Como se dice "Downward-Facing Dog" en espanol?

This is NOT Seattle.

I admit it: I am a lucky, lucky gal. What else can I say about the fact that the biggest obstacle to my 360-day yoga quest thus far is that, gosh darn it, I'm flying to the Riviera Maya in Mexico tomorrow morning to stay at the resort pictured above with my family for a week? I am a lucky, lucky gal.

But I have put a lot of thought over the last few weeks into how will I practice yoga on vacation in warm, exciting, DISTRACTING Mexico? How will I be able to practice with genuine attention in a two-bedroom resort/time share unit with my father, stepmother, brother, and sister-in-law hanging around? Do I take a mat, buy some of those strap-on yoga paws for my hands and feet instead, or wing it without a mat on the bare floor or carpet? If the resort has yoga classes, will they be led in Spanish? And what about those 8-hour travel days?

I don't yet have the answers to many of these questions, but I am not taking a mat, nor did I buy yoga paws. I am winging it on the room floor, and, whether or not I have an audience, I will do yoga every day. Somehow. If the resort classes are in Spanish, that will be a pretty cool experience! And if not, hey, at least I'll have the option to go to a class. Finally, I downloaded not one, but two CHAIR podcasts for my big air travel days. I'll have to combine them with some other light yoga/pranayama/meditation to get my minimum 30 minute quota, but I'm excited to have found these. I'm so psyched to do one at my gate in Houston tomorrow!

I'll be sure to post about keeping up a regular yoga practice while far away from regular life. But for now, here's my yoga minutes for the last 13 days.

Day 11, 1/16: 55 minutes Day 18, 1/23: 75 minutes
Day 12, 1/17: 48 minutes Day 19, 1/24: 90 minutes
Day 13, 1/18: 90 minutes Day 20, 1/25: 60 minutes
Day 14, 1/19: 50 minutes Day 21, 1/26: 40 minutes
Day 15, 1/20: 90 minutes Day 22, 1/27: 90 minutes
Day 16, 1/21: 40 minutes Day 23, 1/28: 75 minutes
Day 17, 1/22: 30 minutes

One pose I'm hatin' on: Salamba Kapotasana, or Supported Pigeon Pose. Or Eka Pada Rajakapotasna, i.e. One-Legged King Pigeon Pose--and any variation in between. My knees aren't liking these poses at all this week.

And one pose I'm loving: Bakasana, or Crane Pose. Mostly because I did it right AND held it for longer than two seconds for the first time ever today! Yay!

This will soon be me. Except for the gender thing, I suppose.

Namaste!

Note to self: yoga should not be a chore.

Well, it shouldn't, right?

This kind of outlook is one of the challenges I've bumped into thus far in my 360 days of yoga quest. There are days, like today, where I wake up, feel kinda of blech physically and blah mentally, and the prospect of doing yoga doesn't exactly make my heart sing. It feels like something I "have to do." So, when I was telling a friend about what my day looked like recently, I said something like: "I want to spend a little time working the office, and I need to spend some time cleaning at home, and I've have to do my yoga still." He remarked that the way I was talking about yoga made it sound like this dreaded chore, and that seemed kind of contrary to why I am trying to do yoga for 360 days in the first place.

And he's right. When devising this yoga challenge for myself, I did not seek to add a daily chore to my life. I sought to add daily joy and calm and movement. But I AM human. Of course, when I wake up with a migraine, I'm not going to skip to my yoga mat. And I've woken up with two migraines this week--which is usually the maximum amount of migraines I have in a month. With any luck, I won't have another one for four weeks. However, I still have to get through today. The headache is fading, but I feel a little weak overall, unfocused, and sort of nauseous. I have yet to do yoga today. When I do, I know to avoid a lot of Uttanasana and to skip the inversions all together: I want to minimize poses that send blood rushing to the head. And I'm probably not going to want to hold Utkatasana for very long today because of my nausea. Today is a day for a gentle yoga practice, a restorative yoga practice.

I know that I am the one who decides what qualifies as a day's yoga practice in my challenge. Some people would craft flexible rules for themselves, rules that bend all sorts of ways so that they don't fail. Now I don't want to fail, but I'm kind of a hard a** with myself. I am writing down how much time I spend doing yoga every day, and on days when I'm crafting my own pose sequence, I'm timing it and making sure I keep at it for over 30 minutes. Which is great! But I also have this idea in my head that I'm "cheating" if I spend a day's practice just doing gentle yoga stretches or restorative poses or doing more meditation or breath work. If I really want to practice yoga though, I absolutely have to let go of the idea that I have to break a sweat or feel my muscles burning in my daily practice. Burning calories is not yoga!!!

In fact, only one of the 8 limbs of yoga, as laid out in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, has anything to do with poses and "exercise" at all--the third limb, Asana, which regards body postures. The literal meaning of the word Asana is not "pose" however. It is "seat," often used in the context of a seated position one can comfortably maintain for meditation. As for the other 7 limbs of yoga, they cover morality, personal observances, control of breath, control of the senses, cultivating inner perceptual awareness, meditation on the Divine, and union with the divine. While I may discuss these more at a later date, I refer you to Wikipedia for now!

My point is: with so little importance given to the sweating buckets aspect of yoga, I really must give more attention to the other aspects of yoga. Especially on days like today: practicing Pranayama (breath exercises) and Dhyana (meditation) may actually help alleviate my migraine, and they definitely won't make me feel worse. Focusing on these other limbs of yoga aren't cheating. However, if I focused only on Asanas, I would be cheating myself.

"Meditate, you must. Yes, hmmm."

Namaste!

The challenges of practicing at home

Ugh.

Let me set the scene. It's Friday morning. I've been writing for the man most every day for the past two weeks. I've also been doing yoga every day for the past two weeks (plus three days). Honestly, my life has never felt so routine and predictable. Good thing? Bad thing? Routines give me balance, and also can be quite conducive to better productivity. And, yes, I HAVE been on schedule with my writing. I have kept my place moderately clean. I have cooked meals and prepared lunch and even met my personal goal to ride the bus to the office at least once a week, and to go to the gym once a week. So I ask myself:

1. Is a regular yoga practice causing this regularity in the rest of my life? AND
2. How can an ADHD mind like mine tolerate the lack of drama?

Answers: Maybe, and I have NO IDEA.

For the last several years, my days have varied immensely from one to the next. In work, in mood, in energy, in sleep, in food, in everything. On one hand, that kind of variation is very exciting, stimulating to a brain that craves stimulation. It can provoke great creativity and lots of ideas. On the other hand, that kind of daily variation doesn't allow much room for actual growth and progress. I sort of forgot how to complete projects, how to follow through. So for all the exciting ideas and plans I'd make, most of them barely got off the ground. I'd abandon them as my life shifted and my interest with it. Ultimately, I felt like a failure and like I wasn't living up to my potential. While I think "Failure" is a harsh word now, I do think the latter was true.

Then, after perhaps the most varied, nutty six to eight months of my life, things began to settle down. I began to settle into things. Not that I love everything that I've settled into. I don't really enjoy writing for the man, but it does work for me right now. I would like to settle into my fiction writing instead, but that is another story. Right now, I'm just proud that I've settled into any routine at all, and that I'm not too itchy to ditch it.

The very first brick I laid in my more settled routine was yoga. Even when my life was whipping around everywhere like a cyclone, I went to yoga class on Tuesday mornings. Then I added Friday mornings. Then I swapped Tuesdays with Wednesdays. And then I changed Fridays to Mondays at a different studio. Okay, so this doesn't look very consistent and steady, but the point is: I've been committed to attending a regular yoga class most every week for about three years, and I've gone to Om Town on Wednesday mornings for Wendy's class for a full year.

