Ashtanga yoga

Four months back my neighbour, who is a long time practitioner of Ashtanga yoga, opened classes upstairs in her home. I joined, and experienced a rare healthy addiction. It's so cool that I can climb 20 feet and I'm there in class. The practice is a fixed series of asanas, choreographed with breath. The Primary Series is misleading nomenclature. For the first few weeks we only did Surya Namaskaram and slowly added poses, one by one. After four months, I've reached half way thru the Primary Series. I do well with core strength and flexibility, and struggle with poses that require strength, especially in the legs.

It's the same series every day, and the whole maniacal repetitive nature of the practice appeals to my obsessive nature. Any activity performed with awareness is meditative. With the first pose of Surya Namaskaram every morning at 7, the balls of my breath have begun to roll on a rhythm and count for the next one hour, in sync with physical movement. I have almost no awareness of anything happening outside of that mat during that time. It's a complete mental break from life.

The asanas are challenging, and often out of range and modified versions are used. It's challenging so that the mind and body have something to grapple with and not be bored. The idea is to be aware of each body part, muscle and tissue, along with the breath, and observe oneself thru this practice. In that sense it's a very private, solitary pursuit - every day you get to know how your body feels, much like other important daily indicators of well-being - appetite, sleep and morning shit. Some days are better than others, and we accept it as it is, and enjoy the awareness.