January yoga challenge.

So here we are! It's 2014......which is just unbelievable to me.

After my little 4 day Christmas yoga break I got back in the studio on Sunday for a level 3 class with Sue (my mentor), and then Monday and Tuesday was stuck in classes at the gym as Nate was back to work and the kids were still off of school. That said I got in a great 75 minute power vinyasa flow class each morning. All was feeling right with the world, and I loved being able to practice on NY's eve.

We hosted friends and their kids for New Years and had a wonderful time. The party trickled over into yesterday as everyone slept over and there was so much great food left over.....by the time our friends left around 4 in the afternoon the gym was closed, the studio had never opened, and all I wanted to do was go to bed! Unfortunately this morning Jake woke up with Croup, so instead of being in yoga at the gym I was at the pediatricians office with my little guy. Luckily it isn't bad and he should be in good shape ASAP. Tonight I am planning on going to my inversion class and I am supposed to teach tomorrow morning at 10:30.....but with 6 inches of snow expected I am thinking that the kids are going to be off of school and my class is going to be cancelled. Its going from where I was TERRIFIED of having to teach to where I am so disappointed at the thought of my class being cancelled! I'm working on writing some of the papers that I will need to hand in before getting my certification. I just wrote one of the David Swenson book on Ashtanga Yoga, and am cuddled up with Jake in front of the fireplace and completed another one on Kripalu Yoga. I got a FANTASTIC new book via amazon yesterday, its called Yoga Sequencing my by Mark Stephens and I can't wait to really sink my teeth into it.

In sad news my Grandfather passed away on Dec 30th. His funeral is going to be on Saturday morning....which means that I will be missing a morning of school. I was initially worried that this could delay my certification ~ But as I'm already at 40 classes (we are required to attend 30 by the end of march) I think that it will be pretty much impossible for anyone to take issue with my being at a family funeral and missing 2 hours of the weekend of school. We have also set up a practice teaching session for next Wednesday morning with Sue and two of my friends/the other women she is mentoring. These are invaluable to me as it is direct practice with direct instruction. I need to really buckle down and start perfecting my practicum (this is the class that I will have to teach in order to get my certification. It has to be a true beginner/level one class). I am going to stick with the class that I taught back in early December, with some tweaks here and there to offer more modifications, and I've decided to have the whole last seated portion be wall yoga. Wall yoga is amazing, and so easy to walk through with beginners. I think that it can be a fun way to distinguish my class from the other 11 people who will be doing their practicums as well ~ things tend to be fairly formulaic so its nice to throw in something different and fun.

I'm really intent on daily yoga practice. I'm also (for this month at a minimum) cutting out everything else. I normally take a break in December, and I didn't do it this year. Nate has been traveling so much, and I'm slipping back into my old habit of "deal with stress by working out too hard".....and having already suffered the disastrous consequences of that one time around I'm just not even going there! So, no more stairs, no more dancing, no more barre. Its just yoga, meditation, and working in my basement refining my teaching, coming up with class ideas, looking through my books for fun or engaging class ideas etc etc. The other fun thing is putting together music ~ my old, beat up, burnt (long story) lap top is finally retired as Nate surprised me with a new MacBook Air....and I was able to pull the 2500 songs that I hadn't seen in 3 years from my even older desktop of off one iTunes account....now I just have to do the same thing with my iTunes account on my laptop, get them on here, and I think that I will have FINALLY, after like 5 years, have configured my two different iTunes accounts into one. And now, finally, my iPhone is compatible with my iTunes, so I've been able to finally load music onto my phone (Yes, I know....this is like 1999 stuff, right? I'm behind). This means that I can move all of my yoga class playlists onto my phone, and be all set for any sort of class. This excites me a lot. There is so much fun to be had with setting a tone for the class through music, and its a really fun way to express myself and differentiate myself/create a memorable class. Anyway. Thats where I am.

I hope the two people who read this (Karly and Meghan!) had a wonderful start to your 2014 ~ may we all be as wholly alive as we can this year. That is my wish for me, for you, for all of us.

Namaste.