I took class two days in a row from the same teacher and had the fortune of getting to work through the same sequence twice. This might be irritating to some people, but I had loved the way my body felt in the first class, so I was excited to get to do it all over again. I was ready to move as deep, and get as blissed out as I had the previous day.
WRONG! While the first time around my hips had opened, my feet had grounded, and my breath had stayed steady, I found the opposite happening the next day. I felt inflexible, unbalance, and irritated.
The thing is, although we may come to the same mat to practice the same poses time after time, the experience is never the same. Our body changes from day to day, and where it is willing to open or not is what determines the direction and depth of practice. But more importantly our moods will affect what we think we can or can’t do, how easily we can connect with our breath and ourselves, and how we feel about what is going on around and inside us. And that’s just life.
So before you start to practice, pause. Check in. How are you feeling today – in both your body and your mind. What have you brought with you to your mat this time? Decide to leave it behind, or invite it into your practice so you can work through it. Stopping to notice you as you are right now, and loving it all, is what the yoga is all about.