Day 20

Well folks, this is our halfway point. 20 days past, 20 days to go. Now is the perfect time to consider: Has my life shifted in any notable ways in the last 20 days? Is who I am today different from who I was when I started out on this "project"? Do I hold the same intention, or has it changed somehow? How? I mean, we could go on and on here. I think that you get my point. Self-reflection and contemplation are central to practice. And it is my experience that the ability to stretch yourself in this way, might actually be the whole point in stretching yourself in more physical ways. Well, not the whole point. Lets not forget about doing it just for the sheer, unabashed, play-filled fun of it.

Today, I feel like thinking about all of this, and taking it easy.

Here you go:

AMS 3 minutes

Uttanasana 1 minute

Supta Virasana 5 minutes

Supta Padangustasana 1-4 1 minute each

Supta Baddha Konasana with support 5 minutes

Day 19

Attachment is suffering, and suffer I did when I could not find my sad little $3 kitchen timer yesterday as I headed out to practice. Fortunately, I used all of my tech savvy to use the timer on my phone. Not ideal, but entertaining. All of this reminded my again of central question: why have I still not purchased the Sportline timer? Procrastination aside, I cannot justify the shipping expense, which is basically 1/3 of the price of the timer. This is ridiculous really, because if you live where I do, ordering goods through the mail is virtually unavoidable. So, I am just going to put this out there, if 4 people want to order the timer ($20), the shipping cost will be waived. Let me know in the comments of you are game. (Of course, you must live in the Viroqua area...) What makes this timer so much superior to the regular kitchen timer, well, in a word, everything. It is designed for the particular use of the repeat function, so you do not need to come out of your practice to keep on re-setting your timer. Enough said.

OK. That was rather long, so I will keep it short from here.

I want to share with you the practice that I did yesterday. It may be a bit confusing in the translation, but I felt so good afterward that I had to share it here. Let me know if you have any questions and again, if you do not practice inversions, skip them.

Funky Eka Pada Adho Muhka Svanasana hip opening that we did with Sianna last weekend

AMS (1 min)

Sirsasana (5 min)

low lunge (1 min)

Uttanasana (1 min)

AMS (1 min)- lots of shins in thighs out

Standing on one leg -holding the other knee (Utthita hasta padangustasana prep)

Parsvakonasana (1 min)

Vrksasana (1 min)

Parsva Utthita Hasta Padangustasana (1 min)

Uttanasana

AMS

Setubandha

Supta Padangustasana prep

Supta Padangustasana #2

Succirandrasana (3 stages)

Supta Padangustasana #3 2x

AMS

Malasana

Janu Sirsasana b/t the legs

Baddha Konasana

AMS

Runner's lunge to lunge/twist/thigh stretch

AMS

Uttanasana

Hanumanasana

AMS

Sarvangasana (6 min)

Savasana

Rock it.

Day 18

Flow Friday

Isn't it nice to have something that you keep returning to? Sure Practice in a larger sense, but flow friday is pretty great in the immediate, right now, smaller scale sense of things.

So, get on your mat and Salute the Sun. What a good day for it! The Sun is on the rise here in SW Wisconsin, and it feels like spring is on its way more than usual for this time of year. It is bright and clear and the days are getting longer. That seems like sufficient inspiration for me this morning.

Have fun. That is always primary. And then, any variations that you like. Breathe, move, flow, let the boundary between you and this magnificent day dissolve.

Day 17

Isn't it amazing that after just a few minutes of breath and movement your whole energy can be so radically shifted? I practiced for right around 30 minutes tonight, after I put my kids to be, which is usually such a sleepy not so productive time. But it was great and I felt totally re-energized and inspired for the evening and now I am ready to hit the hay. So good. It is so siple and yet it continues to be so profound for me. I feel so good when I practice. I feel more like myself more of the time. Amen.

Enough of my personal testimonial. What about you? What is happening for you through this process?

And what about this next sequence? Are you all still using these? Or are you so comfy at this point that you know just what to do? Perhaps a bit of both I suspect.

So, for Thursday, how about some backbends?

Surya Namaskar A 3x

Surya Namaskar B 3x

-for both of these, stay in cobra for several breathes instead of just an inhale.

