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Practice Time #2: Get Ready (With Me)! [A Kiss My Asana offering] April 21, 2025

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 7-Day Challenge, Abhyasa, Baha'i, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Donate, Faith, Fitness, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Lent / Great Lent, Life, One Hoop, Pain, Passover, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Riḍván, Suffering, Vairagya, Volunteer, Wisdom, Yoga.
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“Happy Riḍván!” to those getting ready to celebrate “the Most Great Festival.” Happy Easter! to those who are celebrating! Many blessings to anyone Counting the Omer or celebrating/observing Eastertide / the Octave of Easter!

Peace and many blessings to everyone!! Happy Poetry Month!!

“Success of asanas is dependent upon your being relaxed and calm and centered. It’s going to start by relaxing yourself, just with breathing. Spread your arms wide, take in a breath, and then bring your arms across your chest and let the breath out.”

— quoted from the “Asanas” section of “3 — Cook Book For A Sacred Life: A Manual For Conscious Being” in Be Here Now by Dr. Richard Alpert, Ph.D into Baba Ram Dass

Have you ever noticed what people do before a yoga class begins?

Some people might be talking to their neighbors — which is “coming together” and, therefore, yoga.

Other people are just sitting or lying still, breathing, scanning their mind-body and cultivating awareness — which is the meditation part of yoga.

Still others will do an āsana like Hanumānāsana (the “seat/pose of Hanumān [the Monkey King]”) or movement like rotating their arms and shoulders or simply stretch out their legs — which is part of what we do when we practice vinyasa krama (“placing things in a special way for a step-by-step progression towards a goal”).

And, yes, there are people rushing in at the last minute, because they had obstacles to overcome — which, again, is also part of yoga.

In other words, there are as many different ways to get ready to practice as there are ways to practice.

The video above is part of my 2025 offering for the 12th annual Kiss My Asana yogathon, which benefits Mind Body Solutions (MBS), has begun and I am super excited to dedicate this week (April 19th — 25th) to raising awareness and resources for MBS’ life-affirming work “to help people live better in the body they have.”

Mind Body Solutions provides live, online resources to people with disabilities worldwide. Through daily adaptive yoga classes, special programming, a comprehensive video library, and an online space exclusively for students, Mind Body Solutions is helping people make vital connections within and with others. You can help by joining me as we practice with purpose, by sharing this page, and/or by making a donation that creates opportunities for more people to practice yoga.

Each year, in addition to hosting my fundraising page and making my own personal donation, I offer a blog post and/or a YouTube post — sometimes even a whole practice. This year, I combined an idea I have had for a while with the suggestion/challenge of my yoga buddy Meghan and am offering a series of practice videos. These YouTube videos (of various lengths) underscore the fact that participating in the Kiss My Asana yogathon is just a tangible way to do what we do in every practice: set an intention and dedicate the merits of the practice to someone other than ourselves. Finally, I wanted to offer something that meets the moment and where you may be in this moment: “Swaying between joy and sorrow” (and all the other emotions).

You can click here to Kiss My Asana Now! (Or, you can also click here to join my team and get people to kiss [your] asana!) 

If you’re interested in my previous KMA offerings, check out the following (some links only take you to the beginning of a series and/or to YouTube):

Check out this 2023 class post to find out one of the reasons why Mind Body Solutions is so important to me!

Remember, if you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you can be notified as soon as the videos are posted.

### I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO KISS MY ASANA! ###