But can you bend into the shape of a pretzel yet?

(Note: After I finish this post, I'm going to change into my yoga togs for yoga practice #360.  Eeek!!!!)

A continuation of my reflections on some of the questions I asked upon beginning this 360 straight days of yoga practice.  I asked, will I:

• Master more challenging poses that we do once in awhile in yoga class and then don't return to again for several months, so that I never really feel like I've fully learned how to properly execute them? Poses like Bakasana? 

I did Bakasana in my home practice yesterday.  It is one of those poses that sometimes feels like second nature to get into. Then on other days, I feel totally befuddled about where to place my knees against my arms--it just feels not quite right, even if I'm placing the knees in the exact same place as I did the day before, when it felt easier than pie.

Anyway, I do feel like I am more capable and skilled with Bakasana, in general.  Some of the other challenge poses I've worked on in class and at home this year, however, I am a long, long way from comfortable.  Perhaps you remember this one:

Ah, good ole Eka Pada Galavasana... I quit working on this one because I was sick of looking like a battered woman.  The pressure of my foot against my arm gave me bruises that looked like someone had grabbed me really hard.  It wasn't such a big deal when the weather was cool outside, but when tank top weather arrived....  Also, my leg injury sort of put a hamper on this one.  Take-Away Lesson: You can't be Super Woman when you walk with a hobble.

• (Will I) Get my hamstrings to finally open up enough to straighten my legs all the way in Uttanasana or to touch my heels to the ground in Downward-Facing Dog?

My heels still do not touch the ground in Downward-Facing Dog.  Honestly, I never for a second thought they would.  That said, after warming up a little, they definitely get much CLOSER to the ground in Dog pose than they were a year ago.  On the other hand, once warmed up, I really can straighten my legs all the way in Uttanasana now.  I don't choose to very often, because I don't want to lock my knees, but I can do it. For whatever that's worth.

• Stand on one leg with my other foot up by my head without tipping over?

Why yes, I kind of can do this now.  Look!

Utthita Hasta Padangustasana

My foot is kind of by my head, right?  I can't hold this forever, I can't straighten my leg all the way, and the pose has room for lots of improvement in terms of alignment and grace, BUT I can hold it without tipping over.  Sometimes.

*     *     *

Overall, certain poses are easier now than last January, but my body resists other poses and movements just as much as it always has.  And there are probably poses that are harder for me now than they were a year ago, because of an injury this year or maybe I just haven't been practicing it for awhile.  

-Some poses that are easier: Uttanasana, Bakasana, Baddha Utthita Parsvakonasana, Utthita Hasta Padangustasana, Plank and Chaturanga Dandasana. (I used to HATE these last two poses.  Now I like them. A lot.) Oh and can't forget Ardha Chandrasana--I'm especially proud of my work with Half Moon, a perpetually difficult, painful pose for me!

-Some poses are more difficult now than a year ago: Utkatasana (this one is a be-otch when you haven't been practicing it much), Malasana a.k.a. squat-asana, pigeon pose, Eye of the Needle pose.  I used to LOVE Eye of the Needle, but it causes me a lot of pain on my right side at present, and my motion is quite limited.  

I wonder which of these poses will be easier or more challenging for me at the end of 2011.  The truth of the matter is: Yoga is a process.  There is no grand finale. Everyday presents different obstacles to match the body's capabilities in that moment on the mat.  Yesterday, Bakasana was easy for me.  It might not be easy when I do it today.  Mastery is not holding a pose perfectly day after day.  Mastery is the act of showing up on the mat,  attempting a pose to the best of one's abilities in that moment, and returning the next day to try again.

So many different ways one can bend a pretzel on any given day!

And now, I'm off to find out how my body wants to bend on this, my 360th straight day of yoga practice.  More later!  Namaste!

Day 348.

But sadly, I still don't look like this.

In this post, I continue to reflect on this list of questions I posed when I first began this project, 348 days ago.  I asked, after a year of daily yoga practice, will I:

• Grow a few centimeters in height?

Okay, so to assess whether I grew any in height, I'm employing a highly unscientific method of standing shoeless against a wall, attempting to draw a pencil line in the exact right place at the top of my head, and then using measuring tape to figure the distance from pencil mark to floor. This process is made all the more unscientific by the fact that I didn't measure myself at the beginning of the year.  On my driver's license, it says I'm 5 foot 6 inches tall, but the last time I got measured at the doctor's office proved that I am one of those people who round up to seem taller.  According to the doctor, I was more like 5 foot 5-1/2 inches tall.  ANYWAY, this morning, I measured myself as 5 foot 6-1/8 inches tall.  Hmmm.... Did my pencil mark aim too high?  Was I slouching at the doctor's office?  Or did I grow a little bit?  We'll never know for sure.

Nope, still too short for Splash Mountain!

