on the mat | letting go of ego

Practicing this ashtanga yoga is a funny thing. On the one hand, doing the same poses every day is a good measure of progress over time. On the other hand, those same poses that were once easy can be difficult and vice versa and that can do a number on your mind. 

So, for me, part of the practice is letting go of what you can and can't do (not meaning that the physical effort to practice isn't put in) and taking each practice for what it is. Some days things come easier, some days not so much. And it's all good. 

How well a person does a pose does not reflect how "good" a yogi she is. Being present in the moment, breathing, and letting go is what it is about.

Namaste.

on the mat | #ashtangachallenge

May was a good practice month. I attempted to do a daily yoga photo challenge but it fell by the wayside.

It was fun to try, although some asanas (poses) are more difficult to do when not in the middle of your practice.

Kurmasana is a pose I had much difficulty with 3 years ago in India but now, while not easy, is achievable.

And over the years I have learn to enjoy the benefits of being upside down.

Our teacher is leaving for India at the end of June so need to concentrate and make every practice count this month!

on the mat | moon day, you rest!

Traditionally ashtanga yoga is practiced every day of the week except Saturdays and moon days.

Why Saturday? I think way back when Guruji was teaching he actually taught every day of the week but his family convinced him that he needed to rest himself. Hence Saturdays of rest were born. But when I was in India, Saraswathi's students rested on Friday and took led Primary classes on Saturday so actually practicing on a Saturday is not strictly against the "rules."

Why moon days? From what I understand, mainly to honor the cycle of the earth. On full moon days the earth's energy is especially high and on new moon days especially low. So take rest on those days. Now moon days are non-negotiable.

Today's full moon was especially auspicious because of the lunar eclipse. While I didn't wake up in time to see the blood moon, I still rather enjoyed the sight of a full Mr. Moon early this morning. Hopefully this bodes for a good day.

Namaste.

on the mat | learning to be a teacher but always a student

My teacher asked me if I was interested in learning to teach a couple months ago. And of course I said yes! Loving this practice means I love to learn and practice it but would love the share that as well. We are starting slow...I am observing her teach after I practice on Sunday mornings. Today I actually helped her adjust a few students (one of them being my husband). And I practice adjusting her on our self practice days.

After practice on Sunday she goes over things she wants me to learn. And it's been so interesting - not only seeing how other people practice and their strengths and weaknesses but also using that knowledge to deepen my own practice.

One conference in India I remember Sharath saying that people always want to be teachers but never students. This girl will always be a student but hopefully can pass a bit of knowledge along in the process.

Namaste.

on the mat | shanti

Yoga has been so good this year. Feeling strong and flexible. Injuries fading away. This practice can heal what hurts you, both inside and out. 

Sometimes I find it funny that something that can be so taxing on your mind and body bring such fulfillment to your soul. Peace, indeed.

Namaste.

on the mat | we love our yogis!

The new moon cycle started today so to celebrate, my friend S had a potluck and movie night at her shala.

Lots of good food to be eaten (and the best part about eating with yogis is that, while everyone may not be vegetarian, no one actually brought any meat!)

Relaxed time with our friends is always a good thing.

As is hamming it up for the camera!

I took full advantage of the moon day today and didn't even do any exercise at all. But sometimes rest is what you need. Namaste.

on the mat | Happy Sunday

Yoga talk has been low over here lately - practicing itself is better than talking about practice - but sometimes having an outlet for one's thoughts is a good thing too. The time change has done a bit of a number on my sleep schedule - getting adjusted to the dark mornings and light evenings! Since we wake up between 4 and 4:30AM, we like to get to bed and sleeping by 9 but that doesn't always happen. 

What I love about Sunday practices:

-they set the tone for the practice week

-we don't have to get up before the sun rises and our bodies are warmer, making practice flow better

-we don't have to hurry to be at work so can take our time.

I've decided to join in the #100daysofhappy challenge on IG. Can you be happy for 100 days straight? I'm going to try!

a good start

Being able to start my day on my mat makes me happy. When practice flows well, I am even more happy. But even on days when I'm not feeling my best, I would rather have practiced than not. 

I read somewhere that the world would be a happier place if we all practiced yoga and I seriously believe that.

Happy Birthday AYH!

My dear friend R started teaching yoga out of their studio this time last year. She started with 3 students and is now probably up to 20+ with a waiting list! So happy and proud to be part of this yoga community.

