#365Yoga – Day 90: ‘I Need a Dollar’

Greetings fellow #yogadork crew and the amazing #365yoga sangha!  Can you believe we have reached a quarter of the way into 2011 already? Thought it might be time to check in with my peeps and see how your yoga is so far this year and report how my progress has been.

I started this adventure as a way to increase the amount of asana I was doing as my practice had been severely sidelined by my increasing yoga teaching schedule. I wanted to work on asanas I had been forgetting, connect my feet to my mat and open back up the doors to my personal yoga practice.  My goal, in all honesty, at the start was a visit to a yoga studio a day to practice.  Period. I thought that if I tweeted about my desire to practice daily I would have a cyber posse to hold me accountable to actually doing it.  “So how’s this whole shebang cooking?” you may be asking at this point. Well, I’m not really sure I can voice it in a way that gives it justice.  Perhaps, however, a month by month replay of how it has been will illuminate my experience for you.  Here goes:

January: The month started fantastically strong in my mind because I was practicing a ton. I’d rate the beginning a Pincha Mayruasana in the sense that I was strong and supported, rocking my asana on the mat.  I went to Kripalu and assisted my teacher Sadie Nardini which was a gas.  Then I came home and let’s just say Mother Nature decided that unless I wanted to do every asana in the snow I was not going to be getting any yoga. Connecticut, where I place my mat, had one of the three snowiest winters on record.  My elves, the little people who tend to rule my life, kept having snow days and every plan I had to practice yoga went away with the snow plow.  I learned how to do standing poses in 3 feet of snow, and how to find my yoga in the little moments in my life. There were days when rest in Viparita Karani or a fleeting Uttanasana were the only physical asana I got. But herein lies the rub: I had stated I would blog about this process daily, so I was forced to look for yoga outside of my body.

February: Finally there was a stop to snow and I was able to get out of my house, get onto my mat and move again.  The thing is,  I did not feel the need to go to classes as much as I did in the beginning of the year. I was feeling spectacularly  happy with a practice that spent much of its time at the speed of Balasana. After a month of blogging and looking for yoga in places other than asanas I was finding little nuggets of my practice all over the place.  I’d see yoga in an orange balloon, stone lion or a dripping icicle.  My yoga had become much less about the physical asanas and more about what it made me feel inside! Yep, super hokey, sappy feelings  here: queue the string quartet and Josh Groban songs. NOT!  This transition of my yoga from physical asana to a deeper practice only strengthened what I was doing on the mat and what I was sharing with my students.  By this second month I was much less schmaltz and much more classic rock!

March: Month three came in like a lamb and is leaving like Simhasana.  My blog posts are kicking and flowing out of me like a melting snow bank.  The #365yoga cyber sangha is growing and the support I am finding from fellow bloggers is giving me a major prana infusion.  My body is returning to the mat more frequently, my home practice rocking and rolling, and my classes are kicking it old school.  The best part of this third month for me is that I finally was able to settle my funky mind into a quiet meditation practice.  The movement, the reading and the mat time are dwarfed by the power that comes from meditation.  I shared this gift with my students and they too are blown away by the magic in the mindfulness.

I started #365yoga to practice yoga on my mat and in my body.  I’ve found that rather than needing asana to do yoga, my practice has become much more internal and much less physical.  Olivia Newton John be damned, this yogadork is rocking the deeper parts of the practice!  My cyber posse has held me up, cheered me on and moved to the music on their own mats. The #365yoga crew has incorporated kriyas after being encouraged by the sparklingly sassy lo (www.yisforyogini.com), mantras and mudras thanks to the amazing Meredith (www.ponderingyogi.blogspot.com), and enjoyed musings from the rest of the #365yoga crew. Darla (www.hotyogahere.com) and Sarah (sarahsana.wordpress.com)  continue to blog and share about their amazing journeys as well.

One quarter, a portion of the whole has been delightfully enlightening.  I feel engaged, expanded and so eager for more.  The words to describe how I am transformed by the growth this adventure has brought are not fully formed in my head yet. Perhaps as the year continues on they will find their way to my fingers and I will be able to share them with you all.

My elves live for the day when they find a quarter on the street.  They feel elated with the heavy weight of that 25 cents and squirrel it away in their banks.  I too feel rich from the lessons I have learned in these three months, but I can admit here that a quarter is just not enough for this yogini.  YogaDorks, #365yoga crew, I’m ready to rock all the way to 2012 and a quarter just won’t do.

I need a dollar ! So bring on the yoga, the transformations, the trials and the tuneage.  If you have not yet joined us on this journey have no fear, the road is always ahead and more passengers always welcome.

* Nancy’s Mala by Jewels of Saraswati*

#365Yoga on twitter:

#365yoga, @yogadork, @sarahkohl, @yoga_mydrishti, @sweatydarla. And of course Judith Hanson Lasater at @judithyoga

Further inspiration: Judith Hanson Lasater’s A Year of Living Your Yoga: Daily Practices to Shape Your Life

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Earlier…

• #365Yoga – Day 53: ‘I knew I had to go deeper’
• #365Yoga – How are you doing, Dorks?
• YogaDork Giveaway: ‘A Year of Living Your Yoga’ by Judith Hanson Lasater, #365Yoga