It’s been seven years since I learnt the 12 basic asanas of Sivananda Hatha Yoga. But in these seven years, I’ve only just really practiced maybe about six months of yoga in total. Sad, isn’t it?
Of course, I blame it on the usual suspects – lack of discipline, lack of ability to manage my time, inconsistent sleeping times, meals late at night…
Being a new dad with another baby on the way, it’s really tough to commit to doing yoga every day. Strangely enough though I still manage to have breakfast every day (more or less). I still find time to have a bath in the mornings. I still brush my teeth. How is it that no matter what time I wake up in the morning, I still have time to do these things? But not practice yoga.
This year however, I’ve decided that the excuses stop here. And to make sure I stick with the program, I’ll be writing about my practice daily here on this blog. To keep things interesting, I’ll also include some creative expressions – relating to my practice.
Today, I only had time to do about 25 mins of yoga. But hey, I’ll take what I get… What surprised me was the fact that I was able to hold most of the asanas very easily – even though it’s been a while since I last practised. Could it be the weather? We’ve had some harsh Melbourne summer days recently.
However, I did have some pulling sensations in the area above the left side of my butt as I did the sarvanagasana (shoulderstand).
So I didn’t push it…I stopped. You shouldn’t ignore a pain in the butt. I wonder what it’s about though, let’s see if it comes back again tomorrow.
Interestingly also, my nose was clear for most of the practice. Especially after my seventh round of suryanamskar. (I’ve been having a blocked nose for the past 4 months – so trust me… it’s really a big thing for me when I am able to breathe through my nose!)
The other thing I wanted to note is … I decided to do my pranayama before the savasana. Which is a different order from what I was taught. As I was doing it though, I kept feeling that I shouldn’t be doing it this way. I should only practice pranayama when the heart has stilled and the breathing is back to normal. So again, I stopped. I guess the lesson for me today is shut up, listen and understand. As I write this, something tells me that the fourth part to that (which will come later) is ‘adjust’.
About drudra
Coincidentally…it’s also the first day of the Lunar New Year… the year of the water dragon!
What an auspicious day to start this resolution… so it’s a lunar new year resolution, then. Gong Xi Fa Cai!!
Love the illustration of the shoulderstand!
Pain in the butt… If its the muscles it could be just tight. Try hip flexibility exercise before attempting the shoulderstand.
As for pranayama try doing it after relaxing from the sun salutation if you don’t want to do it right at the end. This is recommended by Swami Vishudevananda.