I also asked, after a year of daily yoga practice, will I:

• Look different--be slimmer or have more muscle bulk?  Be stronger in my core? Be more stable in my pelvis? Have better posture/alignment? Develop those tiny muscles in my inner hips and the arches of my feet to protect my knees and to help stave off genetic physical ailments? Reduce the frequency of migraines? Improve my circulation? Achieve super healthy blood pressure readings?

Let me start by saying that this here body of mine has served me pretty well during my year of yoga. Yes, I've incurred some injuries. I'm happy to report that none of them have been incurred practicing yoga.  I can't put a value on how many injuries I may have avoided by practicing yoga or staved off "genetic physical ailments," but I know that stretching my limbs and building muscle tone protects me a lot when I do high impact aerobic activities, like running, and even doing little things like getting into my car from a funny angle. The body can get hurt in really small, ridiculous ways.  Trust me, I once re-sprained my ankle trying on a ski boot 

Has my body changed? Of course it has, the body is always changing.  Lately, I feel like my core is kind of weak, but it was super strong in June. It is winter after all, and my body and energy cycles just like the seasons. People have remarked on my fantastic posture over the year, but alignment and keeping my pelvis stabilized seem like things that need lifelong attention and continual adjustments.  I don't know if yoga has helped prevent any migraines, though gentle yoga has been soothing when I've had one.  Circulation?  Sure, while I'm actually practicing, but in general?  Who knows?  And my blood pressure readings, they were pretty dang healthy before this year began, and they still are.

So now for the million-dollar question: do I look different, slimmer or have more muscle bulk?  Honestly.... I think I look pretty much the same as I did last January. My clothing sizes haven't changed. My weight has fluctuated within the same 5-pound window all year. That said, my body has never been in as great shape as it has been at times this year.  Particularly in the spring and summer months.  I definitely am stronger than I was last December, even if my core is a little wimpy at present.

And here's the real triumph: I have never felt so secure with this body as is as I have this year.  And sexy.  This body of mine is strong and sexy and I'm so happy to live in it.  The time I spend every day doing yoga allows me to witness and appreciate my body, while it also puts me in touch with what my body needs and what it likes to keep it healthy and happy.  Even when my muscles burn like crazy from holding a challenging pose, yoga feels like the most incredible gift to my body. 

Maybe I do look different.  Maybe I do stand taller.  Maybe the incredible confidence and respect I've developed for my body on the inside has transformed how I appear on the outside, in ways that have nothing to do with slimness, muscle mass, or the number on the scale. 

Namaste!

AND we’re under the 30-day mark…

Actually, we're under the 24-day mark.  Or I am.  My 360 days of Adho Mukha Svanasana is officially winding down.  Today marks my 336 straight day of yoga practice.  The end of the tunnel is in sight, though honestly, this journey has never felt anything like an endless tunnel.  Predictably, the first month was the hardest, because it takes time to adjust to a new daily time commitment.  Now, it is so automatic and normal, that I’m almost scared to go that minimum 30 minutes of yoga a day.

When I took on this challenge in January, I had a big list of questions about what I might experience by doing yoga every day.  Over the next three+ weeks, I want to revisit some of those questions here in the bloggity-blog.  You can read my initial two blog posts with ALL of those questions here and here.  One caveat: it is impossible to know how much of any change I’ve undergone in the last 336 days has been a result specifically of doing yoga—in many cases, yoga is one of many things that may have facilitated a change. The best way to test daily yoga’s effect on me would be to stop doing yoga every day, and even then, NOT doing yoga would likely be one of many things that might facilitate a change.  Still, I want to try to answer my questions to gauge the impact of this year-long experience!  So let’s get started with the mother of all questions:

• After a year of daily yoga practice, will I feel happier? More balanced and patient? Calmer? Less anxious?

Wow.  This is really hard to answer.  See, when I began this process, I had already begun a kind of remarkable transformation in terms of my mental health.  Seriously, if you were to turn back the clock and look at me not 360 days, but 720 days ago, you would think you were looking at my twin sister: my totally depressed, anxious, high-strung, impatient twin sister.  My Debbie Downer twin could not have committed to practicing yoga every single day, no matter how much she already loved yoga and how often she did yoga.   

So, in the year leading up to beginning my yoga 360, I made a lot of tough, painful decisions, took some big risks, and began to change my life on many, many fronts.  It was a really hard year, but I got through it and came out a much stronger, smarter, healthier person.

When 2010 began, I had only recently begun to feel like I was standing on solid ground, or rather like I could keep my footing on the ever-shifting ground below me.  I was feeling happier than I had in a really long time.  I felt only a shadow of the perpetual anxiety that had been clouding my thoughts and actions for the majority of my adult life.  I was just getting the idea of what a balanced life might feel like, that it was something I could actually have, that it was something I wanted.  Basically, I was finally in a place where I felt capable of truly committing to something long term; thus began my year of yoga.

I don’t know if doing yoga every day has made me any happier than I was last December.  But it definitely has not made me LESS happy.  Yes, I’ve had days this year when I’ve felt like nothing good would ever happen to me again, days when I’ve felt like anxiety was ripping me up inside.  But I’ve also had days this year when I’ve felt unadulterated joy and satisfaction that I’m alive, days when my mind can’t recall what it is to worry about something.  On most days of this past year, though, I haven’t been extremely sad or happy, but fine, okay-to-good, more or less satisfied.  I think this is what it looks like to have a balanced life. 

I absolutely believe that my yoga has helped me sustain this balance in my life.  If I come to my mat in a ridiculously giddy mood, I generally find myself settling down over the course of my practice, reigning in my happiness a bit so that I may maintain it longer, and so that it isn’t such a shock to my system when something undesirable happens.  Likewise, if I come to my mat in a real foul mood, my practice helps redirect my focus: things might suck, but at that moment, I’m paying attention to my balance.  The brief reprieve from my troubles that yoga’s temporary shift in focus provides always leaves me calmer and better prepared to face what ever has my panties in a bunch.  Yoga evens my keel when I’m tipping too much to one side of the other.  Most days, my practice mirrors and affirms my fine, more-or-less satisfied mental space, like breathing or blinking.  It is a part of what keeps me regular.

So whether or not daily yoga this year has made me MORE anything, it definitely was involved in helping me STAY happy, calm, patient, and balanced.

*                      *                      *

Minutes for the accountability police.  Yes, practiced every day.  Here's the rough round up:

11/8-11/14: 305

11/15-11/21: 315

11/22-11/28: 235

11/29-12/7: 285

Namaste!

 

My Brain on Yoga: a Flash Yoga Blog!

This blog is a flash yoga blog.  No, this isn't like a "flash mob" (though that would be RAD).  This is more in the spirit of flash fiction.  As Wikipedia puts it, "Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. ... Some self-described markets for flash fiction impose caps as low as 300 words."  So that means: I am going to write this blog like a flash in a pan, or quick as a flash, typing anything that comes to mind, in a short 20-minute frame of time, and not exceeding 300 words in count.

Oh and also, I will be including some flash yoga-photos from my practice today, for comical relief.

My Brain On Yoga, the Home Practice Edition:

Sit still.  Breathe.  Stop thinking about your breath so much and breathe normally.  Right, like that.  Am I sitting upright?  Slouching?  Lean back.  Breathe normally.  Quiet the mind.  How do you quiet the mind?  I have no idea.  Breathe.  

Okay....  It's been a few minutes, right?  Time to put the hands in front of the chest in Namaste. "OOOOOOHHHHHHHH- cough-{oops, too low}...uh, MMMMMMMMMMMM."

"OOOOOHHHHH{too high??}HHHHMMMMMM." 

"OOOOOHHHHHHHHMMMMMM." Perfect. 

Let's get my Sanskrit chanting on!  Wow, wrong key.  I'm not sounding so musical today.  Why do I put a French accent on everything?  Was that the second time through the invocation, or third?  I can just do two, right?  What should my intention for my practice be today?  Something about being kind to oneself, not judging too harsh.  That sounds good.

Cat, cow, cat, cow, cat, cow.   I could cat and cow all day, it feels so good.  Until it gets boring.  

Dog!  Walking, walking....  Full dog.  Bend the knees, draw the groin muscles back, rotate the thighs in and back, don't lock the elbows, push through the pads of the fingers, pull the shoulders into the back.... Broaden the kidney area on your back, tuck the tailbone. Don't forget your core.  Core, ha! What core?!

Plank.  God, I love plank.  My arms are so strong.  Heels over my toes, rotate inner thighs in and up, soften the heart a little.  Don't forget the core!  God, I hate plank....  Now for some obligatory Chaturanga Dandasana torture and cobra.  LOVE LOVE LOVE me that cobra.  But don't forget your core!

 

Step to Uttanasana.  HELLO, hamstrings.  Release the head.  Rotate--wait, I said, RELEASE THE HEAD.  Okay.  Now, rotate the thighs in and back, tuck the tailbone a little, bend from the hip folds, go a little deeper.  AHHHH.   Let's stand up and stretch the arms over head. Core!!! Overdoing the backbend there, back off!  Am I jutting my chest out? Don't do that, silly; there's no one's looking.  Hmmmm, what to do next?

Dog.  Three-legged dog.  Right leg forward in a lunge.  High lunge.  Don't let the right knee extend over the right ankle, keep the inner thigh lifted, hips even.  Get that right hip in and that right buttock tucked under. Don't forget your core! Bend deeper?  Not happening.  Right hip, why do you continue to torment me?  Tight, tight, mean right hip.  Jump Switch!  Ha ha ha--yeah, in my dreams!  Step switch.  Rinse and repeat on the left.

