Day 48

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m glad today was another Heartfulness Meditation workshop at lunch because the end of my day ended up being a bit frazzled! And then I couldn’t wait to get home to do my full yoga practice to unwind from my day (and to start my weekend off right!).

My husband is out tonight, so I was able to come home and take as long as I needed to do my yoga practice, without feeling guilty for not spending time with him (even though he says he doesn’t mind when I go do my yoga because he’s usually busy doing stuff himself (writing soccer articles, or watching soccer to write articles about!). Either way, he wasn’t home, so I could take my time. Plus I got home from work late anyway. I ended up finishing everything at 6:40pm

I did all my pranayama exercises (full yogic breath, alternate nostril breathing, kappala bhati (‘skull shining’), fire wash, horse seal, ujjayi (all 3 variations), and humming bee). I know that might not mean much to those who don’t do yoga so i’ll break it down a bit.

Full Yogic breath – is a full breath – breathing into the stomach, chest/lungs and upper chest

Alternate Nostril breathing – is like it sounds – breathing in and out of each nostril while blocking the other . This is one of my favourites. It has the same benefits as a neti pot, well, without a neti pot!

Kappala bhati/skull shining – is a sinus clearing breath where you exhale strongly out your nose in short bursts

Fire Wash/Agni Sar Dhouti – is constricting and releasing the stomach rhythmically on an exhale

Horse Seal (aka Ashvini Mudra) – clenching your anal sphincter repeatedly for a certain count while holding your breath after  a full yogic breath

Ujjayi – aka ‘Victorious breath’ – or Darth Vader breath where it sounds like ocean waves because you constrict your throat slightly

Humming Bee – when you make a humming noise (like the ‘mmmm’ part of Om) on an exhale of a breath .

Then I did 5 rounds of sun saluations, and then went through ALL the standing postures, practicing them and saying the cues outloud. I was proud in that I was really quite stable during Ardha Chandrasana (Balancing Half Moon pose) and not falling all over the place like I was last time in class! And same with Eagle pose (Garudasana), I was able to sink quite far down into the posture.

I then did Bad Yogi’s Day 27 – a 15 minute video for the IT bands where we used a yoga strap again! yay! so that was fun.

And lastly finished by doing 10 minutes of meditating on the Loving Kindness meditation that I mentioned a few posts ago – where we had to repeat:

May I be filled with loving kindness

May I be well

May I be peaceful and at ease

May I be happy

-and then repeat but with: You, We and All.

I was able to stay pretty focused on the sayings and my mind didn’t wander too much and the 10 minutes went by pretty quickly, so that was neat!

I did some anatomy review as well, after I’d eaten dinner.

Daily Journal Question

What brings you daily motivation and joy on and off the mat?

Off the mat: finishing a task is great motivation and I always feel happy and accomplished when I’ve done something on my ‘to do’ list

On the mat: My yoga room. I love my yoga room (that was the ‘book room’) before I took it over and made it my yoga space. (I just wish it had a bit more light in it – even the 2 little lamps don’t brighten it up as much as I would like – at least at this darker time of year in the evenings!)