Aside from the walk, I’ve been feeling kind of stagnant in my life. I’m doing the same old work. This blog seems to have stalled out. I spend half my day dropping off and picking up children from various places. Even yoga was feeling stale. For nearly two years of a more-intense yoga practice, I was still excited to go to class and rejuvenated afterward…until I wasn’t. I started holding onto anxiety during my practice and feeling stuck. With life being busier, it seemed easier to just stay home and get a little work done or have that extra time to clean up or do whatever other task inevitably was left undone during the day.
This left me feeling depressed. Yoga had been my safe haven, my relaxation, my energy, my love for so long. Was it over? Would I have to search for some new passion? I didn’t want it to be the end. Plus, I have an annual membership to my studio that doesn’t end until August so I HAVE to go. That shit is expensive! So I continued to go and I enjoyed it, but didn’t feel passionate the way I used to.
Then last week I went to my usual class with one of my favorite instructors–the instructor who helped ignite my passion with an arm balance years ago. We had been working on astavakrasana or eight angle pose and this day I just GOT it. I held it so well that she tried to get me to transition into eka pada koundinayasana II, but that didn’t work out because of a sensitive shoulder (and it’s REALLY hard!). But that didn’t matter, in holding that pose I felt it again; that spark, that love, that excitement. When I got home I showed the pose to my husband and kids, who said it was a “cool trick.” Well, it IS a cool trick.
Holding that one pose brought me back into myself and into the moment. It helped me to remember why I love yoga in the first place. The answer is most definitely NOT advanced poses, although it was for me this time. The answer is finding something in yourself that you didn’t know was there. In the past it’s been exciting advanced poses, mantras that touched something inside of me, classes that made me feel like a part of something larger than myself, and even watching a fellow student discover a new pose for themselves. It seems that I am not done with yoga yet and yoga is most certainly not done with me. In the words of every yoga teacher ever, “it is a practice.”
Oh yeah! Astavakrasana baby!
Also, notice how my home practice inevitably involves children…
Mom's-Eye View 
Love it! I get where you are coming from too – for me it’s dancers pose. It was the first pose I ever did and made me go to my first class. 8 years and 1 new baby later, it still makes me feel my most elegant and graceful! It’s funny what one asana can do!
Great pics btw x
I love dancer’s pose as well. It’s amazing how a pose can feel wonderful each time we come back to it. And also amazing how a pose can feel awful until that moment it clicks. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Yay!! I recently got this one myself and I love it! Feels like flying! I hear you, sometimes I worry I will one day just be done with yoga, as I have a history or losing interest but yoga is different. As you said, it is a practice and sometimes the deeper we go, the more difficult it becomes. Nice work!!! Xoxo
Thanks! I’ve got a thing for arm balances. I’m really working on eka pada koundinyasana II. I can get into it, but only hold it for a second. I’m going to a workshop next week and hopefully I can get it. I have a history of losing interest as well so I was really worried yoga had run its course, but I’m fairly certain that will never truly happen.