As I worked through my Surya Namaskar, I noticed that my breath was linking my poses more than on Day 1. I could hear it clearly, evenly, and had that sweet internal knowledge of the moment it began to slow down to teach me what my rhythm should be. My vinyasa in Surya Namaskar always takes longer on my own than in a class, because my breath gets so long in those Downward Dogs.

It’s delicious.

The flexibility will return. It’s the peacefulness that I yearn for the most, though. The peace that comes when you can still be moving yet feel like you’re sitting with something bigger than you.

For a treat, I found this video today. It’s not a Sun Salutation, but it holds the curiosity and playfulness of yoga so sweetly. Enjoy. (It made me cry. But I’m a complete and total sap.)

Related posts:

1. Sun Salute Challenge: Day 2
2. Sun Salute Challenge: Day 4.
3. Sun Salute Challenge: Day 1

Some of you have asked if I “do” anything other than yoga. The answer? Yes. As of about two months ago, that is. And I have to be honest, this “other stuff” that I’m doing? It’s saved my yoga practice.

But I’d like to back up a little bit before I explain that last sentence.

During my last pregnancy (just a year and a half ago), I began having some painful things happen in my lower back and hips. Pretty normal, really, for pregnancy, but long lasting. Post-pregnancy, I began chiropractic care, which helped a lot. But honestly, I felt as though I was really relying on those appointments in order to live with pain. So a couple of months ago, I changed my diet. And it helped immensely. I’ve always had a love affair with nutrition, but these last several weeks have brought that up to a whole new level.

And in addition to my back pain disappearing completely (I have waited so long to say that), my physical recovery time when I work hard in yoga or in other activities has improved vastly.

Jeez. I sound like an infomercial. What a cheeseball. Sorry. I’m just so incredibly grateful and happy and relieved to be able to play with my boys, every day, without having to be so careful about how I pick them up or yell in alarm when I see my Kindergartener running at me to jump on my back.

My health is everything. To me, to my marriage, and to my children.

Before making some changes to support my health, my yoga practice was suffering greatly, and I noticed that I avoided teaching several poses because there was no way to demonstrate them if needed. If I practiced too aggressively or even tried to push the boundaries of where I knew I was, boy did I pay for it. It would take a lot of rest, many trips to the chiropractor, and a lot of Advil.

I started working out at butt-early in the morning at a place called Conviction CrossFit. Let me warn you, I’ve never been an athlete. I didn’t grow up playing organized sports of any kind. I’ve never been coached. And this is soooo opposite of my yoga practice that I was really scared at first. I feel very comfortable and feminine in my yoga practice and in my teaching, but there is a strength and warrior-ness in Crossfit training that I’ve never experienced…and I am loving it.

I encourage you to seek out that “thing” that will enhance your health. Whether it’s diet, or running, or hiking, or being on the water, whatever it is. For my husband for so many years, it was cycling. For another friend, it’s triathlons. For yet another, it’s moving back and forth between different styles of yoga.

For me now, it’s CrossFit.

And I can almost do an unassisted pullup.

It’s going to make my chataranga dandasana rock this world.

No related posts.

Today, I tasted community.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to be and practice here: The Yoga Workshop. This is one of my favorite places on Earth. And on Earth Day, no less.

And in this, my favorite yoga studio, one of my favorite women, De West, brought together women in all stages of life and motherhood to gather for a Prenatal Yoga Intensive.

Not just to gather. To savor what it is to be a woman. There was a curiosity, a sensuality, a warrior attitude, and an honoring process for this ability to create life, to labor, and to birth.

And this is just day one.

It’s going to be a delicious three more days.

My path to the studio…a walking meditation. Doesn’t Boulder in the springtime just take your breath away?

And oh, the smell of these trees. My heart beats a little faster every year when I smell these trees.

My mat and notebook, all ready for the day.

De’s altar, honoring the fertility process.

De reading a passage from St. Francis of Assisi, a gift from her Grandmother.

“Come to me” practice for fertility: Parighasana variations.

Parsvottanasa at the wall.

Malasana.

Upavista Konasana.

Laura, preparing for the Intermediate Sirsasana cycle.

Demonstration of Parsva Virasana Sirsasana.

Discussing Viparita Karani.

And day one comes to a close. Happy Savasana, yoga mats.

Related posts:

1. A little setback.
2. Walk as though your feet are kissing the Earth.
3. A day for laughing.