Yoga

I completely understand that I am not an advanced yogi, or even an intermediate yogi! In the back of my mind, I think I want to be really good, advanced and taking on more challenging poses, more flexible, stronger, better able to make my breath work for me. But I know too that I'm not supposed to be competitive in yoga and that I should listen to my body and not force things. I try to, I really do. I focus on the basic poses and continuing to breathe while I am in those poses, I focus on listening to my body and trying to let it do what it can.

But, sometimes that mental part of me gets frustrated. Today I got frustrated. I took an Intermediate class - and there were so many things I could not do. I cannot bind my hands behind my back and bend over and lift my arms up off my back - just not a physical reality. I can sort of do eagle arms on one side when we go left over right but I am so minimally in the pose when I do right over left...I have no idea how to do crow, I have to support myself in pigeon. Today's not the first day I've realized what my physical limitations in yoga are.

The problem is that I don't want to get frustrated. I have to take that thinking out of my head because in the long run it will completely limit my practice. But, do I give up attending the intermediate class for something that is comfortable or do I persevere and hope, that my body opens up and I am able to do more of the poses. At the beginning of every class you have to set an intention for that class - maybe I need to think of just listening to my breathing and my body! I suppose child's pose of downward facing dog are always good places to retreat to.

Such problems to have to think about.

Tim comes home tomorrow night. I'm excited.

I'm going to hear Greg Mortenson tomorrow night - he wrote Three Cups of Tea. Great story and great read. I saw him a few years ago at the Carter Center - right after his book was published. That's where I met the people who were involved with Pedals for Progress!