#11 of 12 Days of New Year’s Resolutions: pick your poses.
I was thinking about my goals for my yoga practice – wait – not supposed to have goals in yoga. OK so I was thinking about how I would like my yoga practice to evolve this year, and I picked some of the poses where I appear to be stuck. I’m at 85%, maybe 90% on a good day, but I just never seem to break through. And I remembered how I practiced a certain pose awhile ago, with intent; well, I did have a goal, and it was to do this pose for a photo shoot. So I have to admit to being motivated by that. Which I think is a good thing, actually. I’d also always wanted to do full Natarajasana, the dancer. I spent a few months preparing: breaking it down, using a strap, figuring out other poses that would help open my stuck spots, and above all, accepting patience as part of the process. I’m not going to say that has always been the case. Being a fairly impatient person, there have been plenty of times in my yoga history when I have not practiced patience (or ahimsa), and have tried to force a pose. Luckily I have never injured myself this way, and believe myself to be past the point of trying this stunt. Now there’s evolution.

Anyhow, I remembered my journey to full dancer pose fondly, and am intending to apply the same approach to the following 3 poses in my practice:

• Hanumanasana, the splits, which I am convinced requires almost daily work.
• Vrschikasana, scorpion, the next step after feeling confident in pincha mayurasana, forearm stand.
• Titthibasana, firefly, where for some reason my hamstrings act tight.

Maybe I’ll even get a good picture in one of them…
What are the poses that you would like to evolve in your practice this year?