Random thoughts

I need my practice more than ever right now and seemingly because of that need, I haven't done my usual practice in 3 days. No wonder I feel so yucky. Been working out like mad, to take advantage of the available equipment and to distract myself. From all my material worries. From all my mental ones...But working out, while certainly a fine and respectable activity, does not provide me with that sense of inner well being that practicing does. My body feels worked, my brain is properly stimulated to give my mood a lift, but I don't feel zingy the way I do after a really good yoga class. I need to go to class as much as I need to teach it. Maybe because I need to teach it I really need to go to class. You never know enough about anything. And the more you think you know, the less you truly understand.

Plus, someday I'd like to be able to do at least a few really advanced poses just for the sake of being able to do them. It might not be spiritual, my desire here, but it would just be fun. And yoga is fun. It is joyous. It is freeing. It is challenging to learn difficult poses, to train your body to move and think in new ways, but it is an enjoyable journey.

Word to the wise; if you are new to yoga, don't make "Light on Yoga" your first book. Wonderful, wonderful book. But if you have any ego involved in the "performance" of postures, you will be thoroughly discouraged. As you move on, learn more about what yoga really is, the fact that Iyengar can twist himself into a dazzling but intimidating array of postures most of us will probably never get into, will not bother you. You'll be impressed and humbled and hopefully inspired.