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angharad_gamI suspect most of you would agree with the observation that sometimes having more time doesn't always mean you will get more done. I certainly found this to be the case when I was sick and unemployed (which seems like a long time ago now, and that's probably because it was). I've noticed it a bit lately as well. You may note I recently wrote about having more leisure time, and having more leisure time just means you want more leisure time and find it much harder to drag yourself away to do the things that need doing like feeding the kids, cleaning out the fridge (which really needs doing right now - it's disturbingly sticky in there) or doing some yoga. When all you have to do is les devoirs
Some time last year my yoga home practice slowly went the way of the dinosaurs. I want it back, because I think it's good for me, but I'm struggling to convert that into motivation. I think in part this is because of the increase in leisure time. I started practicing yoga not long before I got pregnant with Ashwyn, and I was already doing some exercises I got from a physiotherapist after hurting my hip while I was pregnant with Erin and had pretty much kept up ever since. The exercises were easily enough converted to yoga, and so began my home practice. I added a few other postures as I found things that were really helpful to me, and at one stage I was doing about twenty minutes of yoga almost every night, as well as two classes a week and a couple of rounds of sun salutes some mornings too.
That's a lot of yoga. It's paid off.
But at the time I had virtually no leisure time (possibly except for the yoga). I had a very strict routine to get through everything I had to do. Bear in mind that I was back at work and still breastfeeding at this point. I had to make lunches the night before because I would be breastfeeding at breakfast and had no time to do anything in the mornings. Before bedtime I also had to express milk for the next day, make up formula, and sterilise the breast pump so I could take it to work with me. I usually started doing things at least an hour before I actually planned to lie down and sleep. Slipping 15mins of yoga in here was not such a problem.
Now I don't have to make lunches the night before because I often have time to do them in the morning. Ashwyn can feed himself (on the days he deigns to actually eat). I don't need to do anything before I go to sleep except wash myself. Now in the evenings I am doing things I enjoy and want to keep doing, and often do keep doing until I look at the clock and go 'argh! I need to go to bed'. And it's been too easy to just let the yoga slide on nights like that. And now it's every night like that.
Perhaps part of the problem is also that I'm not really suffering for letting it slide. Not yet. I'm one of the most flexible students in my yoga classes (although far from an advanced student and orders of magnitude behind what my teacher can do, but then she does have a ten year head start), and while I certainly still have issues with my shoulders (and some other bits), I'm in much better condition than I was when I started six years ago.
Another possibility arises around ritual and need. I built up my home practice from the physio exercises and added some additional poses I found useful as my practice progressed and I began to identify my weaknesses. But then the home practice kind of ossified. It became a ritual. And it certainly addressed the weaknesses to the point where they're pretty much not so much weaknesses any more. So maybe the home practice is just not relevant or useful anymore. I have in the past found a practice becoming ritualised and irrelevant, and so discarded it. I think it's pretty much why I stopped praying.
All of this has not given me much more of an insight into how to get my practice going again. I think I'm just going to try and make some space or yoga, and in that time do things that I feel like I need to do.
Some time last year my yoga home practice slowly went the way of the dinosaurs. I want it back, because I think it's good for me, but I'm struggling to convert that into motivation. I think in part this is because of the increase in leisure time. I started practicing yoga not long before I got pregnant with Ashwyn, and I was already doing some exercises I got from a physiotherapist after hurting my hip while I was pregnant with Erin and had pretty much kept up ever since. The exercises were easily enough converted to yoga, and so began my home practice. I added a few other postures as I found things that were really helpful to me, and at one stage I was doing about twenty minutes of yoga almost every night, as well as two classes a week and a couple of rounds of sun salutes some mornings too.
That's a lot of yoga. It's paid off.
But at the time I had virtually no leisure time (possibly except for the yoga). I had a very strict routine to get through everything I had to do. Bear in mind that I was back at work and still breastfeeding at this point. I had to make lunches the night before because I would be breastfeeding at breakfast and had no time to do anything in the mornings. Before bedtime I also had to express milk for the next day, make up formula, and sterilise the breast pump so I could take it to work with me. I usually started doing things at least an hour before I actually planned to lie down and sleep. Slipping 15mins of yoga in here was not such a problem.
Now I don't have to make lunches the night before because I often have time to do them in the morning. Ashwyn can feed himself (on the days he deigns to actually eat). I don't need to do anything before I go to sleep except wash myself. Now in the evenings I am doing things I enjoy and want to keep doing, and often do keep doing until I look at the clock and go 'argh! I need to go to bed'. And it's been too easy to just let the yoga slide on nights like that. And now it's every night like that.
Perhaps part of the problem is also that I'm not really suffering for letting it slide. Not yet. I'm one of the most flexible students in my yoga classes (although far from an advanced student and orders of magnitude behind what my teacher can do, but then she does have a ten year head start), and while I certainly still have issues with my shoulders (and some other bits), I'm in much better condition than I was when I started six years ago.
Another possibility arises around ritual and need. I built up my home practice from the physio exercises and added some additional poses I found useful as my practice progressed and I began to identify my weaknesses. But then the home practice kind of ossified. It became a ritual. And it certainly addressed the weaknesses to the point where they're pretty much not so much weaknesses any more. So maybe the home practice is just not relevant or useful anymore. I have in the past found a practice becoming ritualised and irrelevant, and so discarded it. I think it's pretty much why I stopped praying.
All of this has not given me much more of an insight into how to get my practice going again. I think I'm just going to try and make some space or yoga, and in that time do things that I feel like I need to do.
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 12:33 pm (UTC)That is impressive!
[On the other hand if it went the way of the Dodo it got to feed a lot of hungry Portuguese sailors.]
[In the more serious advice column treat it as a ritual. It helps get in the habit. Set a set time for when you yogi [yoghurt? yog? oggle?] and stick to it religiously. After all, if you don't yoga then the world will end. Seriously. The whole existance of reality itself hinges on the fact that you do "Snapping Turtle In Undersea Grotto" each night. Otherwise the Spandex Goddess of Yogawill not be appeased. It propiatory worship admittedly, to avoid being confined to the 87th Hell of Sore Joints instead of the 6th Heaven of Flexibility. Now go and worship at false idols!]