The Aspiring Yogini

Hi! Hola! Namaste! Jai Siddhatma! Bon Jour!  

I'm Nichollette AKA Manjusha and I'm a young woman from Fort Worth, Texas (not Dallas, but near it, yes). I've been on a spiritual search for almost of 4 years now and boy has it been a rollercoaster or more like a ferris wheel stuck at the top (you know when you've been up there so long that its scary;-) But I'm arriving at a new point in my life, a new beginning, a time for transformation. And I've come to realize that, that transformation will and can only come for me through yoga.

I know you can't tell it from the bareness of the blog, but I love yoga. I've been toying around with having a consistent practice for the past 2 years. Why haven't I been consistent if I love yoga so much? You're guess is as good as mines. I've been living a very transient life filled with ups downs, highs lows, and just outright frustration in more ways than one for the past 2 years. Now that I'm finishing up my last semester of graduate school for some reason I just have the urge, motivation and drive to practice on a regular basis.

At first, I wondered what consistent should look like for me. Should it be everyday? Every other day? 6 days a week? 5 days a week? And of course, as I vacillated between doing too much and too little, I was researching and looking at different schools and styles of yoga. With each school, I looked at I got a little more excited and I reached my tipping point of glee when I came across Ashtanga. It is or at least it seems to me that it is everything I'm looking for....See the thing is, I'm not looking to do yoga simply as a form of physical practice. I'm not looking to beef up my body or have one of those "hot yoga bodies" (although I would be lying if I said I wouldn't enjoy that as a by-product).

I want to utilize the ENTIRE yoga system put forth by Patanjali's Yoga Sutras beginning with the asanas (what many in the West have to come to assume is the entire yoga system alone).  I have come to realize that if one is serious about the spiritual path and getting to know oneself, arriving at the divine, blissful point of self-realization, one must start with the most obvious aspect of ourselves...the body. Hence, why the first 2 limbs of the yogic system, the yamas and the niyamas, are geared towards asana preparation and the third limb of yoga, asana, is the first practical step on the spiritual journey.

So here I am...after finally picking one single thread to guide my asana practice, Ashtanga. And its quite appropriate actually as Ashtanga means 8 limbed. It is the practice geared towards the individual looking to do exactly what I am...live a full and complete yogic life that embodies and projects Patanjali's 8 limbs of yoga.

Unlike, most yoga bloggers, especially ashtangi bloggers, I have not been practicing for decades. I'm not experienced in any way. I'm truly a beginner, aspiring to reach my full potential by making and recognizing the body-mind-soul connection through a consistent practice of the yogic system. I'm hoping to arrive at that point where I can do all those crazy poses. Again, not because I want to show-off or have this amazing body, but because it is through the poses, through pushing our bodies, through challenging what we perceive to be "our bodies limits and capabalities," I will be able to push myself through life's challenges and ultimately breakdown the perceptions aka walls that mind/ego has put up to keep me from realizing my true self.

And I hope that in sharing what the journey of an aspiring ashtangi looks like in the beginning, I will inspire or provide encouragement for others looking to implement yogic principles and practices into their own lives...however they see fit....

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll continue to walk with me as I embark on this journey.