Tag: Challenges

• Challenge called Daily Yoga.

  I went to the basement today with Carl and Karen’s words of praise and correction front and center, eager to reach the postures to either stand in pride or settle into the pose differently.

   

  The Balancing Stick does make a difference if you look ahead and down, instead of down, and to stretch with your arms and torso forward.

   

  When I came to cobra, I tried hard to do what Carl told me this morning is a reverse push-up. Keeping in mind the compression of the lower back, that that is what our goal is, I even tried to feel the nerves after the release, that Karen talked about.

   

  It way helps to have eyes in our studio, especially eyes of experience yogis.  It is amazing, just show them a picture and they can see where I needed help.

   

  Bikram says in his book, “Look up at the ceiling, raise your head, and, using the strength of your back, lift your torso off the floor. Arch the head and torso back as much as possible; at the same time, press the belly button into the floor.  The belly button and everything below it stays in contact with the floor.”

   

  It is exciting to bring new hints and corrections to the poses, to help you reach your ultimate goal.

   

  Speaking of ultimate goal, it came to me that I completed one goal, 60-day challenge, only to be still in a much larger challenge.

   

  The challenge to continue on, without a short term prize, without a real numbers game to be competing in, instead just doing this in the morning, as part of my day.

   

  Making it become as Carl said, “like taking a shower.”

   

  As I walked Finn outside along the frozen river, as the crystals coated the trees, it occurred to me, we are always looking for the next challenge, the next quick fix, the next thing to complete or compete in, instead of being in the midst of the river of life, we want it to freeze or finish up.

   

  What is wrong with playing in the flow of yoga, to watch your self change daily or sometimes from pose to pose. 

   

  Does there have to be an ending in sight?

  What happens if we are instead in an endless yoga challenge?

   

  An endless challenge called daily yoga.

  March 5, 2010

  Bikram, Challenges, flowing, goals, life, not frozen, river, Yoga

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• It Appears And Then Goes

  This 60-day Bikram Yoga Challenge is just one of many challenges we are doing each day, little ones, difficult ones, and ones that bring us more in alignment of who we truly are and ones separating us from who we are not.

   

  Being a Mom challenge started roughly 22 years ago and will continue on now until I die, an endless challenge.  It is a combined experience with both sides leaning on the other or challenging the other to become their best. I have seen how I can affect this challenge; how I am the change I want to see in them. 

   

  A marriage challenge has been going on now for 23 years, during which time I have grown up and then fell apart.  What we learned most is that who we are and how we feel directly affects the relationship of us.  Our truths and our selves highly influence the way this flows.   We have rode the rough waters and sailed the smooth seas, learning along the way, our willingness to try repeatedly is amazing. 

   

  The individual challenge of just being me has been going on for 51 years, and in that time I have witnessed myself in many different roles and tasks, some more challenging than others.

   

  And all we can do in each of these challenges is to do what is being asked of us right now.

   

  As a day moves along, I am in the yoga challenge, then I flip into the mom challenge, then a mail lady challenge, then back to a wife for a while, then a mom, maybe an Artist, and on it goes.

   

  How cool is that we have a multitude of things going on at one time.  The challenge is to do each challenge fully and with presence, and not to get ahead of the challenges, or sit in one challenge dreaming of another, but to concentrate right here right now. 

  We add little pieces, fun color or dimension to all these challenges each day, building on them a little at a time.

   

  We become like a juggler juggling the many aspects of ourselves, catching and releasing each challenge as it appears and then goes.

   

  “Do little, but right, that is how you change your personality, your life.”  Bikram

   

  February 4, 2010

  Bikram, but, Challenges, life, little, right, Yoga

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