Where's My Smiley's?

There's no smiley's! What am I going to do without smiley's! I love to put smiley's in my writing. I smile alot so shoot me! lol! However, my ex-boyfriend said he was so surprised that I smile so much and that I have the most amazing delightful smile because before he knew me he used to see me alot walking in my neighbourhood and I never smiled he said. And he used to think to himself why does she look so grouchy. Go figure! I used to say to him why were you thinking about me so much??? Lol! It just goes to show that unfortunately for me I wasn't blessed with the Mona Lisa resting face. Oh well! And I just discovered that my face is called by those misogynists out there, yes there still out there, the "BRF". Ha!! "The Bitchy Resting Face." Lor have mercy as if "Cougar" wasn't bad enough! But I digress ...

My Yoga Adventure Begins — warning this may be a long one

I started my yoga adventure around about 7 years ago. I was slowly climbing and healing my way out of chronic fatigue and a sleep disorder. I had ZERO energy (what was that!?) and ZERO stamina (is that a word?!). I walked around with a leaded feeling in my body at all times and as if my legs had leaded balls strapped to them. But I was determined to get better. Slowly but surely I started with little bits of mat pilates. Then I discovered a yoga-pilates library DVD. That was the turn-around. It was funny back then as these opportunities seemed to drop in my lap just when my body was ready to up the ante a tiny bit more. And what a revelation the yoga was. I had always thought it was a namby-pampy sit on the floor and stretchy stretchy stuff (though yin does have it's wonderful place!). I liked action —even if I couldn't move at the time, lol! — and yoga didn't sound like action. But was I sadly or rather happily mistaken. I found muscles that I never knew could be activated and with my ballet background I LOVED that it gave me both the muscle strengthening and challenge coupled with stretching built right in with a beautiful mind & breathe meditation. How sublime! So I was hooked and couldn't get enough. At the beginning just doing a forward fold was challenging. I would get dizzy, have a sore lower back for months and my hamstring attachments hurt for a good 8 months. Ouch! But I perservered. Then I discovered Namaste Yoga on TV. And wow that was truly a Godsend. As it was just enough challenge for my body and in the most beautiful almost trance-like flowy dance-like choreagraphy which was right up my ballet background's alley. I continued to graduate to my library's more challenging offerings of Yoga Zone dvds as my strength built. And then as I grew even stronger (my stamina was still in the pits) I found just the ticket with Seane Corne's Vinyasa DVD's and I was hooked! I discovered VINYASA, like I discovered GOLD! I did up to 7 vinyasa's (plank, chatarunga, updog, downdog, I thought I was in the big leagues!) the first time using her DVD and my shoulders were on FIYA for over a week. I couldn't lift my arms past my shoulders if my life depended on it! Lol! BUT I loved it! From there I started to invest in my own home library moving on to Bryan Kest, Baron Baptiste, Shiva Rae, etc. I was in heaven. Four years into my yoga quest I still hadn't visited a yoga studio. The reason being was that I still wasn't ready. I could do the DVD's but I could never finish them as my stamina was nil. I would get 30-45min tops before savasana took over. But man I could do a mean savasana then. I literally could NOT move an inch I was so wasted. And when I finally could get up, I'd have to sit on the couch for another hour before I could even think to get ready for bed. Yowza! But I was a trooper! I couldn't exactly do a 90min class in a studio back then as they would've had to peel me off the floor in order to close shop. lol! Then I discovered ashtanga and slowly but surely it seeped into my soul. I didn't realize it would get me so much. I love power flow yoga and I love the variety/creativity of flows it offers so I'm still surprised that I would keep returning more and more to a fixed system such as ashtanga. I scratch my head in wonder. I think it's because it offers so much challenge and so much to work towards and so much to gauge against, whilst being a beautiful meditation in motion. I'm not sure, but I keep on agoin! ... I started taking real studio classes three years ago which I still supplement with home practice DVD's and online classes (totally awesome, like YogaGlo.com and YogisAnonymous.com). And that was another wonderful adventure. And just last month discovered the beauties of Mysore (I see another post coming!) — As you can see I'm not yet an ashtangi purist.

I'm very proud of myself that I've come this far. I would not have been able to see this 7 years ago, my brain was in such a fog of fatigue. But deep in my heart I believed with God's wondrous help (even though I didn't know Pattabhi's phrase before) that "practice and all is coming" etc. etc. ...

On My Bookshelf:
• Guruji
• Hell Bent: Obssession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga (a Bikram memoir)
• Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses 
Read Shelf:
• Guruji
• The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny