James Walsh Yoga

Friday, July 28, 2017 Woke at my usual 5:00 AM this morning but, even though it's already a little after 6:00 AM (my normal start time for yoga), I'm still lounging around, procrastinating (just like yesterday). I'll have my yoga fires lit again at some point but, like yesterday, I'm not interested in practicing, for whatever reason.  I'll hit my mat in 5 minutes or so for a practice.  Tae Kwon Do from last night hasn't left me too sore, I'm happy to say. Friday, July 28, 2017 (Part II) I will never  regret going to my mat.  Never. I went to my mat this morning with zero  motivation and zero interest in practicing yoga.  Within only a few moments of purposefully going into my meditation/prayer warm up, I had already lost all  of my procrastination and ornery attitude.  "Well begun is half done", as the saying goes. I went through my physical warm up, as I did yesterday, and then began Sun Salute A.  I did not go into Sun Salute B, o...

Thursday, July 27, 2017 Woke at my usual 5:00 AM and farted around for an hour+. I have a few minutes to warm up on my mat before I have to shower and get ready for work.  I don't know why I procrastinated the way I did but I'm not going to beat myself up. Thursday, July 27, 2017 (Part II) Despite my terrible procrastinating, I'm happy that I hit my mat for meditation/prayer, and for a physical practice. I began with my standard warm-up which, after praying and meditation, includes rolling on my back until my spine's warmed up.  After I've done this for a minute or two, I roll over completely into a lazy-man's "plow pose" or a lazy man's Kardapidasana .  This helps my legs wake up and starts to reverse the flow of my digestion. Since I haven't had a diligent practice lately, I expected my legs to become numb; they did just that and began to loose a little bit of feeling as I remained in this pose. I finished my warm up with loose fo...

Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Back to my mat after a week long vacation!  Had a wonderful break from routine (both professional and personal routines) and ate, drank, and slept my way through a wonderful week's worth of laziness. Now that I'm heading back into the world, I'm going to waking up my practice again slowly but surely.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017 Woke at my usual 5:00 AM this morning.  Feeling good but not motivated to hit my mat. I'm going on a week long vacation from Wednesday, July 19, through Tuesday, July 25.  I won't post during that time. I may come home tonight and do an evening practice before going to Tae Kwon do.

Friday, July 14, 2017 Woke up at 6:30 AM this morning (an hour and a half behind my normal schedule). I probably won't have time to do a physical practice this morning and will do a bit of meditation on my mat.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017 Woke up feeling wonderful.  I had an immensely productive day at work yesterday and followed that up with a wonderful Tae Kwon Do class. I always feel a little blue and crest-fallen whenever I don't have a productive day or when I skip TKD; I'm delighted to say that keeping that blueness at bay is as easy as following through with what I consider to be my responsibility. I am  a little sore this morning.  The main area is in my middle/lower back.  This is probably due to a combination of the backbends I executed in yesterday's practice but is probably more  due to Tae Kwon Do.  The whole body is used in kicks (all movements, but felt most acutely for me in kicks). The abrupt twisting of one's spine to counter-move before you land your kick is typically a little jarring, and causes some soreness the next day. I've got my air conditioning turned off, windows open, and I'm allowing the warm summer air into my bedroom to begin my...

Tuesday, July 11, 2017 Woke at my usual 5:00am. I'm feeling happy and motivated this morning, and am looking forward to hitting my mat. Ate junk food for dinner last night so, while I'm enjoying my first cup of coffee, my stomach's a little out of sorts.  My practice will set me right again. Tuesday, July 11, 2017 (Part II) I'm writing this on my mat, having just come out of Savasana. I had an unusual practice this morning where my mind was moving around a lot.  I would feel strong and powerful, then anxious and scared.  I would feel certain and solid, and then flimsy and second-guessing. I've said it from the very beginning of this blog that there is way  too much emphasis put onto feelings and allowing our "feelings" to dictate how we behave.  Feelings can be the result of eating too much sodium or having sugar withdrawls and it doesn't mean that any  of the scared/anxious/powerless feelings that one is having mean any thing or that there...