A weekly yoga class only gives structure to ~90 minutes of the 10,080 minutes in a week. That's almost nothing. But what important 90 minutes they are! In the depths of an ugly depression or uncertain time, those 90 minutes gave me focus outside of the sad and the scary emotions that were dominating my life. I focused on my breath, on balance, on my muscle energy, and on the minute muscles and bones in my body--how to move each one into better alignment. I focused on not throwing up after holding my arms up in chair position for an eternity (or maybe just 90 seconds...).

Proper alignment takes a lot of focus, frequent check-ins, and minor adjustments. My therapist recently asked me if I had a lot of creative ideas while practicing yoga. The answer is absolutely not. Maybe if I let my mind wander in Savasana, a notion will come to me. But generally, my mind is so focused on my practice that there is no room for creative lightening bolts to strike. There is also no room for moodiness, and I note stress in my body, not my brain. When I think how therapeutic therapy is for me, I wonder why I wig out about dropping money on yoga classes but not on my therapist, who is great, but maybe not as essential to my well being as my yoga practice. Hmmmm....

I do think that by settling into a yoga routine, I laid the foundation to settle into the rest of my life with more ease. I think it's increased my patience, so that I can endure longer with dull work days that resemble one another an awful lot these days. Not that I'm complacent, but that I'm more or less content with things at this moment and I can sit still to ride it out. This is HUGE!

Now, in committing to 360 straight days of yoga, I'm biting off a lot. Some caring individuals, who know me pretty dang well and have seen my sudden starts and stops over the years, have expressed a little concern that I'm setting myself up to fail and that I'll be crushed if I do fail. That maybe I should give myself a break here and there. I really do understand where these concerns come from. I'm not offended or upset that these important people have reacted this way. I have these concerns too, trust me. But if I don't commit all the way, if I'm not absolute and firm in this goal, I WILL fail.

So on to my second question, how can an ADHD mind like mine tolerate the lack of drama? Or, put in the context of daily yoga practice, how can an ADHD mind like mine maintain enthusiasm for yoga practice day in and day out, especially when I'm practicing at home? This IS hard. When I'm trying to execute a pose sequence of my own design, at home, alone, lasting at least 30 minutes--well, I don't hold poses for that long. I get bored and want to get to the next sun salutation. I grow antsy in Savasana and I want to jump up and get in the shower. In my 360 of yoga, I need to mix it up with classes at yoga studios, at gyms, with podcasts, with yoga CDs, with yoga books, websites, etc. The other day, I bought the Yoga Deck so I could pull out cards to create a yoga sequence and then lay them out in front of my mat on the floor. I've got to stay flexible in my mind to succeed at this year of yoga.

The truth is that this is a great opportunity to try new yoga studios, teachers, positions, books, resources. If I look at it this way, it feels varied even in the routine, and my brain stays stimulated. I'm going to try to go to a new yoga studio/venue or try a new yoga teacher every week or two for the first few months of this project. And I need to keep invigorating my home practice, because one of my main intentions in this project IS to develop a good home yoga practice! I welcome any ideas about how to keep yoga fun and engaging at home. And I'd love to go with anyone to their yoga studio for a class!

By the way, tomorrow, Saturday, January 23 is:
a.) My half birthday. In my view, the age of 33 and a half is the official marker of being in one's "mid-thirties."
b.)Yoga Day USA. There will be free yoga events all over the place, and I will definitely be going to one of them! More about Yoga Day USA here.

And now, I'm going to get out of this chair and head to the office. And get some very not yogi-like coffee. Wah ha ha ha!

Utkatasana
Please make it stop. I can't hold my arm bones up this way any longer.