I haven't been talking much about yoga on the old blog...think my last post about it was in March of last year! This is mainly because I feel that yoga practice is just about that - practice. Talking (or bragging) about which post you can or can't do really doesn't matter. What matters is to get on your mat everyday (except Moon days and Saturdays, of course!). But it is still a huge part of our life. It's hard to describe why sweating in a room full of warm bodies makes me happy but it really does.

One thing I can say - didn't miss a practice day in January! That is a goal this year - no missed practices. This is most difficult when traveling, so we will see how it goes!

Namaste.

on the mat | favorite part of the day

Things have been quiet on the blog this week on purpose as I wanted to take a break to re-assess about what exactly I want to talk babble. As noted before, I tend to find something and become obsessive about it until I move onto the next thing.  Now I am trying to find a balance between my obsessions :)

One obsession I don't plan on giving up soon is yoga. Seriously the best part of my day is right after practice, especially when I can see this face along with it. So happy that he loves to practice too!

That said, I am also happy that today is Friday, tomorrow is the weekend and a break from aforementioned practice. This girl is tired! Happy weekend to you!

on the mat | a little is better than nothing

2012 was a good yet challenging year of yoga for me. I feel like I have appreciated the spiritual aspect of the asana but the actual physical asana hasn't come to me quite as easily. Being plagued with random injuries (wrist, shoulder, back, butt, to name a few!) can be discouraging but I try to remind myself that the poses themselves aren't important, just getting up to practice is.



So in 2013 I am going to cut myself some slack. On days that my body is telling me it can't do a 2 hour practice, doing 15 minutes of sun salutations at home is ok. My goal this year is not necessarily practice every day but on the days I intend on practicing, do at least some even when I don't feeling like doing it all.

Namaste.

on the mat | yogis are good people

We took a road trip this weekend to San Antonio for a yoga workshop with Kino MacGregor

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Practicing mat to mat makes me happy, even if I have to concentrate more on staying on my own.


A whole group of us made it in from Houston.


We also had a lovely girls dinner on Saturday.


We clean up pretty nicely, if I do say so myself!


Kino (in the middle) is a wonderful and inspiring teacher who has a beautiful practice and is so so strong. The workshop was amazing, I learned quite a few things (some of which I can hopefully remember and apply to my daily practice).


The hubs also attended the workshop but decided against going dinner with all the girls. Probably a good choice ;).

on the mat | why I practice

I attended a yoga workshop this weekend with some of my yogi friends.  The teacher, Jodi, was amazing. She reminded us of the fundamentals of the practice (breath, bandas and drishti) as well as helped adjust us in different asanas.

I love practicing ashtanga yoga for a number of reasons. Yoga keeps me healthy. Yoga brings structure to my life. Yoga helps me be more focused and disciplined. But do you want to know the real reason I practice?


Yoga makes me feel good and makes me happy. At the end of our practice today, we were chanting the closing mantra, and I literally had tears in my eyes. There is something about pushing yourself physically and mentally and then being in a room full of like-minded people who are doing the same thing that moves me. We were all more connected by the end of today than we were on Friday at the beginning of the workshop.

This has also made me more aware that I want more yogis in my life. And I may need to let go of old friendships that are no longer growing. Life is really too short not to be happy and to have relationships that make you feel good.

Namaste.

on the mat | right vs. left

As with any physical activity that is performed routinely, yoga comes with its share injuries, at least for me. While most of the poses are symmetrical (i.e. lunge on right side, then lunge on left), some of the binding poses are not quite as much.

Lotus pose typically involves putting your right foot on your left knee then your left foot over your right leg onto your right knee:.

Similarly, Supta Kurmasana, or Sleeping Tortoise, a pose I have been trying to master for 2+ years now, typically involves placing your left leg over your left shoulder then your right leg over your right shoulder: .

Y, my teacher, suggested this week that I try Supta Kurma with my right leg over my right shoulder first. I have also been doing the lotus poses with the left leg up first. I did this twice this week and, boy, what a difference alternating legs makes! My a$$ has been sore all week and switching legs makes it feel like a completely new pose. Goes to show you how one side of your body can become more flexible than the other.

This has definitely been a humbling week in my practice. But I am happy to challenge myself in new ways. Now excuse me as I go take an Advil...or two.

on the mat | grounded

In almost every yoga practice (at least that I have attended), one of the first things the teacher will say is to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground (i.e. your mat). And when your hands touch the mat, they should be firmly planted as well. This helps stabilize your body for the pose, keeps your aware of your limbs and connects you to the earth.

