Yoga

Why I began Practicing Yoga

Okay it’s 5:50am on a Tuesday.  I just said my mantra and did a couple of sun salutations.  Now I’m going to address the next part of building awareness, answering the question of why I began practicing yoga.

I actually started interest in yoga when I was 16 when I first saw Jan practicing yoga on Three’s Company rerun. (i know I’m dating myself.)  It at the time just seemed exotic and new.  My mom was working at a library and would come home with order forms for new books.  I think I built up quite a yoga collection for our small local library…  Well yoga then took on new meaning when I went to college and actually found a well trained teacher.  I always felt so good after the classes that I think it just sealed my quest to do more.

So since college in 1995, I’ve been on my committed yoga quest which has led me to being a registered yoga instructor and working on a yoga therapist certification.  But besides it feeling good I’m not sure I’ve answered the question yet although in my head that could qualify.  However to elaborate a little more,…  Yoga has given me a road map that makes sense.  A road map to being calm, handling life hardships, handling life joys, finding out what I really like, and staying grounded through it all.  It has given me a feeling of connectedness that has changed my perception of where I fit into this universe and has given me profound comfort in knowing I have a place in it all.  Every time I practice or study yoga, I feel I gain another piece to a puzzle.

There’s so much there and it’s fascinating to me that the development of yoga is so old and so way way before me.  Yoga is a practice that has been tried and tested over and over.  You of course get out of it what you put into it so just a few Sun Salutations in the morning and no other study or practice may not  be life changing but the funny thing about yoga is that once you go down the path a few sun salutations could open the door to something life changing.. And let’s face it,  the bottom line is it just feels good.

Yoga

Personal Practice Challenge – Spiritual Seeking

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Blogs are great for personal challenges so why not jumpstart my blogging with one?  I’m always looking for ways to be consistent in my personal yoga/meditation practice so I think I’m going to make the following  challenge to myself:  Work thru book on “Living Your Yoga” by Judith Hanson, Lasater, PhD, P.T.  I’ve been wanting to go thru this book and have not carved out the time or made it a focus, so this challenge will hopefully do that for me.

So her first suggestion is on “Awakening Awareness-Spiritual Seeking.  She suggests a few activities develop this seeking of the spirit.  Here they are:

1) Create a sacred space (check.  My kitchen has turned into my sacred space with my plant window as my little altar to nature),

2)Write a brief account of why you began practicing yoga (I’ve done this before but I think I could expand some on this),

3) Make a date with self each week to spend time alone whether it be to practice yoga or just take a walk (I’ve been using mornings around 5:30am. The men folk in the house do not venture out until around 7am….)

4)Keep a list of what is important to you about living your yoga.  What needs attention? (Will do this.)

5) Think of an aspect of yoga that you want to study further but don’t where to begin and ask fellow student where they began.  (This might take some time.)

6)Begin and end each day with a Mantra for daily living. (I already have 2 Mantras I focus on in the am but will now add the pm to see what effect it has on my practice/day to day.)

So beginning tonight I will do my Mantra and over the next week work on the other 4 that I haven’t fully implemented.

For those of you who read this and want to take the challenge as well please feel free to email me any successes along the way and if you’re ok having them posted.

Take Care and Namaste

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New Beginnings

Spring is a time for new beginnings and that is where I am as well.   The first step toward this for me is adding new yoga classes.  Please check out the “What’s New” page for a list of current classes.  I am also hoping to add more time for private practice work.  Looking forward to some renewal and seeing all those that come out to class!

-Amanda