Balance poses!  Grounding the corners of my left foot.  Right foot up carefully...carefully!  Right foot to left calf, rotate in the right hip socket for easy tree pose.  Keep that left leg strong, four corners of the foot, FOUR corners, not two,  wavering, wavering.... Okay.  Got it now.  Square, stupid hips, get square! Core, do not, I say, DO NOT forget the core!  Imagine a string of thread on the inside of your belly button pulling it to the spine and then up just a little bit.  Tuck the tailbone.  Oh, arms!  Up, up, up.  Ack!  Core! Core! For the love of Patanjali, CORE!!!  Wavering, wavering!  Mayday!  And touchdown.  Switch!

I should do some core strengthening... WAH HA HA HA HA!!!

Savasana time.  Relax....  Let the mind release any thoughts....  Damn, my nose itches.  Ignore it.  Ignore it.  How long have I been lying here already?

"OOOOHHHHHHMMMMM."  Crud.  What was my intention?   Oh well....

"Namaste!"

 And now for that picture fun... Adventures in Utthita Hasta Padangustasana (Extended Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose) and Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose).  These are constant challenge poses for me, so know that I AM making mistakes and struggling and that you should not aspire to look like me!
 

Wobbling.

As straight as my leg goes.

Salute the Nikon judge!

Really don't have it!

Better....

Head turned up, and OMG!  Balanced!  Hooray!

Being present

Blog? What blog?

Hmmm…  It seems to me that, while I’ve been AWESOME at doing yoga for 30 minutes every day for 306 straight days now, my parallel goal to blog regularly and track my yoga minutes ever 10-14 days has totally gone down the toilet.  Oops.  I think I psyche myself out a bit with the blog.  See, I have all sorts of blog ideas, but I want them to be so dang good.  Like, really spectacular investigative yoga blogging.  That kind of thoughtful and thought-provoking work, it takes more than 30 minutes to write.  And I’ve been rather busy writing some earth-shattering copy about memory foam and weather stations and sewing machines during the last month or two.  Ah, excuses, excuses!

Besides, since the wrist injury in August, I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing down exactly how many minutes I’ve spent doing yoga every day on my calendar.  Believe me; I’ve done it every darn day.  I’ve just been lazy about documentation.  But I’m going to try to do some weekly guesstimates below, in the interest of being able to roughly estimate the total amount of time I spent doing yoga this year come New Years Day.

9/5-11: 230 minutes                         10/10-16: 275 minutes

9/12-18: 310 minutes                       10/17-23: 345 minutes

9/19-25: 220 minutes                       10/24-31: 275 minutes       

9/26-10/2: 340 minutes                    11/1-7: 230 minutes           

10/3-9: 340 minutes

Notable practices in the last two months:

• My first class post wrist injury on 9/12, taught by my lovely friend Megan, and captured on video tape to complete her yoga teacher training program.  Yay, Megan!
•  Yoga on the road, part one, September 22-27.  I did yoga in my lovely childhood friend Jamie’s yard in the Astoria hood of Queens, NY for three days.  Then I practiced for three days in Chappaqua, NY, at the home of my brother and sister-in-law, in the room that has since then become 26-days-old niece and nephew! 
• My first handstand post wrist injury, on September 29.  I love them so. 
• Yoga on the road, part two, October 16-17.  I did yoga at my old college pal Liz’s apartment in Portland, which rivals mine in tiny-ness.  There’s nothing like practicing with a hangover…

Cat and Cow--yoga cures for over-imbibing...

             *                      *                       *                      *                

Then there was my practice yesterday morning, my Daylight Savings Time “Fall Back” practice. 

Now, over the past ten months, my home practice has become very comfortable, very routine, and sometimes very boring.  I admit, since my injury in August, my daily practices at home rarely exceed 31-35 minutes.  When I couldn’t do any weight-bearing on my wrist, it was hard to drum up more than 30 minutes of poses and I’d check the clock constantly to find out how much more yoga I had to do.  I didn’t feel like doing yoga daily was a burden, but I definitely had negative feelings about my limitations and the amount of time I’d committed to practicing daily.  I could have embraced the injury as a golden opportunity to meditate more or to cultivate my pranayama practice.  But I have a tendency to let my restless energy dictate.  I’m not going to condemn myself for that—I am what I am.

However, as I healed and my home practice started filling up with downward dog, plank, handstand, and headstand and all those other weight-bearing hand/arm poses again, my clock-watching habit didn’t abate.  I’ve become a pro of the 31-minute yoga practice, barely lying dormant in Savasana for 30 seconds before jumping up off the mat with a quick “Namaste,” eager to go about my day.  In some ways, I feel like my home yoga practice in the last several months has more in common with my showers than my experiences in yoga classes: not a burden, but a necessary part of my day; sometimes luxurious, but generally not; routine.

