Monday, July 30, 2007

On The Mat


Yesterday I took an intermediate power vinyasa class. It seemed like a good time to try it, I am celebrating an anniversary. A year ago I headed off to my teacher training program at Kripalu in Western, Mass. I am not so sure about advanced vinyasa and entered the class with trepidation but yet a feeling I might now be strong enough to do this! At some point in a personal practice stepping out of your comfort zone is the only way to grow a practice and make the base solid. Also, having a good repertoire of tools from a variety of yoga styles is beneficial to everyone. Now I have no desire to teach boot camp power yoga but what the heck! This could be fun! Party down, I'm going in!!!!! Two hours later I crawled out thankful that was over and I'm still alive. Partner work for handstands, Navasana over and over again and 15-20 minutes in frog! At the end of class one guy took his towel out to the street and rung it out. The sweat came pouring out like water from a faucet! Instead of feeling strong and proud and grateful I survived I had an uncomfortable sensation nagging me like someone who won't stop tapping you on the shoulder. "This is not where your at Miss. S answer me this question, Why haven't you developed a home practice? " The home practice is the one that will sustain a student through decades of ups and downs, crazy schedules and tight financial times. People say its where the real development occurs and breakthroughs happen. It's just hard to find the discipline to get on the mat and then figure out what to do once I'm there. I do have some DVD's. and I can always work on my sequences. So my goal for year two is to step out of the comfort zone of a pre prepped class with teacher assistants and props and spend more time on the mat at studio chez moi .
Any thoughts on the personal practice? goals? DVD recommendations?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I just started reading your blog- I saw it linked from Grounding thru the Sit Bones.

For me, getting started with a personal practice was the hardest part. But now that it has become part of my routine over the last few years, I miss it when I don't do it. So start off small, maybe 15 minutes a day. I'm more of a morning person, so prefer to practice then. But on really crazy days, I might do 10 minutes in halasana before bed and that's all. You can do it, too!

jen