One Year Of Yoga

Today’s Ashtanga class was a good one. I was able to get up into headstand again! Against the wall of course, but since I couldn’t even do that before, this is a big improvement for me! This achievement comes at a good time since I have been frustrated at myself for still having tight hips. It seems like after 128 days I should be farther along in the hip flexibility department. I know so many other factors come into play here with emotions and stress, etc. I just need to be patient with myself.

Great Ashtanga class! I was so happy when we were told to do headstands and I didn’t think I could do it, and I tried and got right up (against the wall). I’ve never done that before. It was a good feeling. I will keep working at it and maybe someday I will be able to take headstand in the middle of the room. After class, to celebrate, my husband and I went for a drink. I had the spicy martini called “Descending Dragon”. It has Thai Chili infused Vodka!

Today was a full moon and in Ashtanga tradition, practitioners take a day of rest. Luckily, we still had class today and it was good. The instructor made it a little less intense which was perfect for me because I woke up feeling very tired today. I guess the moon can cause this. Very interesting.

Full class today. Luckily, I was the last student they let in. Phew! Good practice. Met a fellow Bikram teacher. My balance felt better than on Tuesday’s class. Today is a beautiful sunny, crisp winter day and perfect for all the last minute shopping and holiday traveling.

Great class. Ashtanga really develops your upper body strength without thinking about it. The Vinyasa’s between the poses really do the trick. I always feel like I got a good workout after this class. I’m still working on my hips. They are still really tight.

This was a good class although, I did not realize it was teacher led, not a regular taught, yoga class. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing. Some students seemed very advanced.

Great Ashtanga class today! Hips are still a little tight.  Was able to do handstands against the wall.  That’s an improvement.

Great Ashtanga class. Still feeling some aches and pains from driving. Lower back is speaking to me. Instructor tried to adjust me in downward dog and I bent my knees to aviod a full adjustment. My lower back hurts to the touch.

Fun class today. Saw some different arm balances than I have seen before. Some things to work towards. Today the class did this thing where you were supposed to help adjust the person across from you in downward dog. Since downward dog was not in the Bikram series we did not learn how to teach it nor how to adjust it. I wouldn’t know how to adjust a person properly, so I just took child’s pose until they were done.

Today’s class was great. The instructor seemed to explain things in more detail this time and assisted people deeper into the poses. I learned that my hands can go higher when I do reverse Namaste. Also, I’m not sure how many times I’ve heard this, but it finally clicked today, that when stretching in a forward bend you are supposed to engage the muscle you are stretching to protect it from injury. It seems to actually help you stretch deeper too. I knew this from teaching Bikram poses, I just hadn’t applied the same rules to the poses common in other disciplines of yoga.