What is this blog all about? -- Part Two

As discussed in Part One of "What is this blog all about," the potential changes and benefits I might experience over the course of 360 days are infinite. Not all of them are positive, of course. I might tear a muscle or dislocate my shoulder. I might become stressed out about squeezing in my yoga practice and behave in some less than calm, peaceful, kind ways. AND what will I do if I become very sick, break a bone, am in a serious accident, suffer a serious head injury, get imprisoned (not likely, but you never know!), become pregnant? There are deal breakers, so it is important to set out the conditions of my year of yoga.


1. First, what defines a daily yoga practice, i.e. for how long will I do yoga each day? I am committing to spending a minimum of 30 minutes doing yoga every day.

2. Does lying in Savasana for 30 minutes equate to a day's yoga practice? No. It does not. Nor does sitting cross-legged in meditation or resting in Balasana (Child's Pose) for 30 minutes. However, I will likely spend a few minutes in seated meditation at the beginning of my practice, a few minutes lying in Savasana at the end of my practice, and pause for a breath in Child's Pose pretty much every day--these three aspects of yoga practice are actually challenging for me, believe it or not! I get impatient, I want to take action, move to the next pose or the next activity. I've skipped Savasana in my home practice many, many times and rushed through meditation (which means I really didn't meditate at all). As meditation, rest, and the breath are very important parts of yoga, I am committing to practice these quieter poses with equal attention to the more active ones.

3. So aside from the passive parts of yoga, what else will go into a day's practice? I think the only pose that I can all but guarantee will be in every day's practice (notwithstanding injury or any unforeseen physical limitation) is Downward-Facing Dog. I really can't think of the last time I practiced yoga without doing this pose at some point, thus "360 days of Adho Mukha Svanasana" is the perfect title for this blog about my undertaking. Other than Downward Dog, I expect the asanas in my practice will vary day to day, especially when I get my day's practice in a yoga class. Different yoga teachers, class locales, and difficulty levels lend themselves to different poses. Likewise, when I practice at home, my body and mind often dictate the poses I do or don't do. Forward bends and inversions can be helpful in alleviating general anxiety, but they can agitate a migraine or headache. Likewise, back bends are good for opening the heart and elevating one's mood, but if my lower back is bothering me, I might not want to do either of these!

4. How will I track my yoga practice? How will I hold myself accountable? I'm tracking how long I've practiced yoga each day by writing the minute amount for each day. I don't know how to absolutely prove to the world that I do yoga everyday--without filming my practice with a live feed to the Internet and that is NOT going to happen. But I will write about my practice here every ~10 days or so. I will post the minutes for each day since my last post, and I'll write a little about how I am practicing and where, limitations and ideas that may be guiding my practice that week, poses I'm struggling with or loving, and so on. This way I not only hold myself accountable, but I am accountable to the Internet, whatever that is worth! Also, if you live in Seattle, or I'm visiting your region, you can help facilitate my practice by inviting me to your favorite yoga class or studio and witness my 360 in action.

5. What if I get the flu, food poisoning, pregnant, or cancer, or what if I break a bone, sprain my ankle, suffer a concussion or spinal injury, am in a coma, am imprisoned, on a 20-hour flight, or have some other impeding physical condition/limitation? First, for long days of travel and vacation: I will find a way to practice somehow, though it may be a lot more pranayama (breathing) and meditation if I am sandwiched in the middle seat of a flight across the world. Should I decide to go somewhere like Thailand, which requires a very long airplane ride or two and puts me on the ground a day and a half after my departure time due to the time change--I will either do yoga twice that day, or I will make it up when I come home and go through the reverse time shift (living through the same day twice pretty much). Also, there are still ways to practice yoga if I break my leg or arm, become pregnant, or have the flu, food poisoning, or even cancer some times. All such conditions will limit the range of my practice, but should one of these physical issues arise, I will adjust my yoga practice accordingly. More breath work, restorative poses, gentle stretches to uninjured regions. BUT if I suffer a spinal injury, or be hospitalized and completely immobilized, or chained up in prison (I really don't expect this to happen!), such conditions are clearly deal breakers. Right now, these types of serious life events are my 360-days of yoga's only deal breakers.

