It is only Tuesday. Wow. I am so sore. Everything is tired. Each step is like I've walked all day. I just want to sleep and do nothing. I wonder how people are able to get into ashtanga without getting really into it. I mean, some days, it takes it all out of me. In Mysore, you practice, you eat, you rest. In "real" life, you practice, you eat, and you do everything that everyone else does too. I wonder how many people out there are able to maintain whatever their "normal" lives were prior to the jump into ashtanga. Does everyone gradually move towards a lifestyle that revolves around practice? It could also be what you do for a living. People that work with their hands are probably more tired in general than people who work in office settings, no?
Three more days of practice this week. I don't know the last time I've counted down like this. I think part of it is practice and part of it is the waking up so early. But what other choice is there? Early morning wake up is great once in a while. When the sun is shining on your face its great. I love the idea of it and the idea of myself being an early bird. The reality? :(
People who practice other styles have got nothing on us (except perhaps non attachment...). Try doing a pose one day. It feels good in the body, you feel the sensation, maybe you are sore, etc. The second day you revisit the pose you find something new. You crawl out past the places you've already discovered and you seek out the limits of the shape. Day three, you convince yourself you are a pro at the pose. You come to it like you knew it was coming. Your body is ready for the signal to settle into what it knows. But try doing it again and again and again. And keep doing it. That's a whole different story. You start finding walls, both mental and physical. You are tired and you are sore. Sometimes you want to give up. But the difference is for us (I think) the poses slowly become a part of us until you get to a point where you can climb in and have a seat. You can look around and settle in. Stira sukham asanam? Hmmm.
Three more days of practice this week. I don't know the last time I've counted down like this. I think part of it is practice and part of it is the waking up so early. But what other choice is there? Early morning wake up is great once in a while. When the sun is shining on your face its great. I love the idea of it and the idea of myself being an early bird. The reality? :(
People who practice other styles have got nothing on us (except perhaps non attachment...). Try doing a pose one day. It feels good in the body, you feel the sensation, maybe you are sore, etc. The second day you revisit the pose you find something new. You crawl out past the places you've already discovered and you seek out the limits of the shape. Day three, you convince yourself you are a pro at the pose. You come to it like you knew it was coming. Your body is ready for the signal to settle into what it knows. But try doing it again and again and again. And keep doing it. That's a whole different story. You start finding walls, both mental and physical. You are tired and you are sore. Sometimes you want to give up. But the difference is for us (I think) the poses slowly become a part of us until you get to a point where you can climb in and have a seat. You can look around and settle in. Stira sukham asanam? Hmmm.
I hate to find myself being a snob, but when I think of other kinds of yoga - the drop-in, do some poses, have a teacher hollering at you stuff - I just feel like it's not even the same planet as what we do.
ReplyDeleteI saw an ad the other day in a magazine which used a post-yoga-class tableau as its backdrop. There were three or four women sitting around in yoga clothes, not sweaty at all, drinking bottled water. It all looked so fake.
Sigh. I am such a snob.
i've been reading your blog since ...well since it was someone else's blog under the same name. i've enjoyed reading your experiences and learned from your dedication and your doubts. how did you move into the my yoga is better than your yoga mode? i'm the first to say that i'm new and a lightweight in my hatha practice, but i'm dedicated, i learn from lots of different people and experiences. i don't think the quality of my practice is set by the amount of sweat i produce....or by trendy yoga clothes. it's not a competition, so i'm not trying to have anything on you or anyone else.
ReplyDeletethat was a disappointing post and disappointing first comment. they both smack of yoga snobbism.
hi elise
ReplyDeletei didn't know you have to jump into tittibasana. it's doable, but then i imagine you have to use your inner strength to get the proper leg lift off. i do it with the preparation of getting the shoulders as back under the arms as possible, to get enough lift, but i guess jumping into it is the right way. maybe this is the problem with having learned it with modifications.
what you say about practicing and then doing everything else is very true for us job and house holders. i think that is why teachers who work with "our kind" understand the difficulties of having a practice and also carrying on with a life. i think it's also why there can/should be flexibility in how one practices because if one is only supposed to do things a certain way, one might not progress out of certain asanas into others.
thanks for your notes on DW. it reminds me of when i took his workshop. i remember his avoiding chakrasana and even headstand and his explanations of why. i find i don't hurt myself in chakrasana if i think i need to land or get to upward dog. thinking of the ultimate part makes me hurry up with the asana, so i don't jam the neck.
cheers,
arturo
i don't see yoga snobbism in the post. i see elise describing the ashtanga method, which has set routines and set ways in which new poses are given. it's different than typical hatha classes where each class is purposely different, whatever the teacher decided to teach that day. unless it's a flow class, or an ashtanga derived routine. i found the article i YJ a month ago that distinguished the types of yoga useful because you see which ones are ashtanga based, hence more likely to have a similar routine repeated. i found very little repetition in the hatha classes i used to take when i started my yoga journey.
