Today I tried to do some back bending asanas in the late afternoon. I want to progress faster. Haha. How I exercised was not successful. I need to warm up much more. Just doing a few handstands against the wall is not enough. It's rather frustrating to be so stiff when the body is not warmed up. Shall I try again tomorrow? Focus is my morning practice. This is for sure. I'm still patient. I know back...
Outside of having two near miss (and by near miss, I mean miraculously getting out of the car without injury being grateful -- and wholly surprised -- to be alive) car accidents, I haven't experienced all that much trauma in......
This week is an excellent yoga week. Four times I went to a Mysore class. Tomorrow I'll participate in a led class. Today I had the feeling as if I have soft-boiled my body during the week and that I can reap from that work. The practice was easier like on other days. My thoughts became more and more enthusiastic after my practice . As if it had happened already that I stood up from urdhva dhanurasana,...
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make......
My current focus is back bending, back bending, back bending. I know that this is NOW the best strategy. It makes no sense to learn more and more asanas and to skip the back bending ones. It's hard. Back bending challenges me. I know it's better not to ask on a daily basis if progress happened. To be present every day, to exercise every day, to stay optimistic are the ingredients that will finally...
Samastithih position is not the prayer position. Just to stand tall, calm, feet together, arms on the side is not that easy. I usually enjoy this pose. This is the starting point of my practice. With the next inhaling the show can begin. The breath initiates the movement, ekam, arms up... In the meantime we are in Italy close to the Lago di Garda and tomorrow we'll be at home. Time flies. Internet...
Finally we are in a hotel room that allowed a nice sweaty practice. I practiced primary and this has been challenging enough. We have the heater on, this helped as it's easier to move in warm rooms. Outside it's raining. We don't care. Rain means that we read and enjoy our time in restaurants. And I had time for the classic primary on a Friday. Marichyasana D: The weight is rather on the right side...
Navasana is a challenge for me. I used to practice it only 3 times. My ambition is again to do it 5 times. It strengthens the core of the body. It surely also prepares for the vinyasas. Lifting the body up between the asana is an extra challenge. Never omit anything. Cordially greetings from France......
It's a very nice hotel room, very nice. Nevertheless I skip my morning practice. Excuse: the hotel room is too small. We walked around yesterday. It's so warm here that only a jacket is necessary to feel warm even at night. We walked through the shopping area. Finally we found a nice restaurant: bon bourgois. They were very flexible and I even got a delicious vegan meal. I admire everybody...
Above is Bern, Switzerland. It has been the view out of the huge window yesterday. Just behind the window I could practice. I even did. That is I exercised the sun salutations, standing asanas. When I arrived at paschimottanasana, I gave up. I was so stiff. Stiff, stiff, stiff. Sometimes the sentence 'It hurts so good' is so true. Sometimes it hurts so awfully. The discomfort is so awful sometimes,...
I am not a runner (unless someone is chasing me) but I remember a conversation with one in which he said that runner's take extra special care of their feet (he went on to discuss everything from caring for blisters......
Last weekend, I lost one of my contact lenses. This is a serious problem for me, because I am functionally blind without contacts or glasses. The only pair of glasses I own has a very old prescription, so wearing them for more than thirty minutes or so gives me a raging headache. As I wait … Continue reading → ...
Primary today. Just this. One movement, one breath. This is concentration. This calms. The eyes gaze at a point and don't move. This stops thinking, too. The breath is even. And deep. No music. Despite or because of this exhausting practice, finally it's calming, it relaxes mind and body. My concentration got better, for sure. I start the practice and I leave the mat when the last asana is done. No...
...in finding excuses why it's' good not to practice today. Where is this little voice that talks back? Where is this little voice that always knows why it's good to practice? Still sleepy? (A few sun salutations should be possible also on days of weak motivation, isn't it????)...
When it comes to working out and/or practicing yoga, I'm definitely a homebody. I like to practice when I feel moved to do so (as opposed to studio or gym hours) and I don't need the structure of having a......
Yes, it happens. Sometimes one leaps ahead. Yesterday it was not possible to bind in one of the twists and the other day it's possible. Yet most of the time daily progress cannot be experienced. Often when an asana is learned it's volatile in the beginning. One day it's good, the other day it feels impossible. - I'd love to see daily progress. It's rare. - Sometimes I think an asana doesn't develop...
Friday around the world Ashtanga yoga practitioners practice primary, often in a led class. After an intensive week it's good to slow down and to practice familiar poses. The body is exhausted after a week. It's protects from injuries to slow down at the end. Focus in the led classes is the vinyasa count that is a speciality of Ashtanga yoga. Vinyasas are the knots between the pearls,...
Primary series of Ashtanga yoga starts with dandasana . To sit with straight legs and a straight back can already be a challenge. Important is that all poses are active poses. The legs are engaged. Dandasana is the first sitting asana of the middle part of primary series, it's a rather relaxing pose. I mean just to sit... Then follow the paschimottanasanas. When I started with Ashtanga yoga 10 years...
"Sometimes, in order to know what love is, we need to experience what it is not." --DD Last night I was struck with the strong desire to do a little Spring Cleaning (why these cleaning urges seem to strike late......
Ardha baddha padmottanasana , it's one of the asanas I thought I wouldn't be able to do. Our bodies are different. Those with very long arms might have it a bit easier. But look, me too, I was able one day to perform it. This is the reason why I write about this pose today. I'd like to write about the mental influence of practicing Ashtanga yoga. In sum it made me more optimistic. I faced so...