James Walsh Yoga

Sunday, April 30, 2017 Woke up at 6:45 to the sounds of drizzling rain outside my window.  I love days where there's no schedule and I'm free to go at my own pace. It's been raining in St. Louis since Friday and, while I don't mind rainy days, it sucks when you can't get outside to enjoy life and have to remain cooped up indoors.  I've been eating more junk food than I care to mention and feel like I need to do some sort of aerobic exercise (run/bike, etc.) to get my heart rate up and raise my metabolism. I'll be showing and hitting my mat this morning for a full practice.  I haven't done a full practice in a while so I'm interested to see how I do. Sunday, April 30, 2017 (Part II) On my mat having come out of Savasana. Had a wonderful practice where I moved with strength and fluidity.  I've been interested in the Chakra system recently and, while I don't know how much I believe in its attributes, it provides interesting imagery to ...

Friday, April 28, 2017 Took a day off from work and have slept in. I'm listening to my yoga track and contemplating some meditations before I hit my mat. Friday, April 28, 2017 (Part II) I won't say how much I believe if the Chakra System, but it can be a nice visualization.  Check out an interesting infographic here . Mild headache from the wine I had with dinner last night, but my practice was beneficial, as always.  I'll be showering up and enjoying this lovely drizzly day. Namaste

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 I tranced myself yesterday by listening to some yoga tunes (click here to get trippy-tunes, bro). I'm fresh out of a shower and ready for my mat.  While I will  try to recreate the trance-like state I was in yesterday, I'm going to allow things to flow naturally; yoga, like all things, will be great some days, and not great other days.  Focusing on my duty of practice is the ultimate goal. At least 5 minutes of prayer/meditation before I begin.... Wednesday, April 26, 2017 (Part II) Had an excellent practice and excellent warm up. I tranced myself a little bit, but nothing like yesterday; like I say above, some days the "yoga-gods" come and take over, and sometimes they don't. Sweated it right out, however, and had a great time warming up, meditating, and moving through my Vinyasa series.  Like yesterday, I extended Vinyasa B to the endurance limit of my arms.......there's only so much they can take. lol I won't be p...

Tuesday, April 25, 2017 Woke at my usual 5:00am for coffee and contemplation. To help set the mood this morning, I'll be showering before I hit my mat and will be play some music (something that I don't typically do).  Check out some yoga tunes here ! I've been writing this blog for nearly 6 months now and, in that time, I've rarely gone back to read what my posts are; I did  go back this morning to read some of the posts from early April.  I noticed while reading that, reliving old sessions on my mat can help encourage me to get onto my mat again........I'm my own cheerleading system!!! (#puke). I'm going to keep the yoga tunes going while I shower so the mood stays set when I get out of the shower, ready and eager for my mat and my practice. Tuesday, April 25, 2017 (Part II) I'm still tranced from my practice. The music that I linked above honed me in mentally which helped hone me in physically. My practice was unbelievably rejuvenating. Ph...

Friday, April 21, 2017 Had a good week, but an "off" week where I was on the border of becoming sick. While I want to practice every morning, and keep a robust blog/yoga practice, I've learned enough to know that being gentle with yourself and balancing your expectations, while taking your health into consideration, is a good thing. I'll hit my mat this morning, as I'm feeling better, but I'll focus on my 4 areas of gratitude.... My family My job My health My friends and relationships In the vein of being gentle, I've been focusing on these 8 reminders for the past week or so and have found them comforting and helpful..... 1.  Get Outside your head by making your body more active. 2.  Invest time and energy in your favorite activities; things that won't propel you forward in your career, and won't pay your bills. 3.  Get a journal and write in it. 4.  Your mojo has disappeared, but it will come back. 5.  When you feel tir...

Monday, April 17, 2017 Woke up at the standard 5:00am this morning after the holiday weekend. Feeling pretty good but definitely indulged a bit too much this weekend in food and wine; I need to balance my diet out a bit more this week to get myself back on track. I'm not too interested in physical exercise at the moment but I'll shower up and hit my mat for prayer and meditation shortly. Monday, April 17, 2017 (Part II) To help kick start my yoga mojo this morning, I took a hot shower to clear my head and clear my body out. I hit my mat for meditation and prayers accompanied with a 4-count breath exercise (4 count inhale, 4 count hold, 4 count exhale, 4 count hold).  This pattern eventually becomes automatic and you can let your mind relax while your breathing pattern is maintained. My physical practice this morning was excellent.  It felt great to sweat out some of the wine, Easter candy, and other indulgences of this past weekend. I'm going to take it easy o...

