Note, I've added entries back to the 28th of March.

This morning was the first extended (about an hour) early morning practice that I've done for a while.  I really wish that I could do Yoga all day long.  It calms me and feels as if someone has wrapped me in a soft warm quilt.  It's beginning to sound a bit repetitive, every time I write about Yoga I sound so overly enthusiastic about it, as if I were writing about some new toy at Christmas.  Yet, Yoga is exactly like that for me.  Every time I practice it's as if I had discovered something fantastic and thrilling anew.  Today I loved Warrior I and II (Virabhadrasana I and Virabhadrasana II) and Tree Pose (Vrkshasana).  As the exalted warrior (Warrior I) I felt immense joy fill me and spill into the space around me.  Proud Warrior (Warrior II) brought me strength and confidence.  I knew that I could and would conquer/absorb everything that sought to hinder me or cause me to suffer.  Best of all was Tree Pose.  A powerful quietness surged from the earth beneath me and soared around me.  Although I stood in my basement and it was dark outside, I felt as if I were an enormous oak bathed in sunlight on a gently grassy knoll.  Is it any wonder that I wish I could spend all day in Yoga?

My practice has still been very spotty.  The latest problems have come from an illness and odd hayfever.  Now that I'm headed to Phoenix tomorrow it's even harder to say whether I'll be able to get back into a regular practice.

Yoga was great this morning.  I did my regular AM Yoga with Rodney Yee (I ripped the DVD to my laptop) and then I sat down and wrote out the Sun Salutation so I could memorize it and finally being building my own personal practice.  The Sun Salutation (now that I can actually do it on my own) really is the best place to start if you want to try Yoga.  The graphic above corresponds to one half of a Sun Salutation, it takes two full circuits leading first with the right foot and then with the left foot to complete one Sun Salutation:

• Being in mountain pose.
• Raise your arms half-way and bring your hands to Namaste.
• Raise your hands over your head into a back bend.
• Fold forward into a standing forward bend.
• Take the right foot back to a lunge.
• Left foot back to plank position.
• Scoop your head and chest through the caterpillar to the cobra pose.
• Turn your toes under and come up to down-ward facing dog.
• Bring the right foot forward to the lunge.
• Step the left foot forward to standing forward bend.
• Swoop up (I love that phrase) to a back bend.
• Return to mountain pose.

Here are some other links to Sun Salutation descriptions:  Illustrated Sun Salutation, Yoga Site, a whole herd more at Google.

I have expanded my sun salutation sequence. I'm still not happy with it because it still focuses too much on the same kinds of motions but here it is:

NOTE:  Yesterday, I mentioned switching and leading with my right or left foot.  I think of it this way when doing the Sun Salutation:  Right foot back to lunge then right foot forward to lunge, so my right foot is moving or leading in to the lunge pose both when it is back and behind me or when it is forward and beneath me.  I then use me left foot to lead or move into the lunges to establish a symmetry.  I've done the same thing with the extended practice described here.

Like yesterday, each position should be held 3-5 breaths or until you feel the need to move to the next pose.

• Sun Salutation two or three time on each side for a total of four or six sequences.
• Forward Bend
• Lunge (right foot back)
• Warrior I (right foot still back)
• Upward facing dog
• Downward facing dog
• Lunge (right foot forward)
• Warrior I (right foot still forward)
• Forward bend (bring the left foot forward)
• Mountain sequence (standing back bend, Mountain pose, bring hands to Namaste)
• Forward bend
• Lunge (left foot back)
• Warrior II (left foot still back)
• Upward facing dog
• Downward facing dog
• Lunge (left foot forward)
• Warrior II (left foot still forward)
• Forward bend (bring the right foot forward)
• Mountain sequence
• Tree pose (right foot raised)
• Tree pose (left foot raised)
• Staff pose
• Marichi (Sage) III right then left side
• Easy sitting pose (sukhasana)

As always, Yoga has helped center me and given me a place from which I can observe the world around me.

I've started to read Secrets of Yoga by Jennie Bittleston (I got it used for $3.49 through Amazon).  I like the simple directions for each pose and the pictures give great detail on each one.  I'll write a more detailed review once I finish reading it.

I thought I was being so clever with my decision to do the Sun Salutation in symmetrical cycles (see the two previous entries) and then I discovered that's exactly how everything in Yoga is designed to be!  I definitely learn something new from this every day.