day 20: sun salutations

30 minutes - sun salutations and so on

from yoga journal

i feel like a kid who left her homework at school. i woke up this morning without a plan for my practice and ended up choosing a class focused on repetition. really, the class had participants do 10 series A sun salutations and then i did the first of 10 series B sun salutations before i turned off the class and did my own thing.

rather than continue to be annoyed with the class, i chose to follow what my body wanted to do. i did some forward bends, a standing balancing pose, cobbler's pose, a twist and happy baby. it felt really good to practice on my own without someone chatting at me. while i certainly didn't look like the model in the picture, i got a good stretch.

tonight, i'm actually going to do my homework and make a plan for myself for tomorrow morning. then, when i start going to the studio once a week (thanks to my amazing birthday present!), it will be a welcome feeling to be guided through a practice.

day 19: condensed full practice

30 minutes - quick essential poses

this morning, i feel like we took a full practice and crammed it into 30 minutes. we started with 3 sun salutations, did a couple standing poses (warrior 2 and triangle), balanced in mountain, transitioned into seated poses and ended in hero.

for me, i would have chosen a different series of poses, but the flow made sense. i just didn't care for the seated poses we did. apparently so much so that i can't remember what they were. meh.

maybe instead of doing an online class, i'll take some time this evening to design my own practice. i bet i can come up with a series that takes 30 minutes, follows a similar pattern and takes the path i want to take.

maybe that will be my challenge within my challenge. do you have any tips for planning a practice?

day 18: a gentle practice

20 minutes - nice and easy

today is my birthday and rather than wake up at 6am for yoga, i decided to sleep in a bit. i also kicked my own butt a bit with yesterday's practice and my arms could certainly feel the workout. i did a nice gentle practice, mostly on the floor, and stretched out my hips, my hamstrings and my back. just right.

i also had a massage today and it turns out my giant knot was actually on my right side, not my left like i thought. my right upper body was so knotted up and tight that i overstretched my left side which is what caused the pain. the good part is that my knots are gone. the bad part is that i'm a little sore from how hard she had to push to get my muscles to ease up.

tired, sore, but glad to be sorted out.

day 17: modified primary series

60 minutes - ashtanga modified primary

my practice today is the best one yet. i had a whole hour (M took the girls to the grocery) and i figured after more than 2 weeks of daily practice my body would be ready for a proper class. i've been telling myself to stick with beginner classes and level 1 ability because i've been away for so long.

today felt like coming home. i knew the pattern and my body remembers the poses. i didn't have to watch the instructor, i could finally just follow my breath and move through.

she did about half of the primary series, but in an hour it was still a serious practice. i feel strong and i feel tired. i forgot how much one goes from a seated pose back through plank, updog and downdog. today is the first time i've been able to *almost* jump through.

i wish i could do a practice like this more often, but finding an hour is challenging. however, tomorrow is my birthday and i feel like this gives me license to ask for a little extra time.

this is also the first time i've felt really calm after practicing. i don't feel distracted. i don't feel in a hurry.

day 16: better than coffee

30 minutes - vinyasa flow

better than coffee? i'm not so sure about that, but i will say i felt more awake when i finished than when i started. this was the most active practice i've done in about a week and it felt good.

from yoga journal

in all truthfulness, i couldn't actually manage a couple of the poses. standing split? at 5:45am? nope. camel pose? i didn't even know what this was. apparently, one kneels, then lengthens through the torso, then leans back and grab's one's ankles. not happening. (proper instructions can be found at yoga journal.)

it felt good to get moving  and even though i really, really didn't want to get out of my nice warm bed and wander downstairs to find my mat, i'm glad i did.

day 15: shoulders

30 minutes - shoulder openers

from balanced yoga

to follow on my balance class last night, i chose a class this morning for people with sore shoulders and upper back. it seemed appropriate considering my giant shoulder knot that has been working itself out since the beginning of the week.

i did quite a few standing poses which had me reaching up and pulling down at the same time, again to create space- space in my middle, space between my ears and my shoulders, space between my fingertips and my body. the final pose in the series started with laying on my back with a block under my shoulder blades and a block under my head. then, i reached my arms from my sides over my head with my fingers touching the floor. it was pretty hard to gracefully get out of the pose, but it felt great while i was in it.

and, today is officially the half-way point in the 30 day yoga challenge. i am super impressed with myself that i've managed to make time to practice for 15 days in a row. and with my good friend who is side by side (and on the other side of the world) with me.

we're really doing it.

day 14: balance

60 minutes - balance and alignment

we had our last on-site yoga class at work last night with my favorite instructor. she's so good. we had a small group, but we moved quite a bit. she led us through a series of poses to open the chest and create space between the hips and the shoulders. i felt so much taller after the class.

and she sells wedges to help prop up one's rump when sitting so that it's easier to be tall. it takes less effort to stack my body and decreases the instinct to round the upper back and hunch forward. she jokes that the class should be called all about the pelvis because we spend so much time figuring out how to align our bodies to move with the natural curve of the pelvis and shift from the cultural tendency to push our hips forward, pull our tummies in and muscle our back into sitting up straight.

amazingly, our body is designed to do this on its own and figuring out how to allow that to happen takes concentration and practice.

you can find more about this instructor here. i would recommend her to anyone with any degree of familiarity with yoga. it can feel a little disjointed at the beginning of this type of practice, but the benefits are huge.