Handstand and Pinca Mayurasana if you practice these, if not just skip 'em.

Virabadrasana 1 with hands clasped behind your back.

Anjanyasana

Parsvottanasana

Parivritta Parsvakonasana

(look familiar?)

Anjanyasana with a thigh stretch 3x

Pigeon thigh stretch

Dhanurasana

Setubandha and any variations that you like

Urdhva Dhanurasana 3-10x (not a typo)

AMS

Uttanasana

Baddha Konasana

Janu Sirsasana

Paschimotanasana

Savasana

This looks like somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour depending on holds and time between poses. Have a blast!

Day 16

I just go through planning tomorrow morning's form class, and even though I spent the morning up in Iyengar Yoga land, I am still all flowing from the weekend with Sianna. Feels good, but definitely shifts the energy that I usually bring to Wednesday morning. Oh well. One thing that I know for sure to be true about myself is that I have to teach to what is inspiring me at the time. I am not sure if this is good or bad or confusing for my students or whatever. I just know that it is pretty much true. Hmmhh.

So, what I really want to put up here is a 20 minute practice. There is no way that I can put up what I have planned for class. Trust me. It would make no sense whatsoever. But, I think that it will prove to be rad tomorrow morning. We shall see. But here, 20 minutes. And then if you feel so good at the end of that 20 minutes that you want to keep going, grab an earlier sequence and breathe and move to your heart's delight!

3 Surya Namaskar A

3 Surya Namaskar B

(1 minute each/side)

Urdhva Hastasana

Trikonasana

Parsvakonasana

Ardha Chandrasana

Virabadrasana 1

Baddha Hasta Uttanasana (ahem, "ragdoll"- not rag-like)

Marichyasana 3, 3x

Paschimottanasana

Savasana

We are officially done with our 2nd week of practice so now would be a great time to pull out your personal journal again and reflect a bit on your experience so far. How was week 2 different from week 1? What shifts have you noticed not just in your practice, but in the way that you carry yourself, the way that you breathe, the movement of your awareness? Have you noticed any changes in your connection to your spiritual heart?

If you feel like sharing any of your personal insights, feel free.

Day 15

My idea for this morning is a short one. Telling isn't it?

3 10 minute segments. You can do 1, you can do each, you can do some now, some later. The world is your oyster.

#1

AMS 3 minutes

Uttanasana 2 minutes

Supta Virasana 5 min

#2 (1 min ea/side)

Uttkatasana

Virabadrasana 1

Virabadrasana 2

Parsvakonasana

Parsvottanasana

Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana

#3 (1 min ea/side)

Supta Padangustasana 1,2,3,4

Baddha Konasana

Paschimottanasana

Savasana

Day 14

Awake. And thinking about practice. For me that is sort of like the perpetual state of "pre-practice". Christina once said that preparing a theme for a class was a lot like a bird circling around something coming closer and closer, taking your time. I think that I feel like that in relationship to a lot. That there is a part of me that is always in the context of practice in one way or another. I certainly spend a lot of time thinking about it, but that is not all that I mean. I put a great deal of dedication toward my behavior being something that is supportive of my practice, something that leads me there. This is perhaps obvious and most likely a much longer conversation, but there you have it.

Those of you that went down to Madison have been sharing how fantastic your experience was over the weekend. And let me tell you, it is self-evident (but I love to hear about it too). Everyone had such a beautiful luster in their eyes and smooth richness to their voices, it was like you could see the cellular make-up of these people moving and shifting around, coming into an expanded harmony. Let's just say that the inspiration was vast. We will all continue to be affected by the Grace that Sianna brings for many days to come.

So what shall we do today?

Urdhva Hastasana with thumbs hooked

Surya Namaskar A 3x with some extended time spent in Cobra

Surya Namaskar B 1x long uttkatasana

Parsvakonasana

Handstand (find some wall space)

Vrksasana

Lunge with a thigh stretch 3x

Pigeon with a thigh stretch

Ustrasana

Setubandasana (if there are some variations that you want to do, go for it)

Urdhva Dhanurasana

and then for fun:

Uttana Padasana to Urdhva Dhanurasana

Uttanasana

AMS

AMV

Savasana