There is something wonderful about balancing a hard day out at work with a work out. Today I did my yoga after a day of heavy concentration at work. The practice was very focused and just flowed allowing me to let go of my work and relax for the evening. I tried filming it for this weeks progress video, however Photo Booth stopped recording after 39 seconds. Maybe it is enough for experts to judge my yoga by, but I guess I’ll be trying to film again tomorrow.

(more…)

I’ve been in an internet free area all weekend hence the radio silence. In fact I’ve been in a mostly electricity free area, with the generator on only from dusk ’til 10pm. On Saturday afternoon I did the usual sequence outside, looking over mountains with the gentle ringing of cow bells in the distance. On Sunday morning I did the same in the rondavel I’d been staying in. Days 4 and 5 are in the bag – the ball is rolling!

(more…)

Today I followed the advice of Lisa in the yoga.com forum. She finds it helpful not to have any expectations from her practice, planning only to step onto her mat and not to beat herself if she does not do a complete session. The last two days’ yoga has caught up with me today. My back is pretty tired and I feel a bit stiff. So I woke up and jumped on my mat comfortable in the knowledge that the hard part was over and all I needed to do was do as much yoga felt appropriate.

I did the same as yesterday, but skipped half of the vinyasas. This made it much less tiring and a bit quicker. I am feeling looser now than when I woke up.

I’ve also decided to see if I can find any other blogs of daily practice to see what they are up to. If you know of any please leave details in the comments (featuring the amazingly cool reCAPTCHA anti spam system). I’ll be adding them to my blog roll when I find some.

I almost stumbled today. I snoozed the alarm instead of doing yoga this morning, prefering to enjoy the wonderful feeling of a great nights sleep and my cold being mostly gone. However, I fitted the yoga in at 1700. I did the same as yesterday, but included the Marichyasana B and D. Counting the length of my breath seemed to help me focus pretty well. My hip abductors are pretty tired but I’m otherwise ok.

Day one of the yoga challenge – tick. I still could not sleep at 4.50am so started then. It cleared my head both physically and mentally allowing me to sleep. I’ve had a cold since New Year’s and was surprised to find my blocked nose had become completely cleared by the fifth of the sun salutations.

I did everything up to Navasana – the boat pose. I skipped Marichyasana B and D though. Then I did the finishing sequence.

This year I have decided to make more time for yoga in my schedule. In fact I’ve decided to offer it about a twelfth of the rest of my life by doing yoga everyday. Why? Right now I am awake at 3:40am. I spent all day programming and have done no exercise at all. The most physically demanding part of today came after the surprise collapse of my chair: I had to get up off the floor (= 1 squat) and reassemble the chair (there was some light hammering which gave my upper body a workout too.)

As of tomorrow I am going to start doing my daily yoga practice. I shall be determining the rules as I go along. I need to determine what I will consider to be a proper yoga session. I’m not sure whether or not to allow just one downward facing dog to count as a day’s yoga for instance.

(more…)