For the Love of Ashtanga and YOU!

Nicole, Ozzie's Butt

I love this practice and am honored to share it with others. What’s not to love? It’s always the same within a scope. This might sound boring but that’s what makes it a system, it's necessary and anything but boring. Having a system allows us to have an organized experience rather than cherry picking yoga techniques directionless. Everything done in this practice is done in a specific way for a specific reason. The repetition is what gives this hard work its tranquil quality that restores the nervous system. 

The repetition is part of the meditative aspect. I know what's coming. I don’t have to think about it. Moving through a flow that regularly changes leaves us anticipating what's coming next. It’s easier to stay in the moment when you aren’t guessing what the next pose is going to be. The system is designed with a specific intention. Primary series is to align the skeleton. Second, cleans up the energy system. A lot more than that happens along the way. It breaks down and rebuilds us repeatedly. It’s a system that shows us how disciplined we are. We stumble often in this process. How do we respond?  Ashtanga exposes our weaknesses. It shows how we handle problems. Requires consistent effort. The more unwavering the better. Because the information is vast! There is no shortage of avenues of exploration.

The asanas, breathwork and every technique we study have been chosen out of thousands because they get to the point. It would take quite a few lifetimes to truly study every yoga technique. This has already been done by those who came before us and is now available to us in a concise way.  Thanks to our predecessors we have been handed this well organized method. The asanas are arranged in a way that every asana prepares you for the next asana or sequence of asanas. And it’s all transferable to our daily lives.

Everything we learn on our mat is a life lesson. That’s awesome and quite humbling… Our mat is our converging grounds for fear and faith. A place where we are constantly shining the light back onto ourselves. That can be very challenging. I’ve shown up on my converging grounds in rough shape many times and have had to look straight at this spiraled out person, acknowledge the situation and work through it following the process. It’s hard. It has to be. A butterfly has to work very hard to get out of its cocoon. It has to so it will strengthen its wings. This is life. 

I’ve watched many people go from weak, tired, and in pain to strong, energized and if not completely pain free than definitely minimized and well managed without pills and procedures. It’s very inspiring. (Makes me want to practice.) The practice meets us where we are and we build over a long period of time. Its adaptable quality allows for it to be tailored to my needs as they change.  

Ashtanga sometimes gets criticized because it’s a set sequence. It’s not always the same asanas. It depends on the person. The asanas will be different or the intention will change. Sometimes an old injury shows up right in the beginning of the sequence, sometimes farther along, that will divert the direction of where our practice goes. Injury is just one example. Many things happen that dictate the way a practice goes. The series are just the blueprints. We follow it and make changes as things come up. 

 I’ve done these asanas literally thousands of times so I know how my body fits into them. I can quickly tell when something is off and address it rather than having it slip past unknowingly until it manifests in a way that is painfully limiting.  I had horrible back pain growing up and into my early 20’s. Sometimes I couldn't move for days at a time. Thankfully yoga intervened. It worked pretty quickly and taught me how to manage and eliminate pain that arose along the way through life since then. I love yoga because it makes me strong and humble. I’ve never practiced anything more physically and often mentally challenging. I always leave my practices feeling like I have something I need to work on. Some imbalance to sort out. Keeps me in tune with myself. 

I love ashtanga because of all of the wonderful people I've met! That means my husband Dave, my son Nebulas and YOU! We are beyond grateful to have you all in our lives. Thank you for inspiring my practice. You all help me stay curious and focused. You are all very supportive and I truly appreciate you. Thanks for listening to me spew my love for Ashtanga and YOU! If you would like to dive into ashtanga more deeply let me know!

Keep practicing 3rd Sight family!