenging (which can be perfect for a beginner or someone beginning a home practice), but it was also a good integrating or surrender series for someone wanting a more challenging sequence.
On Monday, I was very surprised to find that the “Fun Flow” featured as the first official sequence of the challenge was, well…challenging. Some people have commented that it was too much or too fast for a beginner, or even for someone who has been away from the mat for a while. I have to agree. I was also disappointed that there was no Savasana time included in the video. (You’re guided into the pose, but then the video ends – making it seem like Savasana doesn’t matter and giving no guidelines to a new practitioner. Grrr.) On the flip side, the sequence was put together well and Elise Lorimer gave clear, concise, and detailed instruction.
Yes, if you’re new to yoga it’s best to watch the video first – but that’s good advice for any non-classroom practice, regardless of your experience or fitness level. Unfortunately, that good advice is also part of the ultimate downside to the first day: given the need to preview the sequence (which I didn’t); the technical video difficulties a lot of people experienced (myself included); and the need for Savasana, completing the first day’s practice became a bigger time commitment than advertised.
While I waited for the download I did an 18-minute seated So Hum meditation that I originally planning to do afterward, and (after the flow sequence) I listened to the Nicolai Bachman audio feature on the Yoga Sutra-s (look under the video). The meditation, which I am also planning to do for the next 21 days, and the audio feature really fired me up to go deeper. While I’m glad I did the video sequence and I’m committed to doing the next 20-days worth, part of me wishes this was more like the World Yoga Project, the 40-Day program I completed several years ago. With WYP, each participant received a workbook with photos accompanying the sequence, which progressed over the 40 days. It wasn’t free, but part of the proceeds went to charity. Plus, you got to keep the workbook and could reference it whenever or where ever – no downloading required.
It’s easy to see the flaws in both methods. Neither is perfect. But then, something this big, involving this many people, can’t meet everyone’s definition of perfect. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s not…perfect.
At the end of the day, I have the same questions I had before I started:
- For whom is this challenged really geared?
- What type of practitioner is going to finish?
- What are we all going to learn from this process?
I also have the same final thoughts:
This is going to get interesting, and
this is going to be fun.
A Joyful Practice 