ReplyDeletecheers, arturo
elise, i think the most important part of this post is not about your exhaustion or the type of yoga one ascribes to, but rather your ellipses at the end of "non-attachment." this is something i struggle with daily. how can practitioners of ashtanga yoga practice real non-attachment?
ReplyDeletelooking through swami satchidananda's translation of the yoga sutras, i discovered a theoretical answer which is harder to put into practice when so much emphasis is placed on that physical aspect of practice: "when we say unattached, it means without personal desires...is it possible to be desireless? no. actually, it is not possible. as long as the mind is there, its duty is to desire. it seems to be contradictory. but the secret is that any desire without any personal or selfish motive will never bind you. why? because the pure, selfless desire has no expectation whatsoever, so it knows no disappointment no matter what the result..." (pp 25)
it goes on, and i wish i could transcribe it all here, but i think it raises a good question: what is your desire to do yoga fueled by? should this desire be selfless, and, if it is, does this enable you to embody non-attachment?
I suspect Elise is sighing over the comments picking apart a post written probably not knowing it was going to be dissected to such a degree. I just started to read this blog a few days ago... and have kept coming back because I find the writing to be interesting and a "common ground" for yoga students. Nancy, if you've been keeping up with her blog, it seems you would have a sense of where she's coming from and would not have been so quick to become defensive. I didn't read anything into her entry at all- other than the discipline of ashtanga actually IS like no other. Also, she can't be responsible for other's opinions (ie: first comment). I find her blog entry and the 1st comment to be entirely different. It seems unfair that you link the two together. I didn't take Elise's entry to be anything other than expressing that ashtanga yoga is hard, its rewarding, and its a discipline like no other (just as Iyengar, Anusara, etc are all different interpretations). I don't know why I'm standing up for this blog that I just started to read, but I felt compelled to because its so unlike many of the other ashtanga blogs. I think she touches on things that people who are dedicated to the practice of ashtanga go through, and does so with a lot of grace, personality and humor. I hope you can cut her some slack.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know I said "hi" to Russell and Sally for you! :) They seemed pleased to hear it.
ReplyDeletethanks elaina!
ReplyDeleteah! i just wrote a comment that got deleted on accident. oh well...will write later.
in the meantime, whats a blog without a little bickering?
:)
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you put yourself out there in a blog then you also might want to be open to what folks have to say, we all have opinions. I also wonder about my attachment to the practice and how I have changed my life around as the practice has become a part of my life. I want to say that it is healthy...
ReplyDeleteHappy Practicing.
I hope all roads lead to Rome.
ReplyDeleteIf yoga is the cessation of the thinking mind, and the way we achieve this is by practice and non-attachment, then all efforts toward achieving this stillness of mind are yoga.
Does sweat = yoga? Nope. Can it be a part of your practice (defined as "effort toward steadiness of mind" 1.13)? Yes.
Do I find the commercialization of yoga ridiculous? Yes. Am I happy that this same commercialization is bringing yoga to people who might not have tried it otherwise? Yes.
Sorry to dissapoint, although I was never trying to please. I'm a student of yoga, just like all of you. And like all of you, I'm trying to figure it all out. Some compassion please!
My question--is there a smiley face for sarcasm? But really, I think what I was trying to say was that in ashtanga practice, the method leads us to a certain place on the path to enlightenment that perhaps other types of yoga may not offer. At the same time, ashtangis can learn quite a bit from other styles, ie non attachment (the other way to still the mind) to poses.
Anyway, I appreciate all comments (minus spam, of course). Its good to think, talk, express, and take action. I am happy that people care enough to have an opinion. So seriously, thanks! :)
PS- I don't really sweat when I practice.
What's the defintion of a yoga snob?
Rachel-but then he says to be selfish in keeping your mind at peace...