Many yoga books, blogs and teachers will often tell you not to worry about progressing your asanas too much. Its all about the mindfulness, the enlightenment and you shouldn’t focus so much on the physical things such as getting your foot behind your head.
Now that’s all well and good for people to say; when they can hold crow without falling on their behind, legs flying over their head and ending up in a heap at the end of the mat. It’s very easy in theory to focus on yourself and not look over to the slim lovely yogi next to you gently easing into dancer without so much as a wobble.
However in the real world, as much as I would love not to think so much about what I can ‘do’ and more on how I feel, part of yoga for me is the physical element, the pushing myself mind, body and spirit. I like to look back on where I was and see how far I have come.
Recently I’ve been working on my forward bends; 1. Because I have a tight lower back and I love the feeling of relaxing deeply into it and 2. Because I honestly don’t think I can even entertain the idea of teaching a yoga class without having the basics nailed. As part of my forward-bend endeavour I have been keeping a photo diary, starting 8 months ago.
So see what you think, progress?