Practicing Ashtanga...

Being an extreme novice of all yoga schools and even more so with Ashtanga and living in the middle of nowhere (also know as Laramie, Wyoming), I had no idea how to begin my practice. All I knew was that it was not so much demanding as it requires a committed, disciplined daily practice. The issue for me was figuring out how to be realistic about the time I have each day while staying true to the principles of the Ashtanga practice to truly progress. I was trying to do all this on my own. There are no Ashtanga yoga teachers in Laramie. The closest one to me is about 2-3 hours away.

Yes, there are books, but being a broke graduate student spending $10-$20 bucks on books was not financially savvy. So of course, I looked to the internet, but other than moon days no one was discussing if any other rest days were "allowed" in Ashtanga. I put allowed in parentheses as I am a firm believer that you allow yourself whatever you need, that you listen to your body and give it what it needs. Because that's one of the major points of yoga, to listen and be aware of yourself through the body. Needless to say, I had no clue what constituted as rest days, and etc. within the Ashtanga tradition....until I was brave and reached out to an experienced asthangi...and...broke down and spent .99¢ on a Kindle ebook ;-)

This is what I got from both. The ashtangi, I reached out to was none other than Ms. Glaser from PeaceLoveYoga. Honestly, I was not expecting to actually get a response back and not as fast and in as detailed a fashion as I did.  She gave me some very good advice about how to start on my own as she started in very much the same way.

The book I finally purchased was Mrs. Claudia Altucher's AKA EarthYogi's, 21 Things to Know Before Starting an Ashtanga Yoga Practice. She has very many good tips on there, that I was wondering myself and instead of continuing to scour the internet for answers with just .99¢ I was able to get everything compiled in one place (a review to be done when I finish the entire book).

With the advice of these two sources, I finally learned what a consistent Ashtanga practice consists of...

First, although it is best to practice as many days a week as you can-reaching up to 6 days a week- it is okay to work your way up to it as your schedule, life and body sees fit. So if beginning with 1 or 2 days is what you can do, fine...if the full 6 days right off the bat works, great...but all that matters is that you get on the mat.

Second, the suggested or prescribed rest days for an ashtangi are the new and full moon days, Saturdays and there are "ladies holidays" for women. There is actually a scientifically based philosophy to resting on moon days-something I will explore in a later post as I become more familiar with the nuances of this philosophy. The same for "ladies holidays" as I believe this is another aspect of any yoga practice, no matter the tradition, which is up to the woman and what she feels she needs or is capable of during this time. 

So with the confirmation of what constitutes as rest days and a consistent practice in Ashtanga, I'm revamping my yoga chart. And yes, I have a chart for my yoga practice...I mean I'm just starting and I want to do this right (can you tell I'm one of those organizing, turn everything into a list kind of person? if so, your psychic powers are spidey). Plus, I like being able to look at a chart with check marks. It helps me to see that I really do accomplish things every day and can accomplish things with the time I have.

I'm sticking to my attempt to practice 6 days a week while observing the new/full moon days each month. As far as the "ladies holidays" - I love this term by the way - I'm not quite sure yet...I think I will take at least one day off and just go from there.