Normally, I practice Ashtanga yoga on a regular basis. I love the idea of training the body and the mind together and developing healthy habits to improve my spirituality. I’ve never been one to like running on treadmills or doing exercises that do little more than make me sweat.
Sadly, these past few months have been grueling mentally and physically because of my job and various tragic events in my personal and family life. I haven’t taken time to set up a concrete practice in any form. Consequently, I’ve noticed myself slipping into bad habits and being overall dissatisfied with my health.
I don’t want to let my work life keep me from achieving physical, spiritual, and mental goals. So my goal this summer is to set up a practice for myself and experiment within various denominations to find what works best for me and challenges what I already do. Hopefully, the end result will be a practice I can do EVEN on days I work.
For this month, I started doing Shaolin training sequences led by Shi Heng Yi online. I really loved his TED talk 5 Hinderances to Self Mastery and want to dabble in some of the training sequences available on YouTube.
After finishing five days of training, these are some of my favorite takeaways.
- Horse Stance/the Mabu will give me legs and lungs of steel! Joking aside, it’s taken a lot of courage to do this stance so many times and slow down enough to make sure I have good posture and form.
- Embrace mistakes and “failure”. Being unable to do specific exercises or postures won’t keep me from becoming stronger. Quitting will.
- Equivalent Exchange. To become stronger mentally and spiritually, I’ll need to put in time to become stronger physically. I determine my progress through diligence and sacrifice.
- Be Still and Move Slowly Pose to Pose. I tend to push myself and move quickly in yoga sequences so going through these trainings has helped me to slow down, breathe fully, and embrace each position.
Though I would love for my thighs to become like rocks, what I truly hope to gain by practicing 1-hour daily, is to set myself up for further success. I’ve loved the energy gained by practicing so much and how easy it’s been to apply it to my scripture study and daily life.
Further updates to come!
For whoever reads this, I wish you the best in your goals and spiritual journey! I hope whatever you choose bring you joy and enlightenment as you progress!
From the Perspective of an Old Soul 