Tag Archives: practice

Practice and All Is Coming

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Sri K. Pattabhi Jois once said, “Practice and all is coming.”  We can apply this idea to yoga practice, to working for non-profits, to our jobs, and to our relationships.  The point here is that we need not worry about the outcome.  If we just do our practice, wholeheartedly, what will come will come and we have done our parts.   Given that non-attachment brings us closer to our natural state of bliss or enlightenment, that effort to simply practice, regardless of the concrete outcomes of the practice, brings us closer to our true selves.

Today, I was reminded of this as I participated in a 90 minute vinyasa practice, led by one of my fellow teacher trainees, and then taught my 90 minute practice session.  Looking at these two experiences from the perspective of the immediate, neither was everything I might have hoped it would be.  Katie’s class was great, but the ongoing problem that I’m having in my right arm made some of my poses feel sloppy and/or uncomfortable.  And then, in the practice I led, I learned that I am not ready to teach immediately after taking a class.  My head was in the “follower” space instead of the “leader” space and I felt pretty discombobulated. I also realized that I would rather have more pages of notes with bigger words, or less words on the page but bigger – basically, I need to be able to see my notes without my old lady glasses on 🙂

And yet, even with these problems, I’m glad I came to the mat.  I am glad that I did my practice.  Because the practice itself is good for me, and so is being in these moments where my expectations and reality are clashing a little and needing to push myself into letting go of the expectations.  It’s all a practice –  all of it.

Namaste,

L

What a Nice Day!

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Today started off a little iffy.  I didn’t sleep well all  night, due to a cold (or allergies) that was giving me a headache and sore throat.  So, when the cat went off this morning at 6, I was not pleased.  After ignoring her for a while, I started to get up, but my great spousal unit, Derek, told me to stay put since I hadn’t slept and he would take care of it.  Yay for getting some sleep.  When I did get up, it was time to start prepping for my final teach practice.  This was my first run-through of the teach with actual students and I was nervous about it.

After we arrived and set up, the victims, er, students started to arrive.  My fellow teacher trainees, Yvonne and Katie, attended.  Maiga, a wonderful instructor and inspiration, was their.  A former university student and now friend and yogi came to practice with us.  And, my daughter, Abbigael, came along for moral support and a dose of yoga.

Though I was really nervous, it went well.  There was a little weirdness with my playlist (it froze up on the first song) that caused some distraction.  But, once that was fixed, it all went fine and was quite enjoyable.  I got great feedback from the attendees, which I’m now working to incorporate into the plan.

After class, we headed home, where another nice treat was awaiting me.  A few days ago, Bob Weisenberg, from Elephant Journal had contacted me about writing a post about YIOM.  When I came home and checked my email, I found that my post was live on the EJ site.  COOL!

Now I’m revising my teach plans, checking  out twitter conversation about the Elephant post, feeling grateful for my yoga friends and family, and considering pizza for dinner.  And, the sun is out and it’s a lovely temperature outside.  Ahhhhhh, nice!   That’s a yoga day!

Namaste!

Lorin

Curiasana

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Yep. I just made that up.  But, curious is a good descriptor for how I’ve been approaching my asana practice lately.  I’ve known, intellectually, that every practice was a unique experience, because the body and the mind are different from moment to moment and day to day.  But, even though I’ve “known” it, I’ve often not remembered it in practice.  Consequently, there was frustration when a pose that had been getting deeper stopped, or even retreated.  And I felt confused (and annoyed) when I suddenly found myself fearful of a pose that I had done with confidence the prior week.

Somehow (maybe all that Bhagavad Gita), I’ve recently taken much more of an attitude of curiosity and acceptance of where I am on a given day.  It’s actually quite interesting to see how things shake out, and it’s always a surprise.  Last night, for example, I found urdvha danurasana quite a challenge.  It’s been that way (a little unreachable) for the past few weeks.  I don’t know why, as it was accessible before.  Now, when I prep for the pose, I can feel some anxiety build in my  body, even when I don’t think it’s there in my head.  In this practice, I tried to just watch; I noticed that it seems to be related to something with my arms (specifically the wrists).  As soon as I put them into position, that feeling of discomfort begins there and radiates out.  If I go in very quickly, I can get into the pose before I fully feel it, but if I do the prep the way I should, then by the time it’s the moment to really push up, my body isn’t feeling happy.  So, last night, I watched it.  I went up once briefly and then just maintained the wheel arms with the setu bandhasana hips.

Also in this practice, we did L shaped handstand.  It’s been a while since this pose made me nervous.  In general, I like it.  Last night, it did make me nervous.  Curious.  What was different?  It could have been that my mat was long against the wall I was practicing against. It could have been my location in the room.  I don’t know, and I tried not to think about it much during the class, but it was interesting to watch that feeling unfold.  On the other hand (or foot), my joints were a rather loose today, and I saw that ardha padmasana was more available than usual.

All in all, I’m trying to approach my asana with more curiosity and less evaluation.  I think this applies to life as well as asana.  As Albert Einstein once said:

Curiosity has its own reason for existing.  One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.