Friday, December 30, 2011

Next Up? A New Year

For many years I have tossed around the idea of doing B.K.S. Iyengar's asana courses, Appendix 1 of "Light on Yoga."  The courses detail 300+ weeks of personal practice, as if one were studying asana for the first time all the way to an advanced practitioner.

Michael Jordan was asked what he was thinking about as he was dribbling and shooting a basketball.  He said he was thinking of the fundamentals, the skills he learned first.  Being a teacher, and a long-time yoga student, the fundamentals are still important.  I decided to do Iyengar's course, starting from the beginning.  I started it on Monday, December 26.  I felt inspired; why wait 'til the new year?

Our lives can be seen as an onion whereby we continually move from this level to a deeper one, learning the next lesson, the next peel of the onion.  When we are consciously students, we learn more.  To consciously be a student, we need guidance.  Sometimes we guide ourselves, at other times someone else does the guiding.  This time, Iyengar will provide the guidance.  In doing his asana course, I will be learning another level, another peel of the onion, of the postures.  In turn, I will be learning about myself in the postures.

I have the audiobook by Stephen Levine, "A Year to Live."  It is an awesome audiobook!  I have been very busy and have lost a bit of myself, the last year or so.  This year, 2012, I am taking my life back! Committing to such a long program is a bit daunting, to say the least!  LOL  But I will learn more about myself, as well as the postures.  My goal is to commit to the first year of the course.  I'll see what happens at the end of the year.

The first two weeks of the course contain postures, all of which I have, obviously, done before.  They are: tadasana (mountain pose), vrksasana (tree pose), utthita trikonasana (triangle pose), utthita parsvakonasana (extended side angle pose), virabhadrasana I and II (warrior 1 and 2 poses), parsvottanasana (pyramid pose), salamba sarvangasana (supported shoulderstand), halasana (plow pose), and savasana (corpse pose).

I can't wait to see what I will learn!  And if anyone wants to join me in this endeavor, I'd love the company!