Changes

Huh, I haven't written for quite a long time. I'm not sure about the reason for my writing-reluctance, probably I am not a writer, but ok, I'll try again.
I went on with my usual morning practice, yesterday I practiced up to Navasana. It would be great if I could manage to extend the morning practice this way. But it took me over an hour though I skipped most finishing poses. Hm, we will see if I can squeeze in my morning schedule so much practice time. The practice felt very good yesterday. This week the weather is very hot, up to 30° C and in the mornings it is still about 25°C in our appartement, so practice was a very, very sweaty thing. I also did Urdhva Danurasana in the end and it was very hard. I haven't practiced it in the morning very often so I was surprised about how bad it was. Also a reason why I should extend my practice.

In the evening I had a very interesting conversation with my boyfriend about Yoga, Yoga-Philosophy, Yoga in India and the differences to Yoga in the western world. I would really like to summarize it for you but it was so long and also deep that it seems impossible to express it this way. I was astonished that he has such a well considered opinion about this topics. You have to know my boyfriend is not a Yogi, at least not yet perhaps he will start to be one ... who knows? In fact he had never shown very much interest for it but this has definitly changed recently. He even began to have interest in practice and actually we practiced together twice. It is so great that I can share now a little bit of this part of my life with him. I hope this development will continue!

First outdoor session

I have just finished this year's first outdoor Ashtanga session - great! Our appartment has a huge roof-deck, a perfect place for practice. The sun was so nice that I decided to practice outside. Partially the wind was a little bit chilling, but the sun was really warm. Of course there are a lot more distractions than in my room, noise from the street, noise from playing children, the wind, the view and so on, but you can see it as a extra challenge for keeping attention. And looking in a deep blue sky when twisting upward or feeling warm sun rays on the skin in a pose is simply great. I love it. I hope there will be many chances for practicing outside in this summer.

Much work

The last week was quite hard, we had a lot of stress at work. Actually there was a deadline on Tuesday where we would have presented our work to our customer but we didn't manage to get ready with our stuff. The whole week before we've been working a lot just to hold this deadline and although it didn't work. Constantly new problems were popping up and as soon as one problem was solved the solution caused the next one. Software development really drives you crazy sometimes. On some days I got home from work, went to bed because it was already late, got up the other morning and went back to work. This is not fun, but it's ok because it's only for a short period of time. And it's a very focussed way of working, nothing distracts you, the whole team works towards a common goal. But missing the goal then leaves a greater feeling of dissatisfaction.

But today everything is forgotten, because it's Labor Day, everybody has a day off. And because of the overtime collected the last days tomorrow is also free! Yippie!
During this much work I tried not to neglect Yoga too much. Yesterday I practiced in the morning and it was one of the worst practices I've ever had - in every way! Body, breath, concentration, motivaton ... everything was miserable, it was one big struggle. But I went on and on and finished my usual sequence. The essence of such a practice is just not to give up, to go on though it doesn't feel good. Afterwards I was glad that I practiced.
Let's see what this day will bring.