It's Friday-- A Whole New Meaning

I start tonight and I am feeling so many emotions. Of course, I feel anxious about the mundane thoughts of Will my boss let me off early to get to the studio with ample time? Will yogurt be okay to eat before tonight? Should I wear yoga clothes tonight? I should have tried harder to get a refill on my inhaler earlier this week...
Then I think of deeper questions. Will I make connections with the people I share my training with? Will they want to make connections with me? Will my body be able to do what I need it to do? Will this matter? It matters to me.
As humans we are afraid of the unknown and this is relatively new territory for me.
Among all these questions and scattered thoughts, I am very excited. I find every now and then I yearn for a big change. Every time I have embraced change, it has pushed me out of my comfort zone but allowed me to find deeper happiness.
I have many hopes going into this program but I know that much of what happens is up to me. This is the type of program where I am in control and it's scary. I'm excited.

Change Is Necessary In Order For Life To Be Possible

I haven't been as personal with my posts as I started out. And you've most likely noticed I haven't been as frequent either. Stress can control us if we allow it to and I've been fighting with the stress of so many changes that Im required to make decisions about. Change is good and necessary but it's scary when the next changes are what will determine the opportunities the future will hold.
The biggest stress I've been carrying is the decision of what to do now that I'm graduating from Undergrad. Many of you already know but I have applied to USF in the hopes of getting into their Library and Information Science Graduate program. I haven't heard back yet but my dilemma is more on where my passions lay. Yes Im positively delighted to engage with various forms of text. I love to catalogue and help preserve information while making it more available.
I'm no yoga expert but I love yoga, too. I've spoke of it before-- of the feeling one gets from the practice. I feel like I belong wherever I am in that moment when I'm doing yoga.
I've been told by some of you that I would be a good teacher. I have a lot to learn but, with so much encouragement, I've been considering it.
I want to advance my practice and I'd love to help others in discovering that special feeling yoga makes linger within you, but I have to consider the amount of debt I am in from Undergraduate alone. Being a university librarian or an archivist would be an interesting career. I think perhaps I need to continue on this path-- give Graduate school a real try. I just hope that the opportunity to advance my practice and become certified to teach yoga comes along.
Being both a librarian and a yoga instructor sounds do-able.
Now, I need to finish up this semester and wait to hear from USF. Then more decisions can be made.


Like water we must flow,
Earth we must adapt,
Fire we must be determined,
Air we must be free.

Side Effects of Yoga

When I first began practicing yoga, I did it to improve my airflow. As an asthmatic, breathing is always a concern. Now that I am moving up and beyond mindful breathing, I'm happy to say that my determination is acting as a suggestion to others, provoking thought. I had told my best friend back home that I'm waking up at 7 am every day to do yoga. A couple days after I started-- and opened up this blog-- she set down her mat and is doing it now, too. She had been sick with the flu all last week and two days into her morning yoga routines, she's breathing and feeling better.

Beyond the obvious benefits of sculpting and balance, yoga provides benefits even beyond that of mindful breathing; it provides benefits of the mind. Yoga can bring a sense of peace and a centering. It physically helps rid of the stress that your mind or workload has burdened upon your body.

The more challenging the pose, the more I want to succeed. It's important to know how far to push, however. Take each progression in your practice at your own pace to avoid injuries. Whenever I'm in a pose and I know I can do a little more, I do. My muscles may quiver and my mind may scream for the next pose but I keep on. With every exhale, I push out the doubt and allow strength in. These are moments when I am so focused on the pose, all my troubles and conflicts slip away. The space that is left is filled with determination to hold that pose-- to be in complete control of my body in that very moment.
Then there are other moments when I'm getting into corpse pose and I feel it all come back. It's not an attack of stress, just a mere gentle confrontation. They are put before me once more and then with an exhale, they are gone. All that is left is me as I let them go, just as I release my limbs to submit to this pose of rest.

Sunday's workout was morning yoga, then Power Yoga in the afternoon (90 minutes of Vinyasa Yoga: movement paired with breath).