So yesterday, with the help DST and that extra hour in the day, my morning felt so much more spacious than usual.  And that spacious feeling carried over to my yoga practice.  I was doing yoga “earlier” than I usually do on a Sunday morning, because I woke up “earlier” than usual.  I felt the freedom to linger in forward bends longer, to hold stretches and poses longer, to play with different poses than usual, to practice pranayama even.  I was engaging with my yoga with more intention and intimacy than I have in my home practice since before Labor Day.  It was an incredibly refreshing home practice—sublime.

In the Anusara yoga classes I attend, after we chant Om three times and the Anusara invocation in Sanskrit, the teacher always asks us to bow our heads towards our hearts and to set an intention for our practice before we release our hands, open our eyes, and start moving.  The intentions that I set in this pause are always attuned to my current physical, emotional, and spiritual status and needs.  If my heart is feeling tender, I set an intention to be gentle and patient with myself and to approach poses from a place of openness, without self criticism, and with no expectations except that I attempt poses to the best of my ability in that moment of that day.  If my heart is feeling joyous, my intention may be to express that feeling in my practice, to see how far my limbs can expand, to push the edge just a little bit further.

I googled "Be Present" and got Ernest Hemingway kicking a can.

I would like to set an intention for my home practice in the next 54 days.  Each time I step onto my mat, I will take the time to tune into where my body, mind, and heart are, how they are doing and what they need from yoga that day—set a daily intention, just like in class.  Then I will actively focus in my practice on meeting that intention and filling those needs, abandoning distracting thoughts about my schedule, work, food, and relationships until I am off the mat.  Lastly, I will move the clock so it is out of my line of sight on the mat.

I also hereby set an intention to blog more as I head into the last stretch of this journey!

Namaste!

Yes, but can you do that with just one hand?

If only I were as tough as you, Jack Palance....

Over a month has passed since my last blog.  Not only that, but I haven’t been dutifully writing my minutes down on my calendar.  Now don’t panic, I haven’t fallen off my every-day yoga train.  The reason I haven’t been writing down my minutes is simple: for the last month or so, I have done yoga for ~30-35 minutes every single day.  Even stranger, I have done yoga around the same time in the morning on each of those days.

This degree of regularity in my yoga practice was unheard of in my yoga 360 until a month ago.  For the first seven months of this project, I've been consistent in practicing yoga every day, but I sure as hell haven’t been consistent in how much (other than meeting my imposed 30-minute daily minimum) or when I practice.  So what happened to make my yoga practice so dang routine? 

I got hurt.

Really, that’s the reason behind my incredible regular practice.  That’s what it took to turn my daily yoga practice into something as automatic and predictable in my day as getting out of bed.

Now, this isn’t the first time this year I’ve had to work with an injury. But this time I hurt my wrist.  My right wrist.  I hurt it after a long day of digging.  That night, I ached all over, but especially about 2 inches up from my wrist on my forearm.  When I did yoga as usual the next day, it wasn’t too uncomfortable.  But opening jars, washing dishes, using my car’s stick shift, washing my hair, writing, fastening and unfastening my bra and pants, and about a hundred other things...now those things were SERIOUSLY uncomfortable!

I would be holding the baby in this picture, if it didn't make my wrist cry...

“Well, it isn’t broken,” the doctor said when I went in to have my wrist checked out.  “It’s tendinitis of the wrist flexors.”  He strapped a big black Velcro brace on me, told me to take 4 ibuprofen 3 times a day, ice my wrist for 15 minutes three times a day, and to rest it. He told me it could take 2 to 4 weeks for my wrist to heal.  “But I do yoga every day,” I told him.  “Can I at least do downward-facing dog and plank on my forearms?”  To which he gave me a curt "No.”  

No swimming either?!!!  Bending the rules with a Cookie Monster water wing.

And thus came the end of my quest towards 360 days of Adho Mukha Svanasana (that’s Dog pose, yo).  But not my quest towards 360 days of yoga!  When I began this project, I anticipated that I might get hurt and I committed to adapting as necessary to continue my yoga practice.  So when I hurt my wrist, I started adapting.

Tendinitis can't keep me from climbing a mountain, with MY EYES CLOSED!

I couldn’t go to any classes as almost every single yoga class I’ve ever been to has heavily featured downward-facing dog.  Dog is like the complex carbohydrates of a yoga class—substantial and unavoidable in the yoga studio.  But it is possible to omit it from one’s home practice, and all other poses that require any sort of weight bearing on the wrists. So that’s what I did.  No dog, no plank, no cobra, no handstand, no wheel, no crow, no cat and no cow, no, no, and no. I also had be careful and make modifications in other poses like triangle or side-angle pose to make sure I didn’t put much weight on my right hand/arm.

