Practice, practice, practice...

A famous quote from K. Pattabhi Jois, "practice, practice, practice . . . and all is coming." This week I feel like that is the truth. My physical practice has been great, but I notcie that the better it is the more conscious I am of my state of mind, and therefore the more work it seems like I have to do to keep my mind heading in the right direction. I just opened Kino's book, Sacred Fire, and randomly picked a passage to read, here it is: "Yoga teaches you how to be humble and willing to put in the work required to achieve the results that you want. When you unroll your mat and commit to the total journey of yoga you unlock the mind's power to transform physical substance with the power of spirit. With practice, this is exactly what I learned to do." I'm like, ok universe, I get you! I was just irritated with my friend whom I asked to take over my Thursday evening Ashtanga class in the park, because he cancelled the class today. When I texted him asking why, he just said the weather, I'm like the weather?!? Its fucking nice out today and the wind is blowing and blah, blah, blah. I went to the dark side. Not observing the philosophy of Ashtanga Yoga which begins with Ahimsa, non-harming. Were my thoughts that? No. Were my actions that? No. Etc, etc, etc, and then you get to the next Yama and then the Niyamas. So, I obviously failed this test today lol. But coming to the quote from Kino's book, and then I sat down to blog, not intentially, I intended to check facebook, but had this stuff in me that needed out. So I'm trying to think of what to title the entry, Kino's passage brought up that old saying from Pattabhi. Duh, again, universe, I'm getting you. Its a practice. Are we ever meant to be perfect? No, I don't necessarily think so. Are we meant to get it right every time? No, probably not. If we did, would life be any fun? And where would our growth come from? So yes, life is a practice. Make your play, learn from it, move forward, expand and grow from the experience. Also, our yoga practice can serve as a microcosm for the macrocosm of our life. Notice while you're on your mat how it goes, is it hard to go to the next asana, or through the vinyasa or transition to the next asana? Does your mind keep coming in saying, sit there, don't worry about it, just don't forget to buy bananas later, oh and coconut water! lol. The asana practice, is just that as well, a practice. So use that time on the mat to train yourself to feel your way through, not to jump at every distraction your mind tries to come up with and move your way through the practice, maybe some pranayama, and meditation. Just be present with it, notice how it goes, notice what comes up mentally, physically, energetically... and be in observance of it, move through the block. Yogi Bhajan was famous for many quotes, the one that is appropriate here is "There is a way through every block." And he offered many kriyas, meditations, mantras and pranayamas so we would have a variety of things to try to get through that block. Not around it so that it may still be there, but through it, so that it could dissipate and the energy of said block could be freed up and used in other, more beneficial ways. Ashtanga yoga also moves through blocks, many physical, but all energetic as well. Mostly because of its intensity. Kundalini yoga and Ashtanga yoga, both very traditional practices, some say age old, but both practices very intense. I guess since I'm drawn to them both, maybe that means I'm an intense guy?!? LOL, God, I know I am, but I'm working on softening the edges, slowly, slowly, like water moving over stones, they slowly smooth out and allow the flow again. Check back in a few years, see how smooth they've gotten! (that doesn't mean not to read my blog for that long, just a saying you know) Talk to you soon,take time this week to find enjoyment in your practices, notice where your edges are smoothing out. Namaste and Sat Nam my friends...