The past Ashtanga year

During the last days I had a look at this past Ashtanga year. My first impression was that there were no breakthroughs. No remarkable events like binding a certain pose or dropping back or something like that. Hm. Does this mean that there was no progress at all? No, certainly not. It just seems that the progress of the last year is difficult to measure. Of course I can say that certain poses have improved but I think this improvement is not very obvious. It's a pity that I don't have any before and after photos. Therefore for me it's mainly a matter of certain poses feeling better and deeper. These poses are for example Marichyasana A and D, Supta Kurmasana, Baddha Konasana, Upavishta Konasana and of course Urdhva Dhanurasana.
Another issue that has improved very much is my old hamstring problem. At the beginning of the year I omitted some poses of the series because of my hamstrings, other poses I practiced very reduced or changed. In September I visited my teacher in Berlin and he encouraged me to return to a normal practice step by step. Now I would say that the right hamstring has healed, concerning the asymmetric poses I practice the right side completely normal now. The left side is still annoying, but it's tolerable. I don't omit poses anymore, my biggest problem pose was Prasarita Padottanasana, I practice it very carefully now. Actually Upavishta Konasana which was also very difficult got a lot deeper during the last weeks. So I would say I'm on a good way concerning the hamstrings.
Have there been changes concerning the non physical aspects of the practice? Hm. This is even more difficult to measure. Of course the monkey mind is still there, is it ever going to cease? Perhaps the discipline has improved a bit, there are a lot of 6 day practice weeks now. Also the schedule of my practice has changed, I started practicing full primary during the whole week recently. I'm still not sure if I can keep this up on the long run, getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day is hard, but we'll see.
Another thing that was different in this year: I didn't eat meat. Ok, except for a few times. Has this changed my practice? Probably yes. Fact is that the body feels much lighter without it, so of course it has an influence on the practice.
Enough looking backwards, what about the future? I guess this year will be interesting also regarding Ashtanga. I'm going to spend some time in Bangalore, India, and hopefully get the chance to practice with an Indian Ashtanga teacher there. I don't want to set certain goals for this year. Dropping back would be nice, binding Supta Kurmasana also, but if this happens not, I won't care. I'm at a point now where appreciating a practice hasn't much to do with the physical level anymore. So I'll just go with the flow and we'll see what happens.
May you all have a satisfying Yoga year!