The inherent problem with Ashtanga yoga is that it makes you beautiful. Enter a Mysore room and you step through a portal into the land of smooth skinned and well defined bodies flushed with hot blood and glistening with sweat. It can be intoxicating. Associate with the physically fit and you will want to be physically fit, like breeds like. In general this is a good thing; however, take a wrong turn and you can be led down a dark path. There is always going to be someone prettier than you, always someone with a more stunning physique, always someone doing postures in a more graceful manner. The Mysore room can be furtive soil for Raga, the obstacle of attraction and desire. People put themselves though extensive regimens of diet, sleep cycles, and abstinence with the idea that their austerities will make them a better practitioner and a more beautiful person. They won’t, though they probably will make them quite grumpy and irritable.
What to do? Remember, practice should support your life, not the other way around. Ashtanga yoga, as taught by Pattabhi Jois, is a Grihasta tradition, a Householder tradition. It is not a Sanyasi, or Renunciate tradition. Being a member of a household is a large responsibility. You have to carry your own weight. Income must be generated, food prepared, space cleaned, people attended to, etc. That’s a bit difficult to do if you’re on the 300 calorie a day raw vegan Amazon super foods diet, 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night, and enduring mental and emotional anguish while retaining your seminal fluid to build up your store of amrita in the hopes of extending your life-span. You’ve got to take care of yourself if you’re going to take care of others.
Practice changes throughout life and is different for everyone. A seventy-five year old with grand children is going to practice in a very different manner than a twenty-three year old fresh out of university. Practice throughout your years will change. Practice can even change with the season, as the weather and amount of light shifts. It always takes a while to get used to a new season – trading a sweaty and limber summer body for a dry and uncooperative winter body is not always fun. The reverse is quite tricky, managing the extra elasticity the warm weather brings without over doing it and incurring injury. The beautiful thing about yoga practice is as practice becomes more steady and comfortable the effect of these changes is minimized.
As time flows on and consistent practice brings more strength of body and mind you become capable of more and more. This process is not to be rushed. There will be set backs along the way. It’s absurd to think you’ll be able to take the same practice day in and day out, throughout the years, with no change. Some days will be good, some disappointing, some easy, some virtually impossible. Quality and consistency are key. A fifteen minute practice of good concentration and focus several times a week is superior to an hour and a half of painful postures once a week.
Setting aside time for your practice is incredibly important; however, if you plan on living a life in society things of more importance are going to come up. They must take precedence. This doesn’t mean you have to stop practicing; it means you have to be smart about it.
