In September when my son began going to school full time, my days became free from 8:30 till 3:00 Monday to Friday. I resolved to go back to taking yoga classes five days a week. Â This discipline held up for about two months but of late has fallen to the wayside.
Going to take a yoga class, which I love with a passion, is a huge commitment depending on where you live and how much you need to get done during the day. We live in Ditmas Park and I usually practice in Carroll Gardens or in Manhattan. There is a studio right near my house, which I teach at, but even that requires more time than I have on some days.
If I practice in Carroll Gardens, I am looking at a forty five minute train ride or twenty minute car trip. I usually arrive five to ten minutes before class and invariably stay the same amount of time afterwards. If class is ninety minutes I am looking at a three hour time commitment that I just don’t have. Especially if I want to be available to my kids when they get out of school, which is important to me.
If I practice in Manhattan, it is three hours at a minimum, and even if I practice near my house it is two hours door to door.
I work mainly from home, also teaching four public classes a week and seeing an assorted number of private clients— again doing my best to fit them into the 8:30-3:00 time frame. This isn’t to say that I am with my children when they are at home. They will both tell you that I never leave my computer. I read, I write, I do my video stuff and run my business in the confines of the little office where I spend the lion’s share of my day.
All of this is to say that I have to practice at home if I want to have a consistent practice. And here is what that practice consists of, of late. Twenty years later, I still love the ashtanga standing series. I do three to five surya namaskar A & B with jump backs followed by the sequence in the picture above, and then I do the advanced foundation routine that I mentioned last week and can be found in the video below.
I love getting out there and taking classes for the social joy if it as well as hearing what teachers have to say but there is precious little time in life and priorities are what you make them. I know that I have to prioritize exercise but I have a hard time reconciling the travel requirements incumbent on taking classes.
http://youtu.be/4BOTvaRaDjI