March 7- Ashtanga Yoga is a Breathing System

It’s an endurance contest.  Waking up so early, drinking chai, and making it over to the shala for a very difficult practice.  At the end of 2 months of this and dreaming of sleep, and that distant memory called dinner.  Everybody in there is maxing out.  All together we are sweating, embarrassed, sometimes fearing, sometimes hurting.  This week, Sunday to Thursday, practice has oscillated from awesome to crappy and somewhere in between.  I find myself thinking the most amazing thoughts. Such as:

I’m too old for this.

Will I really keep doing this every day?

Did this used to be easier?

Past and future, past and future.  Then I come back to the present. Breathe Kate, just breathe.  That’s all you have to do to make this yoga enjoyable and keep that crazy mind from tweaking you right out of town.

Ashtanga yoga is a breathing system! Why do I continue to forget and remember this about 20 times every day?  Wacky, I tell you, this whole human thing is just wacky.  I guess knowing is half the battle.  Some humans move on along through life and remember the Truth after illness, accidents, the occasional jolt back to the Now.  The yoga practitioners, well, I guess we are trying to remember at least once/day.  So maybe 20x isn’t bad at all then?