The Primary Series

Ashtanga Yoga is made up of thousands of different postures, or ASANAs in yogini speak. In the tradition that i follow and practice, each pose is memorized and built upon each other. Its a little bit like a REALLY long, never ending dance routine... dancing with yourself, for yourself.
For the basic practitioner there are six major "series" or groups of asanas. I am working on the first series. My teacher told me recently that I might be ready in about a year to move onto the second series. I am in it for the long haul I guess... ;)
Here is the first series in picture. I have almost memorized the sequence of poses, but that is JUST when the mastery begins!

koreayoga.com

I don't know any more if this looks easy or hard... haha. It looks so small and simple from this perspective, but each pose plus the daily, silly dramas of life and all the excuses I make in my head.... makes this primary series quite a mountain for me...

Yoga break downs.

One of my top three favorite people in the world also has a blog. Hers is not about yoga. Its about life and what makes her come alive. This is her blog: http://wollypollydoodle.blogspot.com/

The other day she had a beautiful break down on her yoga mat. She called me and we talked about it. And we laughed about it.The next week I had a gnarly life changer kind of break down on Shari and Avis yoga mat during my practice with them. I called her and we talked about it. And we laughed some more about it.

When these break down moments come in life, one of the most important things is to have someone who will laugh at you and with you about them. During my practice sometimes i get into these CRAZY pretzel kind of poses nd i GET STUCK. When you are learning something new, sometimes you get stuck... but then i always manage to giggle my way out of it and live to try again the next day. Sometimes I cry and giggle at THE SAME TIME! And then we move onto the next day. But either way, once you express it, share it and keep going... it changes and what was once your Mammoth Mountain is now an ant hill. And when you laugh, along the way, its so much more fun!

Thank You My dear Bashley for laughing with me, on and off the yoga mat...

Post Yoga feelings...

On any given yoga day, I can feel a range of emotions after my practice. Today was particularly amusing to me....
I try not to judge what I'm feeling, i just try to rolll with it and to just accept myself...

Today I wanted to simultaneously Run  marathon and to cry my eyes into oblivion... EXPLAIN THAT ONE! HA!! its  good thing i don't have to!

love love love...