I've been very busy being a work alcholic

Up date to challenge falling way behind of schedule as I've been very busy being a work alcoholic since my last entry. Preparing for Saturday 27th  &  Sunday 28th November Christmas market. It was cancelled because of the weather, it turned out to be a lovely weekend. So rather irritated about that!!!!!

So took the advantage of a Sunday early morning rise for a self practice.
Decided to bookmark all the pages in Light on Yoga relevant to weeks 1 & 2 this has helped enormously as I navigated my way through the poses.  I have to say my practice is less rigid than suggested in the text. Years of doing yoga my way or should I say my preferred way the  Scaravelli & Hatha approach is more my style so it worth stating here that the course and the book will be for my reference so you could say I am doing Light on Light on Yoga. My old knees can't take the pressure so working from within to strengthen suits me better. Less pulling up more and locking.................
Worked on my right hip and using Yoga Anatomy by  Leslie Kaminoff  isolated the tight muscles giving me gyp!
Front - Pectineus  & Psos major (page 178 Urdhva Mukha Svanasan) Upward facing dog
Back - Gluteus maximus, minimus & medius & Piriformis (page 128 forward variation King pigeon) helps to know which muscles and of course poses to help, but what a mess, and I'm learning something else too my anatomy.  This is a great little book very informative, easy to follow and runs out at a good price. £14.99 wish there was an index for the muscles though so I could choose a my own pose.
Sadly since then I've been very busy working on www.yogatrading.com & it's sister site www.abstractuk.com oh & Ebay of course.  Becoming quite the IT whiz kid.

Missed my Wednesday class loads of snow and more that night 1st Dec 2010. 

Hope to get there this week.

As for the challenge I think I'll have to continue on weeks 1 & 2 for a while longer, no hurry I suppose as I'll get there in the end.

POST 2

SATURDAY EVENING  the start of a weekend of celebration,  sis's 60 years birthday party , fancy dress, dancing, laughing, singing, wine, good food and fun.


I emerge on SUNDAY, after  going to bed 4.30am,  help where am I.  
It's tough keeping up anyway,  more so when you feel your age, bodily!!!  but mentally don't. 
Our minds don't age as we can be young at heart but unfortunately our bodies DO!.  

THE YOGA CHALLENGE for me is how to survive being  60, 70. 80+ the older woman in a modern world.  How to be full of the love of life, happy, fit, healthy and active.


Yoga for it is not to be just exercise or aerobics. We will  have to understand the principles behind it.
 
There are 8 limbs to yoga here are the first 2 without these we are not practising yoga.

1. Yama

Yama is where we stand on a moral ground, laws & commandments.  Most of the world live by these rules, they stand for decency & love. "do's and don'ts"


2. Niyama

Niyama is self purification by discipline. 


These control our passions, emotions and harmony with are fellow beings.






MONDAY:- 22/11/10  morning 8 am and my mind is debating what is this new DISCIPLINE I have to deal with its scary, scary!! 1st to crawl out of bed NOW and start my yoga self practice.



Photos coming soon for my before & after shoots.  They are really scary, scary!!  Time to take stock! 

Day 1

Hi my name is Bernadette I am 62 years of age & here's a little of my history,  most of my adult life I have been working in the fashion industry,  20 of those years running a successful children's wear company.

About 10 years ago we started Abstractuk visit www.abstractuk.com we manufacture a cosy range of garments including the CHILL-OUT ROBE take a look. During that 10 years we have created a yoga business and now have a  YOGA SHOP  selling yoga props, mats and things visit www.yogatrading.com  


Its great meeting all the people who delight in practising yoga  building up links within the yoga community here in Brighton and afar,  offering a service and encouraging those new to game.

But now the reason for my blog is, although I have a yoga shop all I know about yoga is what I've gleaned over the past 20+ years of practising it myself. So I thought its about time I got to know the subject better.


I've decided to start with 1/one of the books on the reading list of many of the teacher training courses.
Iyengars - Light on Yoga 
2 weeks ago I picked it up for the first time and started to read it.
Glancing through my first impressions are it is a very comprehensive view on the asanas (postures or poses),  with the  master  of yoga  Iyengar twisting and wrapping  his body & limbs into places  I can only aspire to go.


During the following week I discovered at the back of the book he offers a 300 week course, so I thought what a good idea if I tried to follow it. I could learn the postures, the names, the benefits and loads more.


Coincidentally during that week we watched the movie Julia & Julie,  it is the true story of a aspiring young writer searching for a challenge. She admired the American cook Julia Childs author of  Mastering the Art of French Cooking  a cookery book to introduce the American public to French Cuisine. So she set herself the task of  cooking the 500+ recipe's in 365 days. It was a challenge which she did achieve, a journey full of many emotions.

So with the inspiration from JULIE POWELL's JUlia/Julie project I could consider the 300 week YOGA PROJECT  it is 12 weeks short of 6 years.  I suppose I could be time off  for good behaviour or an annual 2 week break to just lie in the sun! 
oh and in 6 years I could be a 68 year old YOGINI!


So here I am day 1, of weeks 1 & 2,  and I've started. 
I hope to share my experience with anyone else who interested in finding out more & wants to learn too!
I'll be making notes,  doodling drawings, adding my  thoughts and comments  which I will post up over the coming weeks/years!!!!!.  Oh did I really say that  WISH ME LUCK!

To start,  a little taster  
a. Asanas  means posture or pose
Pose 1. Tadasana 
Tada means mountain
So stand tall today, firm & erect like a mountain and remember no slouching in those queues.
An essential pose and the foundation to many more.

Namaste