Friday, April 14, 2017 Today is Good Friday. In our Catholic tradition, this is the date observed for the death of Christ. I mention this at the beginning of this post because, throughout the life of this blog, I've (attempted) to incorporate an introspective, and spiritual element to my practice.  Praying and meditating are wonderful tools for balancing yourself and keeping you grounded and focused. Since today is a Holy day on the Christian calendar, I'll attempt to stay connected spiritually throughout the day (this is tricky because, as soon as one walks out the door and gets into ones' car, the world sort of 'takes over' and your focus is pulled into.... " don't hit that car-yur gonna be late-did you prep those documents for the meeting coming up-you need to transfer money into that stupid Credit Card account you opened at that stupid department store when the sales clerk tempted you with 10% your next purchase". In addition to staying co...

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 I am actually writing this the night before.  I've enjoyed a lovely night at home by myself, cooking, eating good food and watching re-runs of Downton Abbey (#idowhatiwant). I'm writing into this blog early because I read 8 pieces of advice that stuck with me. The 8 pieces of advice below align with almost all of the principles I feel about being gentle with yourself, taking time, and having realistic expectations....... 1.  Get Outside your head by making your body more active. 2.  Invest time and energy in your favorite activities; things that won't propel you forward in your career, and won't pay your bills. 3.  Get a journal and write in it. 4.  Your mojo has disappeared, but it will come back. 5.  When you feel tired, rest. 6.  Spend time with good friends and people who make you laugh. 7.  Listen to your favorite music. 8.  Recognize that our mojo moves up and down in waves.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017 Woke at the usual 5:00am this morning and have about 30 minutes before I'll hit my mat to focus on my practice. Feeling proud, happy, and motivated to make my day a great one. Stiffness is almost gone from my half-marathon two days ago but I know I'll be spending time and focus this morning breaking through some of the "new muscle" that was created during the run. Tuesday, April 11, 2017 (Part II) Post shower, and post practice, tidied up and ready to start my day. My practice was good, but abbreviated as it was yesterday; Sun Salutes/Vinyasa series followed by Padanguthasana, Padahastasana, Yoga Mudra, and Savasana. I definitely  feel a sense of accomplishment when I think about all that I've achieved recently, so I focused on the 4 components of my life that mean something to me, and the thought of staying humble today; always trying to balance my pride with humility. Time to enter the day. Namaste

Monday, April 10, 2017 Finished the St. Louis GO! Half-Marathon  yesterday morning in a personal record time of 2:14 min. I'm going to continue the running training that has made my yoga practice/blog-posts a little less frequent, but I'm going to be re-dedicating myself to my mat, focusing on a cleaner diet, and other areas of strength training that have gone by the way-side (when I'm training for a run, I typically turn into a Dyson-self-propelled vacuum and eat anything that's not bolted to the ground and don't have as much variety in my physical fitness regimen other than running). I have generalized muscle stiffness in my legs, rear, and back.  None of it is too intense and I would compare it to bad, but bearable stiffness that occurs the next day after an intense practice. I'm probably going to be doing a warm up routine this morning followed by my Vinyasa/Sun Salute series and will probably not go into a full practice.  I'll be moving with a lo...

Wednesday, April 5, 2017 Woke at my usual time of 5:00am sore as sore can be. From a strong practice yesterday morning to last night's tae kwon do class, I'm fairly achey. The only  thing to do, in this case, is to sweat it out on the mat. Mentally, I'm doing fairly well and will be focusing on the 4 areas of my life that I'm grateful for, as I did yesterday...... My family My job My friends/relationships My health Wednesday, April 5, 2017 (Part II) Post-practice, on my mat. I focused on my 4 areas of gratitude while I practiced.  I didn't have great  control over my mind this morning, but every day brings new challenges and new hurdles you have to overcome (#puke).  I have learned not to be so hard on myself when things don't flow as I want them to. Time to shower up and go out into the world. Namaste

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 The last time I practiced and blogged about it, I focused on being grateful and extinguishing fear. The effects that this had on me were positive enough that I'm going to try and focus on being grateful today, as well.  The 4 main areas of my life that I'm focusing on are...... My family My job My friends/relationships My health Those are the thoughts I'm going to keep in front of my mind as I move forward through my day. In addition to focusing on being grateful, I'm going to extinguish and fear and anxiety I feel throughout the day.  Fear, as Master Yoda says, leads to suffering (yes, I incorporated Star Wars into a yoga blog; #idowhatiwant Tuesday, April 4, 2017 (Part II) I'm on my mat post-practice, and sweating like its my job. Had an exceptional practice this morning with intention and focus on the 4 areas of my life that I'm most grateful for listed above.  When I'm moving through my physical asanas/poses I tr...