Today I really just wanted to finish planning as much as I could for Boulder. As much as I wish I could, I can’t plan out every detail of my daily life in Boulder, so I just came up with a rough itinerary of classes I would like to take while I am there. I also wanted to read more of The Yamas and Niyamas.
I also finished reading about the Yamas in The Yamas and Niyamas, so I read about nonexcess and nonpossessiveness. Both of these were very interesting to learn about and to think about attempting to attain them. For example, a big part of nonexcess is to take nothing in excess, and instead, walk in the path of God. At first, I was skeptical because I don’t believe in God, however, upon reading more, it is truly just taking in everything as holy and as something of wonderment and awe. I do believe that this would be more difficult for me to attain because I am not a very spiritual person. Unlike many others who don’t follow religion, I truly don’t believe there is any sort of greater force or divinity “out there” which is impacting our lives. I think for me, nonexcess would be about finding holiness in everything through the earth because our earth is something I have a lot of respect for, so even though it’s not quite spiritual, it’s still a sort of greater force which gives us life. In my interactions with others today and yesterday, I found myself thinking a lot about the Yamas I had read about and how I was either in compliance or not in compliance with them, and ways in which I would have to change my attitude/interactions/lifestyle if I were to really commit to them.
I think I had a very productive day today because I learned a lot from my reading, and I finished my schedule which took some weight off of my shoulders. Later today I will be meeting with Kelly to talk about some final details, and I will go over my questions with her and get some advice. I think I will blog about this tomorrow since I will be traveling to Boulder tomorrow so I won’t really be able to do much work besides reading.
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Today my main goal was to research and really start to understand some of the main teachings and philosophies of yoga. Another smaller goal was to try and finalize a sort of rough itinerary to follow during my time in Boulder. I also was hoping to do some yoga, unfortunately I ran out of time, so I was unable to do any today.
Today I also met with my mentor, Amy Hunt. We spoke more about what I plan to do during my trip and what my final goal is, which I think I have decided will be to find the best yoga practice for me. I will do this by trying different yoga styles and speaking to yoga instructors about how they found the best practice for themselves and how I might do the same thing. I really want to be able to focus more of my energy inward during my practice rather than looking at what others are doing or being worried about how flexible or good I look. I also want to have minimal hip pain during my practice, which means adapting certain poses so that I don’t experience a lot of pain.
I was pretty successful in completing my goals for today. As I said earlier, I ran out of time to actually do yoga, but I got a load of planning and research done. Tomorrow I am going to read more of The Yamas and Niyamas, finish making a schedule for Boulder, and make a rough draft of questions to ask instructors. I am also meeting with my sponsor, Kelly, tomorrow after school, and I will go over these questions with her. Today I planned on reaching out to more yoga studios and instructors in Boulder, creating my blog, doing some yoga, and determining exactly what I want to learn and experience during my time in Boulder. Over winter break I began reaching out to different yoga studios and instructors based in Boulder. So far, three studios and three instructors have gotten back to me and are willing to set up times to speak with me so that I can learn more about their experiences with yoga. Today I continued reaching out to more teachers and studios because I think I will be the most successful if I have a lot of connections in Boulder. I am not exactly sure what I will be asking these instructors yet, I am planning on figuring that out tomorrow and Wednesday when I do more research on yoga in general. I also spent some time today creating this "website" for my blog. As I will be out of town, this blog will be one of the main sources from which my sponsor (Kelly Milewski, a local yoga teacher) will stay updated on my progress in Boulder.
I try to fit yoga into my schedule everyday, and during school that usually means squeezing it in before school. I am not a morning person, so I often sleep through my alarm and don't have time for yoga in the morning. This morning I woke up late, but I still was able to squeeze in a quick ten minute morning flow which I found on Youtube. This didn't do much for me because I was stressed about running late, and it was so short that I wasn't really able to get into it. Luckily, I was able to attend Kelly's yoga class which she holds at MV on Mondays at 5:00. I always look forward to this class because it gets my heart rate up and my muscles working, but it always leaves me feeling very relaxed and refreshed. Although the class was wonderful as always, I had a difficult time focusing today. I think this is because I am kind of stressed about going to Boulder so soon. I have never travelled alone, and speaking to new people makes me anxious, and I am going to have to do an abundance of both of these things throughout my trip. I had an especially difficult time during Shavasana or Corpse pose, the meditative period of time at the end of a yoga sequence. I found myself thinking quite a lot, rather than just focusing on my breath, or watching my thoughts and letting them go. This is something I am really hoping to get better at during my time in Boulder. Today I also brainstormed more of what I hope to do in Boulder. In the beginning I was planning on researching the mental and physical benefits of yoga, but this just seems very black and white to me. There are so many benefits and although I could try and see what kind of benefits I see in myself, this seems like it would be more research than discovery. While brainstorming today, I thought of having the final goal of this project be finding the best yoga practice that for me and my body. Because I plan on studying five different types of yoga, this would work well because I will be able to determine which is best for me. I will speak with different instructors about their experiences and how they found a yoga practice which was right for them. I will also be able to get advice on how to remedy some things that I struggle with in my yoga practice (I talk more about some challenges I face in yoga on the homepage of this blog). I think this will work a lot better for me than learning about the benefits of yoga because while I will still be learning the benefits, my final take away will be much more relevant to me and useful in my daily life. Tomorrow I plan on doing some yoga in the morning, starting my research by reading some books about yoga that I just got, planning and organizing some final details for my trip, and beginning to brainstorm some questions for the yoga instructors that I speak with. |
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