Re-starting a yoga practice

[deirdre]

Ever since Ben Thomas retired, I've had trouble sticking to a yoga practice.

I've tended to avoid the hard stuff I used to try because it was Ben doing the asking.

He'd often teach stuff there was no way I could get into (perhaps ever), but I'd always try to figure out what he was trying to stretch or strengthen and see if I could accomplish at least part of it with some other asana. I pushed myself in his classes, and sometimes I'd pushed too hard.

The last non-Ben class I took I definitely pushed too hard.

And so, one of the things I've avoided is sun salutations.

In the last few years, I've never been able to do more than two, and I need to do a rest beween them, but it took me 18 months to be able to do them at all.

Naturally, I stopped doing them regularly for -- oh, about 18 months.

I can now hold downward-facing dog for about 10 seconds, but hey, it may be regression, but it's not as bad as it could have been.

I'm going to have dreams of Ben saying, "Gravity is relentless." I just know it.