Friday, July 7, 2017 Woke again at my usual 5:00AM.  I'm feeling motivated to hit my mat this morning and am happy to say that I don't have any real soreness from yesterday's practice. Friday, July 7, 2017 (Part II) Writing this after coming out of Savasana .  Had another great practice this morning and am happy to see that not much endurance or flexibility has been lost over the long 4th of July weekend. What has  occurred is a little  bit of stomach softening.  I don't beat myself up about how I look (most of the time), but I'm not looking quite as "lean and mean" as I'd like.  This has everything  to do with my 4th of July "party diet" and that's it.  The remedy?.......eat properly. I'm going to shower and take the peace I feel out into the world with me to share. Namste

Thursday, July 6, 2017 Woke at my normal 5:00am for the first time in five days.  Had a wonderful 4th of July weekend with friends and family. Looking forward to hitting my mat.  I'm going to move gently but purposefully and wake myself up on the inside. Thursday, July 6, 2017 (Part II) I'm writing this on my mat, post-practice, having just come out of Savasana. Physically, I'm delighted that I hit my mat to sweat it out.  I felt a little un-conditioned for a yoga practice (which I expect after a 5 day hiatus), but I know that, after a few Vinyasas, my blood and sweat will begin to flow and I'll "unfreeze" some of my muscles. I always feel a little too "solid" and "rigid" when I'm not practicing with frequency.  It's an interesting feeling in that I feel like my muscles slowly morph into wood when I'm not working to keep them liquid with a daily yoga practice. Finished with my 3 Urdhva Dhanurasnas to put the final c...

Friday, June 30, 2017 Woke at my usual tie of 5:00am and am feeling very good. I've lacked a bit of motivation and direction and drive this past week.  To be fair on myself, I have  been doing nothing but sitting in a training room absorbing huge amounts of high level information.  I'm excited to begin putting those training principles into practice in real life. Mentally, I had a scary and upsetting dream last night.  It's not too  uncommon for me to have a dream where something bad is going wrong that I have to resolve, so I'm not going to put too much emphasis onto that dream.  Other than that, I'm feeling rested, refreshed, and ready to hit my mat and, subsequently, go out into the world. Physically, I'm feeling well.   Slight  stiffness in my lower back but, other than that, I'm feeling normal.  I've broken through the "I'm-gonna-sleep-in-for-5-more-minutes" trend that I had the past two weeks and my internal alarm really does g...

Thursday, June 29, 2017 Woke before my usual time of 5:00am and rolled out of bed at 4:45am this morning to turn the kettle on and get ready for tea. I'm normally a coffee person in the morning and have my machine set so that, when I do roll out of bed at 5:00am, my warm, lovely cup of love is waiting for me. I ran out of coffee filters yesterday, however, and have a lovely batch of Irish Breakfast tea as a backup. Physically, I'm feeling normal and energized this morning.  Minimal stiffness/soreness (a 2 on a scale fro 1-10). Mentally, I'm feeling refreshed and awake.  I felt a little blue yesterday evening so I hopped on my bike and rode around to enjoy the sunset and lovely weather. I'm going to continue to focus on rebuilding any lost stamina/flexibility (again, delighted to report that not too much went away) and I'm going to focus internally with my 10 minutes of prayer/meditation. Thursday, June 29, 2017 (Part II) Just came out of Savasana.  I...

Wednesday, June 28, 2017 Woke at my usual time of 5:00am and, I have to say that, there's something to be said about "habits" and how we create them. I had gotten into  the habit of sleeping in until 6:30am or 7:00am.  This would leave me with no time to practice, and barely enough time to guzzle some coffee, shower, and get into work at an appropriate time. That late rising was the reason why I hadn't practiced in awhile; I would roll over, look at my alarm, and go " BAAAH !", before rolling back over again and hitting the snooze button. Getting out  of a habit, or changing  a habit, is difficult and takes focus.  Even this morning, when my alarm went off at 5:00am, my brain was saying, " go back to bed for just like.........10 more minutes....". I'm happy to say that I woke, and got started on my day. Physically, I'm feeling similar to yesterday in that I feel "overly-solid".  Again, I know that this is a result of no...

Tuesday, June 27, 2017 Yikes!!! 10 days with no yoga and no yoga blogging!! Oh well, I'll rebuild one visit to my mat at a time. :) Truth be told, I do feel bad that I've neglected my practice. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, and I'm going to return to my mat this morning with purpose and understanding. I will not  overdo it this morning (as I've done in the past to "atone" for missing a practice).  This isn't a good practice and is reminiscent of unbalanced behavior. What I will  do is spend extra time in meditation and extra time looking inward this morning. Tuesday, June 27, 2017 (Part II) I hit my mat at 5:45am this morning to dedicate extra time to mediation and prayer. It was definitely worth it.  that 15 minutes goes by quickly.  It's little more than 15 minutes of controlled breathing (usually a 4 count breath), and mentally focusing on my body and mind.  Physically, before I practiced, I felt "strong" b...

Friday, June 16, 2017 Haven't practiced in a week. No, that's not a good show of diligence, but I'm not beating myself up over it.  I haven't jogged or done anything else for myself physically either.  Again,.....not worried about it.  I know that, a few years ago, I would have beaten myself up and gotten too discouraged to continue.  I know enough about myself that, you can turn disappointment into pride by coming back to something and giving it your 100% again. I'll be showering up and hitting the mat this morning for a practice. Friday, June 16, 2017(Part II) Writing this post practice, on my mat, having just awoken from savasana. My practice was fairly routine this morning.  Sometimes, after a hiatus, I'll hit the mat with such ferocity, that I'll nearly injure myself as I push myself into deeper and deeper versions of my standard poses. I pushed myself, certainly, and I moved well through my practice, but I didn't go at it with the fever...

