I did this video podcast last year but never found the right time to release it. Today seems the perfect day to finally release this very deep and meaningful discourse on the power of Om.
yoga blogging
The Yoga of Blogging (ii)
It’s the last day of March and therefore, it’s the last day of my commitment I made on March 6 to write 4-5 posts a week through the end of the month. I did it!
I’ve really enjoyed writing here. It’s been an experience to learn how to extrovert myself through this blog medium. I posted more this month than the entire year of 2015 or 2016. Except for the first week when I did 5, I did 4 every week. Sometimes that felt like a lot, but as I went on, it got easier and easier. Its flowed more naturally.
I talked here about how I was writing but that’s changed a bit. I no longer write the posts the night before and edit them day of. I write and edit the same morning. I think that has allowed me to publish things I wouldn’t have otherwise done (like my God and Goats Do Roam posts). I felt crazy vulnerable about both those posts, but the fact that I hit publish almost as soon as I wrote them didn’t allow me to second guess myself.
I plan to keep writing here, though at a less rigorous pace. I think 1-2 posts a week will be easier. I notice that it’s really only 1-2 posts a week that get the most views so I figure that’s a good audience interest threshold.
I’d thought about changing the name of the blog and going a different, more marketable approach – but for now I’ve decided to keep it the same. I want to put my effort more into writing than promotion. It’s okay if it’s smaller scale with an audience largely made up of people I know in person.
So what am I going to do with the other time? I’m going to start writing my book! A personal look and a jazz-style riff on the Isha Upanishad. I started writing it a long time ago and even thought to publish it on this blog at one point (you can read my one and only post about that here).
In the past, I’ve had troubles not getting a little depressed when I write and so I’ve not lasted long. However this time, the half hour time slot kept me from going in too deep that I couldn’t get back out.
I want to give a shout out to Mark Romero – who inspired this whole thing! He told me the inspiring story that his wife wrote a book a half hour a day in three months (you can find her book here). I thought about it and thought I could do a half hour a day and it wouldn’t get too heavy. So I beta-tested with this blog and now feel confident to move forward! So thank you Mark and Lara (who I haven’t met but has inspired all of this)!
I’ll write my first 30 minutes of my book this afternoon. I’m excited for it! I’m excited to keep writing here! I appreciate all of you who read, you’ve made a huge difference in my life with comments (virtual and in person)! Just by your showing up shows up on my analytics and seeing people are reading has kept me writing. If no one was coming here I wouldn’t have made it through March.
Thanks again for everything you do!
Much love,
David
My Home Yoga Practice
Last September Mona and I went to our second BhaktiFest (a yoga and kirtan festival). We took a number of classes from Mark Whitwell. He edited and compiled TKV Desikachar’s book “The Heart of Yoga” and studied extensively with Desikachar. Desikachar if you don’t know, is the son and long-term student of Krishnamachrya – the man generally considered to be the fountainhead of the modern yoga movement.
Mr. Whitwell teaches in Desikachar’s style of yoga. It’s an evolving series of flows from one basic pose to another linked posture. After flowing for 3-5 breaths you then hold for 3-5 breaths. Ujayii Pranayama is the primary focus of the practice and the postures arise from this breath.
He called this a “daily, non-obsessive” practice and compared it to brushing your teeth or having a cup of coffee – just something you do. He has an app called iPromise that gives a pretty good idea of what it all looks like in action..
I got inspired by Mark’s class to commit to my own daily yoga practice in this style. I commited to 7-15 minutes a day. This past Saturday I just did my 183rd consecutive day and have now been practicing for over a half year.
My practice evolved a bit from what Mark taught directly. Mona’s yoga therapy training at LMU taught her lots of other similar Desikachar sequences. I alternate between one basic standing series and one basic floor series, though I do allow variance depending on the day. I also breathe slower than iPromise cues, but not as slow as I’m capable. It’s a pace that I can maintain without exertion. Sometimes super slow breath can become it’s own obsession.
I did a daily restorative “legs against the wall” sequence for a few years, but this is the longest I’ve done a daily flowing yoga practice. The “breathing deeply and moving simply” has been a great addition to my life. I feel less anxious now than before the practice and didn’t fall into a winter depression this year which I often do.
Even when it’s something small and simple, daily practice brings its own challenge. Even when I didn’t sleep well, or was super busy, or sick, or got excited about the next new shiny thing – I kept coming back to the practice. Regardless of how life happened – the practice had to happen along with it.
If you have any specific questions about this practice, please let me know! I’d like to better explain it.
Finally, do you have a daily practice? If so, what does it look like? If not, do you want to start one? Are there barriers keeping you from doing so? Let’s discuss!
Much love!
David
PS: Here are some links
Mark’s site: http://www.heartofyoga.org
Bhakti Fest: http://www.bhaktifest.com
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