Challenge Yourself to Create Balance

What have you been avoiding because it looks difficult or pulls up emotional funk? Is there something you've been ignoring that you could be working towards?

People tend to get all too cozy in their comfort zone. They don't focus on their weaknesses very often (if ever) - which allows them to get weaker and weaker. In the meantime your strengths get stronger and stronger. This creates an ever-expanding gap in your abilities. Sounds like a huge imbalance. The more advanced your yoga practice gets the more your imbalances can come back to haunt you. The smallest weak spot can completely throw off a pose and lead to injury. Easily avoidable if you just do the work - all the work, all the time.

via FuckYeahAshtangaYoga

Take a good look at your practice. Is there an entire direction you aren't moving? Is there a category of poses you avoid? Is there a tweaky chronic pain that needs to be addressed?

Don't think that being a beginner or an intermediate practitioner excuses you from this. That's exactly when you need to be creating good habits of introspection and filling in the gaps.

Challenge yourself by looking into those spaces before you have the Grand Canyon of imbalances staring you in the face.

via Yoga, Water, Sun, Light

Closed for Renovations

Taking the week off for oral surgery. 

No amount of pranayama could prepare me for the anxiety I feel about having teeth cut out of my jaw, but this is a fairly accurate representation of my wisdom teeth. Unfortunately for me - they've gotta go.

Picture not mine.

Consider this next photo a summation of what I would've said this week:

This pic, also not mine.

Resistance to Practice: Lighten Up!

Doldrums, disinterest, lack of motivation... Whatever you want to call it - it can be a veritable brick wall. The first time this happens to you isn't really much different than the 50th time. It's always uncomfortable. Everyone deals with it differently. When the last thing you want to do is practice - how do you handle it?

I suggest that you lighten up!

My asana practice has been dragging ass for a few months. The very sight of my mat kinda makes me groan at the notion of practice.

Finally I realized that if I relax my requirements of what counts as practice then I might do more yoga. I started doing yoga in my pajamas in the grass of my backyard, at the gym in the middle of the "stretching area" in my sneakers, or in the carpeted living room while wearing socks. Turns out I just need a new perspective for a while.

My practice is different (again) and I've sort of distilled it down to the pieces I enjoy the most. I've removed the "fluff" and I'm doing lots of lunges, hanumanasana, and pigeon mostly. I've made huge strides in my poses by doing this. That doesn't mean I never do the other stuff. I just mostly focus on my big loves and loosening my expectations is treating me well.

When you want nothing to do with yoga - focus on what you love.

By immersing my practice in joy and letting go of the picky details like always having to be barefoot I'm reconnecting to why I love the practice and this slump will pass.

Aparigraha in Action

I mentioned yesterday that we're moving... quickly... and far away. This being the case, dragging our full household of stuff would be inconvenient and expensive. We've decided to sell/donate at least 80% of our stuff. The bed, couch, loveseat, giant chair and matching ottoman, fancy red chair, TV, washer, dryer, end tables, dining room table/chairs, etc.... It's all going away. That's just the big stuff. We're also shedding tons of boxes of smaller items like weights. Almost all the small stuff is just being donated and we're exchanging the big stuff for money. I think it's all honorably priced, and it is moving quickly. I just listed the big stuff today and almost all of it is being picked up tomorrow by happy people matched up with great furniture.

I don't know the last time you were face to face with an honest appraisal of how much "stuff" you own (or maybe it owns you), but it was probably too much. That's usually the case anyway. Humans have some pack rat tendencies. We tend to hold onto things for sentimental reasons, obligation, or for no reason at all. Sometimes we even keep things out of guilt. But when was the last time you actually USED any of that stuff? I've been having to ask myself some tough questions about things. Do I really need/want/use/like this item? Why do I have it? Does it serve my purpose on this path? Usually the answer is no... so it belongs in the sell list or the donate pile. It doesn't always get put there. Sometimes it's packed in a box to travel with me, but we all have our weaknesses. For me it's art supplies - for you maybe it's something else.

I've written about aparigraha (greedlessness, non-attachment) before, and you can read more about its practice here.

Photo Source: Tineye found nothing. Don't know. I'm lazy at midnight, so I'm not going to try harder than that.