As promised in my last post, I have to update you guys on my yoga progress so here it is:

there isn’t much.

My  ideals of getting up earlier with that water spray plan failed.  The first morning I just got out of bed, switched off the alarm and crawled straight back in again.  Doh!

I did succeed one morning in getting up at 6 am, somehow my body clock was bright and alert and I needed only a little inner nudging to get dressed and get on my mat – hooray!

Sadly, every other morning I was groggy, drowzy and plain tired when the alarm went off and I couldn’t resist falling back asleep and resorting to the dreaded snooze button.  Darn I wish that thing had never been invented!

Then last week put a real ‘spanner in the works’ – a snotty, achy, sicky spanner.  I woke Sunday feeling oddly dizzy and nauseous, went back to bed for most of the day and that night had one of those throats where it feels as though it’s spit mixed with sharp nails you’re trying to swallow.

I made it into work each day Monday to Friday but every afternoon I was straight back in bed and doing one of three things: napping, reading stories or watching endless old episodes of Friends (while drinking ten cups of ginger root tea a day and eating raw garlic until I stank!).

There was obviously no early morning yoga practice – I didn’t even go near my writing for the entire week.  I was on survival mode, knowing I had a long stretch of busy days ahead, including a weekend of long markets for the Jazz Festival.

Finally, I’m now feeling more normal.  Still not 100% given I haven’t had a full day off in eight days but definitely able for some yoga surya namaskars (sun salutations).  It’s time to get back into it.  And I’m kind of glad for the break from everything last week because I’ve decided now to ease myself gently back into yoga (seeing as how I tried one surya namaskar this morning and found myself shaky and out of breath already).

I don’t have the stamina for a rigorous routine of even thirty minutes.  So here’s my NEW get back into yoga plan:

I’m going to revert back to my original method for getting a morning routine going, the thing that got me on my mat every day back in May 2015 when I first began: I’m going to begin this week with just the surya namaskars and then the three finishing postures.  Because if I get lazy and reluctant in the mornings, thinking “I can’t do the practice, it takes too long, I’m too tired, I want to do something else” etc. I can still convince myself to do just a few surya namaskars, if that’s literally all I have to do.

See, this method is genius and pure gold BUT it only works if you really give yourself permission to be a beginner.  I mean, really really allow it (not pretend allow it with background thoughts deriding such a small practice or secretly planning to do a full routine the second I get started).

Recently, the method wouldn’t work because in my sporadic practices I was well able to get through the full standing poses and do all the inversions before the finishing postures.  I felt like I couldn’t let myself off the hook to just do simple practices as I’d be missing out on all the benefits of a fuller, longer practice so, often, I’d just do nothing at all.  Much better Liz, muuuuuch better!

Now, thanks to my lower energy levels and lack of fitness, I feel totally relaxed and easy about gently building up my practice again.  I mean, for sure, I would prefer to be doing a stronger session each day to build up my strength and to open up the body since it feels like I may well be stuck in the middle of the Ashtanga Primary Series forever more!  A year and a half on and it really doesn’t feel like I’m getting anywhere.

But then again, physical progress aside, a year and a half on and I have learnt SO MUCH including these last few months where I lost my daily routine and have been struggling to get it back.

So, although as far as progressing through the Primary Series goes, I’m still way back in the early stages (STILL!  Yes I find it annoying!) I guess I have faith and hope in this process and believe it’s worth sticking at it.

Besides, I’m struggling on with it all completely alone.  I’ve never had regular Mysore style Ashtanga classes – I’ve only ever had two (amazing!) weekend workshops with authorized Ashtanga teachers and a couple sporadic classes, thanks to there being no facilities on offer in my home town.  (I’ve done many more yoga classes but they were always vinyasa style.)

So to finish up, this is me cutting me some slack – for a change!  That really doesn’t happen often.  I know I’ll still get frustrated when I see some interesting poses on Instagram or see my friend doing her teacher training and getting to learn difficult stuff and be like, will that ever happen for me???

But hopefully, meantime, I’ll remember that the most important thing first off is to get back into getting on my mat again each morning, you know, to keep that steady consistent practice in my daily life.  And then, hopefully, fingers crossed and with enough wishes sent out to the universe, events will transpire to either relocate me (and my husband and our small business!) to a city with a great Ashtanga teacher, or else bring such a wonderful person to me!

I’ll update you again with news of how this latest plan of action develops (or doesn’t if I’m being totally realistic, because there’s a very good chance of me hitting the snooze button every morning for the next five years…).

On a more positive note, I must say, it’s totally awesome to have my energy back again.  I’ve a new appreciation for the saying “your wealth is your health”.  There’s little more important than having a healthy body and I’m truly grateful for my own one that is generally so strong and fit and well.  Love your body!

Love,

Ellie