Lifting Off...

so years ago when i started yoga my practice was very basic. at the time even triangle pose was too much for my body. now i can look back and laugh, for i have come so far.i remember picking up issues of yoga journal and looking through the pictures wishes i could do those poses. everything from a full seated forward fold to a beautiful wheel, or a strong handstand or graceful pigeon variation (the one were your foot is in the nook of your arm). i would spend months, sometimes years working on mastering said poses, while relishing in the journey the entire time. now i say mastering loosely as i believe no one can ever truly master any pose, for the body is always changing...as the years have past i still will pick a pose i believe is beyond my means and work on it, only to surprise myself, and sometimes my husband, when i am able to do it LOL. most recently i have been on an arm balance kick, with a dash of wheel pose LOL.

i will explain. so as you all know i "mastered" wheel pose, but of course that wasn't enough for this little yogi, oh no, after that she wanted to learn and achieve a one legged wheel! so after conquering my fear.... being inverted in a back bend with head and back in compromising position then adding in a bit of balance and strength but making it so only 3 limbs and not 4 were holding me in place... i was able to raise that leg high and proud! now it's a personal favorite!

now onto the arm balance fun... arm balances were always a pipe dream for me. when i began to say i had no upper body strength or core strength was a major understatement LOL. even downdog was tough for me and going from plank to chaturanga to either cobra or updog? not even on the map. i would belly flop like shamu through those. but i never gave up. i kept at it and slowly but surely i started to grow my little bean sprouts, this is the name i have coined for my biceps LOL. then it was conquering side plank, showing that chaturanga how it's done, and then i began to take flight with my first ever arm balance pose, scale pose. overtime i began working on crow, and you all know the story of my handstand. lately it's been side crow, astavakrasana, and firefly.
then the other day i saw an article the lovely and talented kathryn budig did on coming into elephant's trunk pose. i was intrigued to say the least. so today i set about attempting this one. i hadn't had time to practice or attempt during my personal time and ended up incorporating it into one of my classes LOL. we have messed with arm balances before in that class and they were game! so we prepared for flight and some of us even lifted off, i was one of them! it was such a great energy in the room after we all attempted this pose. and no one cared if they could or couldn't do it, just trying it was more than enough for us all!

i guess that's part of what i love about yoga so much, the never ending journey...

*** special thank you's go out to my hubby and michele for taking the photos! <3 ***

Setting Boundaries...

We all struggle with this at some point in time in our lives... for me this truly hit home this past week.

I am a people pleaser. I will please others before myself, even if that means that I have to give up something, etc. I am also a businesswoman and studio owner... put these two things together and what do you get? A pushed to her limits yogi that can snap at any moment... And the other day I did.

It's funny what the final straw turns out to be. A funny look, a misunderstood comment... for me it was a minor argument about a song with my husband that ended with me in tears in his arms and a very strong curling iron... I won't get into the specifics of the argument because they are trivial, and no I didn't throw the curling iron at my husband, just the mirror LOL and don't worry both are fine.

The point of this is that I shouldn't have let myself get pushed that far. No one should.

I am teaching an insane amount of classes, all by myself, and running my studio (for the most part) all by myself, and to have clients tell me how I should do things, why I have a downtime between classes, etc. really got to me last week.

I mean here I am putting my heart and soul into my studio and you are giving me a hard time because I am taking an hour break before classes to eat a banana and recharge a little? Seriously?

I felt so unappreciated last week it wasn't funny. I had days where I just wanted to disappear and not deal with anyone. Not good when all I do all day long is deal with people LOL. But I bit my tongue and kept my mean thoughts to myself. And come Sunday I took 90% of the day for myself. No phone, no texting, no email... I cut myself off from the business world (and my personal world aside from my husband). This had to be one of the hardest things I have had to do, aside from not putting some overbearing customers in their place LOL.

By the end of the day I was relishing in my me time and wishing I had more. I have now decided to make this a Sunday ritual and to do this in the evenings after I am done instructing for the day.

This also got me thinking... in my goal to please everyone I lost myself. I took away my me time, my hubby and me time, my errand time, my sleep in past 5am time... It has also made me consider cutting back on classes, maybe taking another day off, so I would only be going strong 5 days a week instead of 6.

I am struggling to make this last part work because I know it's going to tick some people off. But in the long run it will make for a much happier me, which means classes that will kick your butt when they are suppose to and relax you when you need it.

So as of right now I am assessing my schedule and seeing which day I can eliminate some work time to make room for some April time.

The moral of all this rambling is, in the midst of making everyone happy, PLEASE don't forget about yourself, your wants, your needs, your YOU time. Because no one can do it for you...