Downward Dog Yoga Centre<\/a>\u00a0in downtown Toronto. \u00a0Before then I had dabbled in pre-natal yoga, hot yoga, Moksha yoga, and any other form of yoga that was offered at a nearby studio or gym and fit into my schedule. Nevertheless, it took only one class\u00a0to draw me in. \u00a0I was hooked before we were even halfway through the standing series. \u00a0The poses were done in a very specific order, with each pose being held for a very specific five-breath count. \u00a0Adjustments were made to my body, which for the very first time in ALL my years of doing yoga, allowed my body to understand what the pose was supposed to feel like as opposed to what I thought it is supposed to look like (there are no mirrors in an Ashtanga class). \u00a0I was being challenged. \u00a0This was actually hard stuff!! \u00a0And just when I would begin to think I had mastered a pose, my ego would be shot down with yet another adjustment, or my teacher telling me to relax my muscles, relax my face, pivot my foot this way, rotate my bicep that way. \u00a0There were days I thought I would never get a pose right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s been two years now that I have been practicing Ashtanga and there are still days I feel like I just can\u2019t get a pose right. \u00a0But the difference between now and then is that today I am okay with that. \u00a0Or at least that is what I tell myself. \u00a0Here is where that love\/hate thing comes into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as the Ashtanga practice is concerned, I am still a beginner. \u00a0More than two years in and I\u2019m still just beginning to scratch the surface. \u00a0There are 68 poses in the primary series, not including Surya Namaskara A & B (the opening sun salutations) and I have yet to complete all of them. \u00a0I could tell you how many I think I can do but that would just be my ego talking and if Ashtanga has taught me anything, it is to let that go. \u00a0There are days during my self-practice when I arrive on my mat and I try to rush myself from one pose to the next. \u00a0I take out the vinyasas between poses and sometimes even skip certain poses all together. \u00a0Sometimes I am done my practice in 30 minutes. \u00a0But that\u2019s okay. \u00a0I showed up. \u00a0I at least did something. \u00a0There are other days, like today, where from the very first inhale I feel exhilarated. \u00a0I work through every single pose, every vinyasa, every seated jump through and attempted seated jump back (I still can\u2019t do those just right) and manage to get through 66 of the 68 poses (okay so my ego came back. \u00a0I\u2019m still learning ). \u00a0Today was a good day and I am happy about it. \u00a0That is what actually prompted me to write this blog. \u00a0I haven\u2019t had a \u201cgood\u201d day in my Ashtanga practice in a really long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some days during a Led Primary class that I feel pain in my body. \u00a0I tell my students all the time to learn the difference between discomfort and pain and that it is okay to work through discomfort but one should never work through pain. \u00a0You can\u2019t force the body to do something it doesn\u2019t want to do. \u00a0I should heed my own advice. \u00a0My \u201cdiscomfort\u201d threshold must be high because many times I tell myself that something just feels uncomfortable only to realize by the end of the class or the very next morning that it was actually pain. \u00a0That is when injuries occur and I can\u2019t tell you how many times I have had to take a break from my Ashtanga practice to heal my injuries. \u00a0Whether it be my shoulder, my overworked hamstrings, my sciatica, my SI joint, my knee. \u00a0You name it, I\u2019ve probably felt it. \u00a0It\u2019s funny though cause I have rarely ever had to take a break from yoga in general\u2026but my Ashtanga practice is different. \u00a0It is more demanding. \u00a0It is more taxing on my body. \u00a0But more than that, it expects more from me than any other form of yoga I have ever taught or practiced. \u00a0Or , wait a minute! \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s not Ashtanga that demands more from my body. \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s me in my Ashtanga practice. \u00a0Could it be that my Type A personality is what continuously tells me I need to get to the next pose (for those of you who have never practiced in a traditional MySore or Led Primary setting, the teacher will stop you at a pose when they feel your body isn\u2019t ready to move on to the next pose), or that I need to go deeper in my bends? \u00a0Could that be the reason I am injuring my body? \u00a0It\u2019s not Ashtanga\u2019 fault. \u00a0It\u2019s mine and trust me, coming to that realization was not easy. \u00a0One of my teachers once told me that all of us who practice Ashtanga have Type A personalities\u2026hence the word\u00a0A<\/strong>shtanga!<\/p>\n\n\n\nI am not, by the standard definition of the word (or perhaps the modern day definition), a true \u201cAsthangi\u201d. I don\u2019t wake up every morning at the crack of dawn to practice six days a week. \u00a0I don\u2019t attend regular MySore classes and weekly Led Primary classes and I have never been to the Ashram in India. \u00a0I practice Ashtanga mostly on my own and usually about 3 times a week. \u00a0Either in the studio after I have taught a class or in my basement where my mat lies waiting for me in the middle of the\u00a0room. \u00a0Some days I can\u2019t wait to get on to that mat and other days I just stare at it blankly not wanting to go near it. \u00a0I told myself a few weeks ago, while I was taking one of my usual \u201cbreaks\u201d to heal my knee and sciatica, that I was okay with not doing Ashtanga. \u00a0Maybe it just isn\u2019t for me. \u00a0I told myself that I could still practice other types of yoga and it\u2019s not like I teach Ashtanga so what is the big deal? \u00a0The big deal is that I realized today that I have been lying to myself. \u00a0I told myself I didn\u2019t need to do it because I felt I wasn\u2019t moving further in to my practice and I was tired of injuring myself. \u00a0I was also frustrated with missing the last month of Led Primary classes and felt I had fallen behind. \u00a0But truth be told, once I gave my body the rest it truly needed and came back to my mat this morning with intention to only do what I could,\u00a0my body did more than it ever has!! I\u00a0am so grateful for this body and make a promise going forward to give it the full respect it deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ashtanga is not just about the getting the pose right. \u00a0If that was all I thought about I would be doing a huge disservice to the practice. \u00a0Ashtanga is primarily a spiritual practice. \u00a0But more importantly for me, it is a practice that forces me to look within. \u00a0Deep within. \u00a0It persuades me to face my fears, find my weaknesses and bring them to the forefront so that I can work on them and turn them into my strengths. \u00a0It forces me to show up. \u00a0To be present. \u00a0To listen to my body and respect it. \u00a0It makes me admit when I am weak, when I haven\u2019t fully shown up and when I just need to hang up my mat and call it a day. \u00a0These are all things I am learning on my mat and off my mat in my every day life. \u00a0I have come a long way in these last 2 years and I have an even longer way to go. \u00a0It\u2019s going to be a bumpy road, but as long as I continue to remind myself of the reasons why I do it, I will continue on this path and let it guide me to where I need to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did I say I hate my relationship with Ashtanga? \u00a0I changed my mind\u2026I think I kinda love it ;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until next time,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have a fit and fabulous day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lisa Pisano
Lifestyle Coach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hate is a very strong word. \u00a0I never use it lightly. \u00a0To say I hate Ashtanga would be an outright lie. \u00a0I don\u2019t hate Ashtanga. \u00a0I don\u2019t like the way my body feels sometimes when I\u2019m doing certain poses in the Ashtanga primary series and sometimes I don\u2019t like the way it feels for hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisapisano.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}