Day 4 - Winging It

[Chris]

When I got on my mat this morning, I had real trouble paying attention to what I was "supposed" to be doing. I have a set sequence from my beginner's book, but it wasn't feeling that good to me and plus I had to keep stepping off the mat to look up what was next. Total lack of focus and flow.

I've read how many of you sometimes practice using whatever poses feel right at the time, so I thought I'd give that a shot. So I forgot about the book, just for today, and did whatever ...

My practice ended up heavy on forward folds standing and sitting, and lots of twists. It didn't seem hard enough, but I felt great afterwards and that was enough of an accomplishment for today.

[krista]

sometimes "hard" isn't what you need to deepen your practice anyway. I think it is good to keep a balance, hard, easy. I wish you a smiling lotus under your foot.

[eeabee]

I think this can be a great think to do--letting the needs or impulses of the moment guide one's practice. It can feel so different when I let go of being methodical or attached to a particular set of poses/sequences--not that I am ever all that methodical, I admit.

Anyway, enjoy the serendipity!

[Nona Jordan]

Biking is about hard. Yoga is about listening to your body. It sounds like your practice led you to exactly where you needed to be!

[lilalia]

My yoga instructor is very good at explaining how each yoga lesson is a matter of choosing to trust yourself enough to choose what is good for you. I am trying to take the same attitude with my home practice. Even though I haven't done home practice in years, I hope to find the right rhythm and poses each day.

[Jen]

Good for you! I still like to 'follow' a class or a dvd because I'm afraid I might end up in savasana for an hour, LOL. One of the reasons I've started teacher training is so that I can 'lead' myself.

[SeaStar]

I lean towards the forward bends as well (pun intended). It's' good that it all felt right in the end. I find looking in books for prompts does reduce the flow but I finally know my practice so I don't have to think about it.