Voila! If anyone in the Internet world can think of some other important issue I need to address to lay out my year of yoga, please comment away!

I had planned to go into why, aside from any of the potential positive benefits listed above, I want to do yoga for 360 days, but this post is rather LONG already and I still need to do my daily yoga practice! So I will write about some other reasons next time! For now, here's my log for the first 10 days of my yoga 360:

Day 1, 1/6: 90 minutes
Day 2, 1/7: 30 minutes
Day 3, 1/8: 60 minutes
Day 4, 1/9: 60 minutes
Day 5, 1/10: 40 minutes
Day 6, 1/11: 90 minutes
Day 7, 1/12: 60 minutes
Day 8, 1/13: 90 minutes
Day 9, 1/14: 75 minutes
Day 10, 1/15: 30 minutes

One pose I'm hating on: Baddha Utthita Parsvakonasana or Bound Side-Angle Pose

Clearly, this SMILING woman is not me.

One pose I'm loving: Utthita Parsvakonasana or Side Angle Pose (Doing lots of side angle poses lately!)

This also is not me. FYI.

Namaste!

What is this blog all about? -- Part One

Welcome!

My name is Jessica and I am a yoga fiend. It's true. Yoga has helped me through some difficult times. It has transformed my body and mind. Yoga is something I am unabashedly, totally passionate about. So much so that I am committing to practicing yoga for 360 straight days.

You, my imagined readers, may ask, "Why 360 days versus, say, 365 days?" Well, some people make resolutions for New Years. I have not grown up to be one of those people. I am one of those people who forget to think about New Years resolutions until New Years Day. Likewise, I am a person who doesn't like to set goals that aren't achievable (Learn to speak fluent Chinese this year!) or boring (Floss twice every day). And I am an over-thinker; if I am making a resolution, I better have a well thought-out plan of action. So... I don't make resolutions quickly or easily, which means I rarely succeed in making New Years resolution. But I do like the idea of resolutions, of setting massive goals and committing to them, of having criteria and deadlines to meet. And I like having a little more structure and responsibility in my daily life. I tend to be more successful and happy in most aspects of my life when I have a little bit of a fire burning under my tush.

So when the idea came to me, during Savasana in my Wednesday morning yoga class on January 6, to do yoga everyday for a year, I was only momentarily phased by the fact that the first five days of 2010 had already come and gone. I considered doing yoga for 365 days and wrapping up my year on January 5, 2011. But I like the number 360 for obvious reasons: a full rotation, a complete circle. Why are there 365 days in the typical year? There should totally be 360 days!

What does the starting point of a circle look like upon return, after you've traveled around its entire circumference? Does the planet look or feel any different after undergoing a full rotation? What does Adho Mukha Svanasana--Downward-Facing Dog, perhaps the most frequently executed pose by Western yoga practitioners--what does it feel like after doing the pose for 360 straight days? I want to know if it feels or looks different. And I want to know what I look and feel like after 360 straight days of doing yoga. I wonder, will I:

• Feel happier? More balanced and patient? Calmer? More spiritual? Less anxious? Less inclined to suffer SAD in the winter?
• Look different--be slimmer or have more muscle bulk? Grow a few centimeters in height?
• Sleep better? Make smarter decisions about what I eat and drink?
  
• Be more organized with my time and space? Keep my apartment cleaner so I have room for my yoga mat and to do handstand at the wall? Improve my focus and attention in other parts of my life?
  
• Be more mindful of others in my words and actions, even my thoughts? Be kinder to myself, love myself more, forgive myself for not being perfect?
• 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?
• 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 full learned how to properly execute them? Poses like Bakasana? 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 Dog? Stand on one leg with my other foot up by my head without tipping over?
  
• Be more content with yuck weather and yuck work and yuck people? Handle difficult news and situations with more equanimity and grace?
• Be forever transformed?
• Levitate????

Stay tuned...

Namaste!