Home practice: so much easier with guest stars!

Getting to a yoga class has been challenging for a number of reasons lately: loss of some time-flexibility at work, as well as a desire to be home with family instead of away until after dark and dinner.  I've been missing time on my mat, and feeling it.

Then along comes Darren Rhodes's yogahour iPhone app (iTunes, $2.99), which made its big premiere in my dining area today, kicking off my new attempt at a home practice.  Oh yeah, so much easier to get and stay on the mat when I have someone talking me through a sequence.  And Darren, the literal poster-boy of Anusara: how to say enough good things about him?  I've had the good fortune to attend several weekend workshops at YogaKula San Francisco, co-taught by Darren and Sianna Sherman.  Darren is inspiring, funny, real.

So, it was pretty awesome to have his voice in my house, putting me through my paces between 6:30 and 7:30 this morning.

The format sure worked for me.  It was easy to commit to one hour, during a time when Joe was out walking Jasper so I would be less distracted.  Yes, because there is an absence of pronouns and articles, sometimes the instruction's a bit telegraphic, but that's fine.  The stripped narration makes some little gems shine, like "eyes soft, heart determined" which is clearly still ringing in my head.

Laura will be happy to know that her favorite "Mix Master" pose is included in the one-hour practice, called "Cosmic Abs" instead!

At this point, since I can't get to my favorite class tonight or Friday, I am going to do this yogahour daily until Saturday, when I can re-join the kula in Sausalito, and then beyond, trying to get to my mat daily.  I'm excited to have some guidance -- master guidance at that! -- helping me with this new practice at home.

Sunday Service

Over and over again in yoga yesterday, Sianna and Darren, in keeping with the weekend's theme, asked us what we were in service to. They spoke a lot about Gandhi and his eleven vows -- and the 11 was the foundation, not just of the price of the classes ($11/hour!) but also of the practice (11 different back bends). Gandhi and his followers were in service of the truth. How do we serve when we practice? What do we serve in our lives?

Clearly the question sank it.

But I didn't really realize it until I was in the shower just now and thinking about whether or not to go today, to the final in the series of classes. I was just thinking about going to the nursery and looking at plants that our bees would like, and of being in service to our bees. Whose lives are lived in service, really, to the needs of the hive.

And then I remembered how yesterday's class felt so much like being in the hive, surrounded by the thrum of all of the other happy bees in the room, held up and held together like members of one community, devoted to one end.

So of course I'll go today. Because on such a deep level, the practice is service, so it doesn't matter if I'm tired, if I'm a bit daunted. What matters is being there, doing my best, participating in this great service.

And could there be any better way to spend a Sunday?