After eliminating those poses from my asana practice, I was left with a lot of standing and balance poses, seated twists, and stretches on my back.  Honestly, during that first week, I found it a little difficult to fill up more than 30 minutes with this limited catalog of poses, which explains my string of 30-to-35-minute-long practices.  I also struggled with boredom; I really missed having all those other poses to toss into my daily mix.  My typical yoga practice does have a degree of order to it, poses I generally do before certain other poses, but there is still a lot of flexibility.  But with my wrist's limitations, I found I did the same poses in more or less the same order (vinyasa) every day.  (Please note that while this is unusual for ME, there are many types of yoga, like Ashtanga, in which one always does the same vinyasa sequence, no matter the class, the instructor, etc.) Maybe this order to my asanas is behind the development of a regular practice time of day in my yoga life; does one routine begets another routine?

I didn’t anticipate a painful wrist injury to bring such stability to my yoga life.  It has been interesting to observe how I’ve responded to a more structured, albeit limited, practice this month.  I’ve enjoyed the additional structure to my day for the most part.  But I really miss classes—sharing the time with other yogis and yoginis, holding poses longer, and being led through different poses I’m not so familiar or comfortable with, etc.

While my wrist is still weak, I’m virtually pain-free and only wearing the brace when I’m doing yoga.  I added dog and plank on my forearms back into my repertoire about ten days ago.  In the last few days, I’ve started pushing into full downward-facing dog.  I often wonder if I’m capable of doing more than I’m allowing myself in my practice. Could I be doing handstand without any issues right now?  But I think there is wisdom in showing restraint, recognizing that I may be more limited from the injury than I notice.  I’m trying to look beyond that 35 minutes on the mat and think about the rest of the month, next month, and beyond!

 Namaste!

A Funny Thing Happened when I blogged about not blogging....

I expounded so much on one of my coulda-blogged ideas that it became a real, genuine blog post!  I was writing about Judith Hanson Lasater's Letter to the Editor in Yoga Journal.  Let's flashback to that post....

The latest copy of Yoga Journal (YJ) is noteworthy for a few reasons.  It's the 35th anniversary issue of the magazine.  There's a time line of the last 6000 years of yoga history outlined inside.  Sarah McLachlan is on the cover in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. And, in the "Letters to the Editor" section, there's a letter from Judith Hanson Lasater (one of YJ's founders and a frequent contributor) expressing her concern about the advertisements featuring naked or half-naked women that have popped up with more frequency in YJ (check out Toesox ads if you want to see what the fuss is about). 

Lasater writes, "These pictures do not teach the viewer about yoga practice or themselves. They aren’t even about the celebration of the beauty of the human body or the beauty of the poses, which I support. These ads are just about selling a product."  She goes on to request that YJ stop running ads that exploit the sexuality of young women to sell ad space or magazines.  (You can read more from her letter here.)  As someone who considers herself a feminist and who would NEVER attend a naked yoga class, let me just say, "RIGHT ON, SISTER!"

Nude Toesox model Kathryn Budig, in clothes!

AND then, I kept blogging:

So while looking to see if YJ had a link to this letter online (can't find one if they do), I came across this 35th Anniversary Cover Gallery, where one can look at every cover of YJ over the last 35 years and vote for best covers in four categories.  I started perusing, thinking about the human form, particularly under-dressed (or revealingly dressed) young women.  And I noticed some things.  

OMG, LOOK AT HER BACK FAT!

•  First, before 1999, YJ didn't always feature a slender, spandex-wearing woman between the ages of 20 and 40 wearing in asana; illustrations and portraits of yoga teachers, noted psychologists and physicians, and spiritual teachers were just as, if not more, often featured on YJ's covers. 
• Second, I don't think YJ has ever featured an overweight, heavy-set individual in asana on the cover (though the Hammer-style pants that the gal on the July 1983 cover did make me stop to pause).  In fact, there aren't any pictures of pregnant women on any of the covers, which I was sort of shocked by, given the amount of special "health" issues (cancer, AIDS, depression) and "family" issues (midwives, spiritual parenting, masculinity and fatherhood). 
• Third, the last male shown actually practicing yoga asanas on the YJ cover was on the April 2003 cover. 
• Lastly, I noticed that that the last (& maybe only) person with visibly white hair featured actually practicing asana on the YJ cover was John Friend on the December 2002 cover.

You can draw your own conclusions about all that, but me?  It upsets me.  When I go to yoga class, yes, there are a good number of slim, younger women wearing tights and short tops.  But there are also PLENTY of slim, older women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and up, with white hair galore.  And there are certainly men, slim and young, slim and old (though the female to male ratio is still like 6:1).  There are also women and men with big asses, thunder thighs, love handles, arm flab, and beer bellies.  Plenty of that stuff on practitioners of all ages.  

I just want to say that, although the asana practice of yoga IS hard and while many people who practice regularly do have awesome bodies, yoga is accessible for bodies of all shapes and sizes and ages; even the slimmest, prettiest young thing in class has her limitations, poses she can't do because her hamstrings are too tight or she has limited back mobility.   There is a yoga class for everyone, even nudists. 

Just keep your clothes on around me.

Ta-da!  Namaste!

Oh, neglected yoga blog...

