I find myself at a cross roads in my life.  After many years working, I'm suddenly un-employed.  I'm trying to look at this as a positive - this is my chance to start a new life as a yoga teacher.  However, the worries about money keep creeping up - darn real life!  I don't want to just get a job bagging groceries, and both my wife and friends have encouraged me to find a job that I really enjoy and not to worry about the salary.  One friend even encouraged me to become a yoga teacher out of the blue - maybe the universe is giving me a hint?

On a more yoga focused note, I just finished taking an introductory Ashtanga class after a few years of focusing on Iyengar.  Very intense and different.  I'll be writing more about that as I go along.

Anyone else think the word "blog" sounds like you're going to be sick?

Namaste

It's been a few weeks now since the Ashtanga class I took ended.  I'm still somewhat ambivablent about this particular style.  First off, though, I did enjoy the class.  Ashtanga is an amazing workout!  It was my first real experience with "flow" or "power" yoga and I think it is something I will incorporate into my future practice.  I realized as I went along that I've somewhat instinctively created a kind of flow in my home practice.  Even though I hold the poses longer in a more Iyengar style, I'd adjusted the sequence of poses in such a way that they all followed fairly naturally from the opening warmups (sun salutations) into the standing poses, which then move into kneeling type poses (ie. crescent and camel), then into forward bends, then into lying down poses.  I usually finish up with an inverted position or two, then cool down, which then leads into some seated breathing and focusing.

I was, however, struck by how relatively rigid the series' of Ashtanga seem.  One of the things I enjoy about my classes is that while there are some things we always do, I also enjoy how my teacher will bring the focus into different areas and introduce new poses.  Having pondered this, I thought that I would try and shake up my normal practice routine, do things in a different sequence.  This is a LOT harder than it would seem.  While my home practice is not in a rut, I found in discomforting to consider changing the pattern.  After a week, I still havn't been able to make myself change.  When I do, I'll be interested to see how I react!  The set sequence does seem to be appealing to a lot of people - the local Ashtanga class is regularly packed!

The one thing about Ashtanga that I did not enjoy was how short the time in the individual asana was.  I know it's important to keep moving for this kind of practice, but there were times I felt like I needed a little more time to get myself into the pose and really make it work.  If someone was to ask me about starting yoga, I'd tell them to take an Iyengar class first before trying Ashtanga.  Once you've got some of the asanas where you're comfortable moving into and out of them, then trying Ashtanga would probably be better.  I'm now as equally intrigued by Yin Yoga (what Paul Grilley teaches) and hope to get a chance to try that kind of class soon.

Please note that I do not wish to seem disparaging to any particular style or any practitioner's preferences.  I'm just expressing some thoughts on yoga.

Namaste

I finally managed to switch things around in my personal practice, and it was both easier and harder than I thought.  I didn't do everyting completely in reverse, of course, but after my warm-up sequences (sun salutation and moon salutation), I then went to my inversions, followed by floor work (cobra, pigeon, etc) lying down, then poses on the back, followed by my seated poses (forward bends and twists), then kneeling and then my standing sequence.  I still did each section in the usual order, however.

The hardest part (after getting through the mental block of actually changing the practice) was remembering what poses I needed to do next.  I definately had to pause after finishing each "section" and figure out which section to do next.  I could feel my natural inclination to move into what I usually do - the yogic equivalent of autopilot!

I also definately noticed a difference in certain poses.  The poses that I usually do at the end (when I'm starting to get tired) where much easier and the standing poses definately felt a bit harder. 

On the whole, changing things around was not as difficult as I had thought.  There was more of a mental difficulty than physical and that had more to do with remembering how to get my entire practice in.  On a positive side, this definately took me out of the "auto-pilot" mode and really made me focus on what I was working on. 

Changing up now and then seems to be a good thing, then, more for the mental aspect than the physical.  I think I'll be switching things around as time goes on.  Maybe not a complete reversal again, but perhaps starting out with the forward bends before doing the standing ones, or starting with an inversion, etc.  Just something to shake things up and remind me to keep focused!