Intention 2-29-12

Happy Leap Day!!!!

Today I intend to slow down my breath. I also intend to focus on new beginnings.

Intention 2-27-12

I intend to express myself freely and openly today.

Improving your life today (that sure sounds nice, doesn’t it?)

So this week I’m doing something totally different. I’m not reflecting on anything remotely related to yoga but instead on living a more balanced life. So I’ve been stumbling around this wordpress site quite a bit since I started this blog, reading the “top posts” and just random blogs that I find and I’ve become a fan of one BA Expat. This blog is written by an American entrepreneur who is currently living and working in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His posts are about everything but this one really hit me–10 easy ways to improve your life today. The main thing here was SIMPLIFY!! I won’t write out his 10 things here (I would never take away the joy of clicking the link below and creeping on his blog for you!) but as I sit here writing this, I am breaking one of his rules. I am not doing my work in order of descending difficulty. Instead I’m writing my yoga blog, not work on my lame engineering homework that I’ve been putting off since Friday afternoon and will probably end up completing in the wee hours of the morning tonight. If I had done my work in order of descending difficulty, perhaps I would be able to get a good night’s sleep tonight–I should really start taking his advice!! Here’s the link:

http://baexpat.com/2012/02/14/10-easy-things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-life-today/

Anyway I need to focus on simplicity in my life–maximizing efficiency, reducing procrastination and ultimately I feel like this will make my levels of stress decrease and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Here’s to my new focus for the next few weeks!!

Namaste.

Also, my roommate went to a yoga class for the first time this semester and she said they did bird of paradise pose which I’m not familiar with so I looked it up and man does it ever look challenging!! How the heck are you supposed to do bird of paradise pose??!! It looks painful…and advanced. Challenge accepted.

Intention 2-22-12

Today I intend to be my badass self!

I also want to take a moment to reflect on class today. We did handstands for the first time! I felt so full of energy, alive, and pumped for the day after class. I was so energized that it was super awesome–the first time I’ve ever experienced this before for sure. It was a cool feeling. We also made out own little balls of energy in between our hands today which was really awesome too. I was having like the worst day ever–I woke up late, have a lot to get done today and was just feeling really stressed and burnt-out but after class I just feel liberated, light and totally energized. My perspective on the day has completely changed. Handstands too are something that I was really scared of but I gave it my best effort in class today and I really like them now.

Intention 2-20-12

I intend to strive for balance in life.

Restoration

I read this article about restorative yoga this week:

http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/991

We talked about it in class and  I really like it. I think it is good because it stretches out the human body and allows for some time of renewal which we all need sometimes.

Intention 2-15-12

Today I intend to be pure of thought.

I would also like to reflect a bit at this time. Today we ended our practice by moving our thumbs up to our forehead, then to our lips, then back to our heart center. “May we be pure with our thoughts, kinds with our words, and may we love ourselves so that we can love others.” I think this is really powerful, and just to focus on these 3 things daily could hugely impact our lives. It is difficult to strive for these things (and be successful at accomplishing them completely) every day so even just to choose one each day to work on would be transforming and restorative in life. Focusing on these things allows for huge amounts of personal growth. Allows for us to become better people. I really like this and am going to try to focus on these areas to work towards being the best individual I possibly can.

Intention 2-13-12

I intend to be focused and present today in every moment. To strive for success. To accomplish what I set out to do.

Enticing Inversions

This week we worked on inversions (headstand in particular). I wondered if inversions in yoga were just for fun or if there was any benefit to doing them so that’s what I looked further into this week. I found the following article:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/339538-yoga-headstand-benefits/

It talked about how inversions are good because they reverse blood flow in the human body. Also they can reduce stress and depression. A main benefit of inversions is that they force you to focus when you try the pose. You have to completely concentrate and be within the pose in order to make any progress. I like doing headstands as a part of our practice.

Intention 2-8-12

I intend to quiet my mind, slow down, and focus on peace and understanding.