I practice yoga every single day.  I also think of something yoga related that I'd like to blog about almost every single day.  I blog about yoga every single... month?  Getting on the mat may have become pretty dang easy for me, but taking the time to organize my thoughts in Times New Roman on this here blog hasn't become any easier.  So I thought I'd use this blog to post my minutes for posterity and, also, to list a few things/ideas I have found interesting re: yoga, but about which I haven't managed to articulate my thoughts in blog form--yet.  Form your own thoughts as you may.

First, MIB (Minutes In Brief):
July 7-July14: 90; 90; 35; 40; 40; 90; 35; 90
July 15-July 22: 30; 35; 75; 35; 90; 40; 90; 30
July 23-July 30: 30; 30; 40; 30; 30; 90; 90; 30
July 31-August 7: 35; 35; 90; 35; 90; 30; 45; 30.

Second, BIMBO (Blog Ideas My Brain Overthrew):

#1--Why Can't We Be Friends? 

John Friend leads Warrior I; photo by Jon Hyde for The NYT

There has been a lot of hoopla about this NYT article, a profile of John Friend, the creator of Anusara Yoga--which is type of yoga I study.  Waylon Lewis of Elephantjournal.com referred to the piece as "the most popular, prominent article re yoga in recent history" and a blogger for Yoga Journal online referred to the profile as "glowing."  But the Anusara communities I practice in beg to differ. As does John Friend, who wrote this response to the NYT piece.  My Monday night teacher, the fabulous Denise of Seattle Yoga Arts, asked us before class last week if we had any questions regarding the article and all the hoopla; someone asked my Wednesday teacher, the fabulous Wendy of OmTown Yoga, if this means we're all in a cult.  Many Anusara yogis and yoginis have voiced outrage per the article's description of Friend as "doughy."  Basically, anything I may have wanted to blog about this has been said by someone else, with more passion than I can muster on a hot August day.  My favorite response to the NYT-Friend media circus?  This satirical piece by Jimmy Gleacher, which examines the many similarities between Friend and Jersey Shore's own media phenomenon, Snooki.

The 4'9" train wreck, ready to snook the night away.

#2--No One Wants To See Your Stretch Marks In Yoga Class.
The latest copy of Yoga Journal (YJ) is noteworthy for a few reasons.  It's the 35th anniversary issue of the magazine.  There's a time line of the last 6000 years of yoga history outlined inside.  Sarah McLachlan is on the cover in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. And, in the "Letters to the Editor" section, there's a letter from Judith Hanson Lasater (one of YJ's founders and a frequent contributor) expressing her concern about the advertisements featuring naked or half-naked women that have popped up with more frequency in YJ. Lasater writes, "These pictures do not teach the viewer about yoga practice or themselves. They aren’t even about the celebration of the beauty of the human body or the beauty of the poses, which I support. These ads are just about selling a product."  She goes on to request that YJ stop running ads that exploit the sexuality of young women to sell ad space or magazines.  (You can read more from her letter here.)  As someone who considers herself a feminist and who would NEVER attend a naked yoga class, let me just say, "RIGHT ON, SISTER!"

Dogs always do yoga naked.  This pup gets some extra torso extension help from Doga instructor Brenda Byran in Bellevue, WA.  This image is inspiration for yet another, never-to-be-written-by-me blog post.  Goodness.

#3--Any way you can bend, I can bend better.
Okay, that's not a really appropriate title for this idea.  But the other weekend, a friend and I went to my dad's lake cabin for a weekend of sunshine in the woods and water.  As my friend practices yoga herself, and I am on this yoga-every-single-day quest, she joined me in practice for two days.  And it was really a fun way to practice, as opposed to all by myself or in a class with a ton of people and one teacher.  The second day we practiced, we loosely took turns leading each other.  One of us would lead through a round of sun salutations, then the other would lead her own variation.  Or she'd lead a couple of shoulder stretches and then I'd do a few hamstring/quad stretches.  Since I'm too lazy to put together a full blog about the experience, let me just say that it was a new, refreshing way to practice, that I appreciate what I learned from her and her reciprocal enthusiasm to learn from me, and that we had so much fun!

What we saw when we weren't doing yoga...

AND that about wraps up my blog ideas.  Something kind of neat happened while I was writing this post....  I wrote another one!  So check that one out too!  Until then...

Namaste!

The Six Month Post: Completionitis

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

On the 4th of July, I hit the 180-day mark of my 360 days of yoga. That’s six months. I’m over half way there.

I gave my father this little update on the phone the other day. He said to me, “My God, you’re really doing this, aren’t you?” Yes, Dad, I really am. I really am going to see this project through, from start to finish.