Thursday, June 8, 2017 Woke before my usual time of 5:00AM this morning, as I need to get into my office a little earlier than usual, and dragged it out of bed at 4:45AM. What do I want to be today? What do I want to leave behind me at my work? What is important to me? I want to be holy, strong, honest, kind and beautiful today. I want to leave behind me a day well done.  A day of hard, but balanced work, and a day where I spread the balance and happiness that my yoga practice brings to me, to the people I interact with at work. What is important to me? My relationship with God (this is 1st, always) My Family My career My health I'm going to start my practice and focus on eliminating fear and anger, as I did yesterday. Thursday, June 8, 2017 (Part II) Backbending definitely makes the world go around. I focused on alignment and staying acute and honed in on my practice (my brain will wander around if I allow it to), and I got through my modified primary se...

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 Woke up a little behind schedule this morning and had an hour to myself to collect my thoughts. I'm going to be showering and hitting the mat here; I feel like I have some anger and frustration I need to focus on and burn. Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Part II) I definitely focused on extinguishing anger and frustration this morning and, I have to say that, even though I was consciously attempting to sift through my thoughts, it was still difficult, at times not to fall into old patterns of thinking. My physical practice this morning was good, but unremarkable in that there weren't any physical revelations or break-throughs.  My vinyasa series was good, and challenging as always, and I ended with a wonderful backbend sequence. I'm going to take the peace and joy I feel now and bring it into the day.  I will no be derailed from my goals. Namaste

Friday, June 2, 2017 Woke at my usual time of 5:00 AM for coffee and contemplation. I'm still slightly  off from my travels last week and I'm still dragging a little bit when I roll out of bed to silence my alarm (my alarm is strategically placed across the room, in my robe pocket, hanging in a closet; I'm forced to get out of my bed and walk across the room to shut it down) I showered this morning before getting onto my mat.  I'm going to go through my full, modified Primary Series this morning.............I'm already sweating...... Friday, June 2, 2017 (Part II) Feel wonderful, as always, after I practice. My backbends were strong and fluid and, even though I haven't completed a full one since Friday of last week, most of the flexibility and strength that I gained is still there. Mentally, I was happy and focused and ready to tackle the day ahead. No fear No anxiety No hate Namaste

Thursday, June 1, 2017 I started this blog in November of 2016 and it's been 7 months of yoga, personal growth, and reflection. I'll say that, I'm still adjusting to the time change difference having come home from Las Vegas last Thursday.  Pair that with a 3-day memorial weekend (where I ate and drank my fill), and I still feel like I was thrown on my head. I woke at my usual 5:00am this morning and it's 6:15 now.  I'll be hitting my mat here in a bit for prayer/meditation and, at least, my Vinyasa series. Thursday, June 1, 2017 (Part II) Felt wonderful, as always after my practice. I feel as though I'm still re-adjusting to the 3 day weekend of partying and, while I haven't partied at all since Monday, the fact that I'm still recovering from it today (3 days later) should be a reminder about the benefits of keeping a clean diet. The physical practice was good, but not spectacular.  I went through my Vinyasa series and fit in a few spinal tw...

Thursday, May 26, 2017 I'm writing this the day after I practiced as the wifi in my Vegas hotel was a little suspicious and I didn't want to expose my laptop to it; I wrote all of the blog posts in Vegas logged into a different work Network that had a secured connection. I woke yesterday, and felt wonderful.  All I had to do was drink coffee, relax in my room, and get ready for my flight back home. My practice was solid, strong, and focused.  Again, I'm attributing a lot of this to my backbends. My forward bends have gone to a new level as well and I'm able to (almost) straighten my legs completely in Padangustasna, all while keeping my back aligned and straight. Today is Friday, May 27, and I have not practiced yet.  I'm going to run (something I haven't done in a while) and then shower up before hitting my mat later in the afternoon (another afternoon practice). Namate

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 Woke up at my usual 5:00am.  Even when I'm out of town, working, I'm still a creature of habit and routine. Had hotel/starbucks coffee, collected my thoughts and took stock of what my day was going to have in and what I wanted to accomplish this morning. I showered, and hit my mat. I'm writing this post-practice a few hours into my day. I had a wonderful and energetic practice again this morning.  I'm attributing a lot of my energy to the back-bends I've reincorporated into my practice. As a whole, my practices have been focused, energized, and purposeful.  I'm going to try and keep this momentum going when I fly back home tomorrow. Namaste