For me, the practice of keeping my feet and hands firmly planted on my mat not only keeps me more aware during my yoga practice, but also keeps me grounded when I am off the mat as well. A friend recently mentioned to me that I seem quite level-headed and calm and my response was yoga. Something about the practice keeps me grounded and more accepting of things that life throws my way.

Happy weekend to you. Namaste.

on the mat | in favor of flats

top: Anthro / skirt: Old Navy / shoes: Tory Burch / earrings&cuff: gift'd {This pose reminds me of the darling Megan}
More often than not these days I have been wearing more flats than heels to work. Don't get me wrong - I still think heels make my legs look leaner and stronger and just flatter all around, but what I hate is that they tighten up the muscles in my legs.  90% of what I do or don't do lately is focused on how it will affect my yoga practice. And if wearing flats makes achieving my poses easier, than so be it.

Now I haven't gone as far as gotten rid of all the heels/platforms/wedges in my shoe wardrobe (that would be just crazy talk), but I am definitely wearing them fewer and farther in between. Sigh. Comfort before style - I am getting old!


I miss colder weather because flat tall boots are always stylish.

on the...hay bale?

This may sound silly but the one thing I really don't like about vacationing is how it messes up my practice schedule. Daily practice can be tiring and repetitive, but is especially rewarding when noticeable changes occur in how deep a pose can be attained.

We were able to practice last Sunday with Jennifer, who was a fabulous teacher

We also had fun taking these photos, inspired by my dear friend, Jill. We haven't seen each other since India, but keep in touch via FB, blogs and IG. Besides practicing in the shala, I really miss the ashtanga community in Mysore, but am slowly building one here.

Have a great weekend!

on the mat | be kind

This quote was from my Yogi tea last night and got me to thinking. I have always been a rather impatient person and my number one pet peeve is tardiness. But learning patience seems to be a big part of yoga asana (pose) practice. You won't be able to do so-and-so pose without being able to do the pose before it proficiently and the pose before that, etc. etc. If you try to hurry yourself along and force your body into a movement it's not ready for, you end up hurting yourself.

So what does patience have to do with compassion and kindness? I, like most people, tend to take things personally (someone being late means they don't value my time) when, in reality, it's all about the other person (they were late because they got stuck in traffic/forgot their phone/ran over a squirrel/{insert any number of reasons that have nothing to do with me}). So one personal goal I have for my 42nd year is to take a deep breath, put myself in the other person's shoes, and try understanding instead of assuming. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

on the mat | just show up

I've been told that the days you least feel like practicing are the most important ones to go. And I have found those days (like yesterday) can end up being the best practice days of the week/month/year. Yesterday was tough because I was practicing by myself for about 30 minutes before anyone else showed up. But it did turn out to be a great practice.


{On an unrelated note:} Things have been quiet here lately on the blog-front as I seem to have run out of things to say! The blog started out as somewhat of a diary to myself, somehow morphed into a fashion/style blog and now is kind of mish mash of randomness. I am trying to let go of my self-imposed expectations of what I should be writing about and just write from my heart. Thanks to any followers to stay but I completely understand if you get bored and leave :)

on the mat | easy come, easy go

The other day, one of my yoga peeps mentioned that she was worried about "losing" one of the poses she recently mastered. While I am no expert by any means, in my experience, I have found that sometimes poses come easily and sometimes they don't. One day you can have the best practice ever and the next you find yourself struggling to get through.

Like anything in life, I feel like yoga practice ebbs and flows. A pose may take 5, 10 years to master and once you get it, you get it, but your body can betray you and you can lose it too. And it's ok. I have found the less I talk about how well or poorly I do a pose and the more I actually practice doing it (properly, of course!), the better it gets. I also have found that as soon as I feel like I am "advancing" in my practice, something happens to pull me back.

My left wrist has been hurting over the last month. I have had a hard time bearing my full weight on it doing upward facing dog and have been modifying some poses to alleviate any pain. I've mentioned it twice to my teacher so he knows I am not cheating, but otherwise I don't like to complain. I am slowly bearing more weight on it so I am keeping my fingers crossed my condition is improving.

My best advice to my friend is to not worry about that certain pose too much and just keep practicing. Your body will let you do it when it's ready. Namaste.