In the past few years, I’ve had some issues with completion. Lots of unfinished business.  Some people get hung up on starting things. Not me. I start things left and right. I love starting things! The big finish is where I get stuck. Thus, I am a person who habitually:

• Cooks an elaborate dinner, leaves dishes piled up in the sink until the next night, or next week. 
• Mixes up ingredients for homemade ice cream, and passes off the hand-crank ice cream maker to someone else. 
• Folds laundry and leaves folded clothes in the laundry basket/on the sofa instead of putting them away. 
• Knits the sleeves, front, and back of a sweater, never sews the pieces together. 
• Starts writing a story, or a blog, leaves the piece at day’s end, and never returns to it.

I could go on.

FYI: There are an obscene amount of albums called "Unfinished Business." 

So when I decided to do 360 straight days of yoga practice, one of my goals was not “to complete something for once in my life.” Yes, my ultimate goal is to complete 360 straight days, but I didn’t think of it as a giant exercise in seeing a project through from start to finish. However, that’s exactly what it is.

With this goal of completion, there is a danger of looking at this year in terms of success and failure. This way of thinking doesn’t fit with yoga at all. When Patanjali uses the word “yoga” in his Yoga Sutras, it means “a state of wholeness” as well as the different practices (postures, pranayama, etc.) associated with this state. Should I step onto the mat everyday with the idea in my head that, “I have to do yoga today so I don’t fail,” I would be approaching my practice from a limited outlook. Yoga would become a chore (which I’ve discussed before), and I would be practicing with an ugly sense of obligation, with a fear of failure, and from a place of self-judgment. I would not be in a state of wholeness; I would not be open to whatever experiences might unfold while on the mat; and it wouldn’t be fun at all! As long as I upheld this outlook, even if I “succeeded” in practicing every single day, my yoga 360 would still be a failure. 

In her book, Living Your Yoga, Judith Lasater says, “The only real success in life is living with an open, loving heart.” I think that’s true. If I do miss a day of yoga, if I say to myself, “So you missed a day—it’s not worth beating yourself up over and discrediting all the yoga you did before today and all the yoga you’ll do after today,” then that, frankly, is a tremendous success.

Don’t get me wrong: I fully intend to keep doing yoga every single day until New Year’s. I intend to complete this thing. And it is a gigantic exercise in seeing a project through from start to finish. But it isn’t a gigantic exercise in NOT FAILING to see a project through from start to finish. It is a gigantic exercise in dedication and commitment. I am dedicated and committed to seeing this year through from start to finish, and more importantly, I am dedicated and committed to living with an open, loving heart—today, next month, come January 2011, come January 2021, and so on. 

 That's right, I'm the bacon.

Namaste!

For the record

Two of my obsessions, together at last...

 

I'm about to write a longer post, but first, thought I'd post my minutes for June 21st through July 6th:
June 21: 90 mins
June 22: 30 mins
June 23: 90 mins
June 24: 30 mins
June 25: 35 mins
June 26: 45 mins*
June 27: 35 mins
June 28: 35 mins
June 29: 30 mins
June 30: 90 mins
July 1: 90 mins
July 2: 30 mins
July 3: 30 mins
July 4: 35 mins**
July 5: 90 mins
July 6: 34 mins

* Not only did I do 45 minutes of yoga on this day, but I also ran 13.1 miles.  And lived to tell about it.
** This day marks the 180th straight day that I've done yoga for at least 30 minutes and assumed Adho Mukha Svanasana.  Blog about this to follow soon...  

Namaste!

Because I haven't posted my yoga minutes since Mother's Day...

I'll post them now, really quick, on Father's day...

May 10-16: 90; 35; 90; 30; 30; 30; 30 minutes

May 17-34: 90; 30; 90; 90; 30; 35; 30 minutes

May 24-31: 35; 30; 90; 35; 45; 30; 40; 90 minutes

June 1-6: 30; 90; 90; 40; 75; 40 minutes

June 7-13: 90; 40; 90; 75; 30; 30; 35 minutes

June 14-20: 90; 30; 35; 90; 30; 35; 30 minutes

I just did a Google image search for the words: father daughter yoga. I kind of expected a lot of creepy pictures to pop up, but hardly any images that really applied to my search popped up.  For some reason, a lot of pictures of Tom Cruise holding his daughter Suri came up.  No, not in any yoga pose, just walking down the street and carrying the kiddo.  Also, Hugh Jackman and Ben Affleck carrying their children down the street.  I don't understand!!!  Anyway, here is the only pictures I found of fathers and daughters actually doing yoga:

Hold me closer, daddy Dancer    

Anyway, then I did just a regular Google search with these same words, and this kids' book, by Bikram founder Baron Baptiste, turned up.  Super cute for all of you raising little yogis and yoginis!

A few years ago, I bought my father a yoga for golfers DVD, with yoga sequences to help prevent common golf injuries, like throwing one's back out again.  I don't know if my father ever tried the DVD; it is okay if my father has no interest in becoming a pretzel.  I just feel lucky to have a father who respects my yoga practice and who listens (or pretends to listen) to me prattle on about yoga on the phone regularly.  Namaste, Daddy!