Day 2

I've updated my yoga schedule for May. May will be a little crazy as I'm trying to set myself up financially for the summer by teaching 7 yoga classes a week. I'm still in the process of figuring out my UT teaching schedule for June through August, but that will likely fall into place within the next few weeks.

I taught my first private yoga lesson today. It was an Ashtanga lesson, and so I walked in with nothing more planned than to observe and correct. It was a really fun experience. Mike once said something about teaching based on flow of energy rather than simple anatomy, and I found that to be helpful in figuring out how to correct and better teach my students.

My friend Jessi is in Austin this weekend for a wedding, and I used her being in town as an excuse to check out First Thursday for the first time. South Congress was transformed into a street with performers and vendors, and it certainly had a feel of a small scale Ann Arbor Art Fair. It broke up this week and made the second half of the week feel like a continuous weekend. However, work is hitting hard as my relationship identity negotiation research is gaining momentum, and I just received possibly the most positive reviews for a paper I'll ever receive in my career. Hopefully, I'll find some time to get some work done this weekend!

Day 2 of the 40 Day Yoga Challenge, and I've actually been able to practice all of first series and half of second for two days in a row! It helps that I've found that I can finish all of that in about 1 1/2 hours (it used to take me a full two hours). I've realized that my lower back, while very strong, has become very very tight, and I've been working in primary to start stretching out that lower back. The result is the lower back has been feeling a little more floppier than usual lately, but hopefully it will all balance out.

I've learned many things in Ashtanga, and one of them is that imbalance is sometimes necessary to achieve balance. Injury is sometimes necessary to heal. Sometimes brokenness has to occur to strengthen and grow. That isn't to say I'm going to purposefully injure myself, but injuries and other little detours to serve a purpose and can actually enhance and grow the practice. And hopefully I can begin to take the same perspective on life. That the little detours and valleys I experience aren't debilitating - rather they are opportunities for me to mature and grow stronger and become more equipped for my purpose and goal.