Ashtanga 101: Welcome to Ashtanga

Here’s the truth: Starting an Ashtanga practice is hard.

Yoga is often misrepresented as being all happy feelings and pretty asanas, or my personal favorite “relaxing.”  But the fact is that getting serious about your practice is a challenging endeavor. The thing is, though, that that’s the case with starting anything new. It makes us feel awkward and frustrated and challenged. Starting something new is a struggle.

A big part of an Ashtanga practice is learning to honor the struggle.

Unfortunately, the struggle is a hard sell. Yoga is sold as a feel-good, relaxing experience, when the truth is that a daily Ashtanga practice will make you work. There will be a lot of difficult steps along the way and there will probably be days that you don’t want to practice.

The benefits of an Ashtanga practice, though, far outweigh the struggles that they grow from. If you engage wholeheartedly, your practice will change you – first it will change your body, then it will change your mind, and then it will change your behavior. And that’s when it starts to change your life.

Strictly speaking, an Ashtanga asana practice is six asana sequences that are practiced with prescribed drishti, breath, and duration, and a pranayama sequence that is equally well defined.

When you start an Ashtanga practice in the Mysore setting, you start small. You don’t need to have all of primary memorized, in face you don’t have to have any yoga experience at all. You don’t have to be flexible or strong — your body will change with practice. Trust that you’ll get there.

When I first introduce a new student to the Ashtanga practice I explain it to them the “bookends”. Each day, you start with sun salutations and the end with the last three seated postures. These are the bookends. They’ll always be how you start and finish your practice, but what will change over time is what happens in between them.

Your teacher will show you the postures one by one. When you come to practice, repeat the practice that you have been taught; when you get to the last pose you know, go to your finishing postures. It might seem tedious sometimes, and it might look like you are doing the same practice every day, but it’s never quite the same. If you go through all you know every single day, you’ll get to know it that much better in both your body and your mind. The body changes with every single practice as well as with every day, and week, and month. In fact, this is one of the most important philosophical concepts we learn — that nothing in this material world is permanent. Don’t expect it to be the same every day, but rather observe the change without attachment or negativity. Part of the practice is being ready each day to work with the changing nature of your body.

The repetition that is built into the practice lends itself to transformation. You will quickly begin to feel more comfortable and proficient in the postures. You will begin to notice how the body changes from day to day. Importantly, the repetition of postures also provides us with the opportunity to not only recognize our habits, but also to change them. And then as soon as you begin to get more comfortable, a new pose will be introduced.

Initially, your practice will be short. It’s a steep learning curve and things change quickly at first. Plan on 45 minutes to an hour for your first practice. In the Mysore room, it's an open format, so arrive based on when you want to leave. If you have to be on your way to work at 8:00 and your practice takes 45 minutes, plan to start no later than 7:15. Regardless of how much time you have, though, the absolute most important thing is that you make it to your mat. This can be for five minutes or forty-five. But if you have a jam-packed day, a shorter yoga practice is always better than none.

Don’t worry about what you can’t do. If you can’t do a pose or if you forget a sequence, it’s all part of the growing process. Begin the practice of listening to your body, rest when you need to rest, and keep going.

The most important thing to do in your practice is breathe. Movement always follows the breath, and finding breath consistently throughout the practice will help you cultivate a greater ease in your practice. Try to worry less about what your pose looks like — instead, continually check in with your breath. Breath is the foundation for everything — it’s a constant in our lives from beginning to end. Over the years postures will come and go, but the breath will be something we do until we die.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you don’t remember what pose is next or when sensations come up in your body — a good teacher (or teachers) will support your practice and encourage you to ask questions. Communication with your teachers will become paramount to your development, so start practicing now. And remember that the teachers are here to support you.

If you don’t have a teacher available to you, there are lots of good resources online. You should follow the same guidelines: Show up consistently five or six days a week, gradually add poses of the primary series, try to achieve a level of ease in the pose, and continually check in with your breath. You don’t have to do all your poses for it to be considered a practice, and you’ll learn to recognize when less is more. Your practice should leave you feeling energized, not drained.

If you’re like most people, you will be sore from practice. The best thing to do, even though it might feel unnatural, is to keep practicing. A common early mistake is to rest every time you’re sore, but this tends to perpetuate the cycle of soreness. If you show up more frequently but do less, this will allow your body to adapt to experience less soreness in the future and will give you the opportunity to better understand your discomfort.

Try to be consistent with a practice time and set a routine to help you make it to your mat. Showing up is the hardest part — it’s much easier to keep going than it is to get started.

And remember, always be compassionate to yourself. Practice loving kindness on you. No one said this would be easy. But I promise that with the right attitude and guidance, this practice is for everyone. You don’t have to be flexible or strong or fit or young or skinny. You just have to be open to change.

Check out Jen Rene’s blog for more ashtanga everything!

And if this post has gotten you Ashtanga /Mysore curious…guess what? We are offering an Intro course in a few weeks led by Cory! If you can’t make the workshop - did you know you can try Mysore out at Flow - we have an awesome special! for you to try out.

A three day workshop: 

Saturday, September 29 8:30-10 AM
Sunday, September 30 8:30-10 AM
Monday, October 1 6:30-8:30 AM

Curious about our Mysore morning practice at Flow? We invite you to join Cory in this special workshop offered in a small group format for the perfect introduction to the Mysore style of practice. The workshop is limited to 12 people for personalized attention.

In the first three days of this workshop (Sat, Sun & Mon) you will be introduced to the essentials of the Mysore Asthanga system, practice the elements of the primary sequence with an emphasis on the foundational postures of Ashtanga and get a lot of personalized attention. After our three day introduction you will join our daily Mysore practice group (your choice, morning or evening) for the rest of the week where you will continue developing your practice under the guidance of experienced teachers. The week of Mysore following the workshop is included in the cost!

This workshop is appropriate for beginners and all students wishing to deepen their Ashtanga practice and who are curious about our Mysore program. You do not need to know Primary Series to attend!

Stand as tall on the inside as you are on the outside…

Meet Mimi Rieger

This noble piece of advice or I call it my “mantra” was spiritually gifted
to me by my grandfather on my father’s side. Although he himself was
short in stature his wisdom rose high as did his progressive aims in
business and creating community. Standing at 5’8, I inherited my height
from my maternal grandmother who taught me to be diligent, hard
working and to always be kind. It was only until I found my true path
did these treasured bits of guidance begin to take shape and I was able
to recognize the strength, resilience, awareness and growth I was
cultivating.

Yoga found me in Washington, DC in 1998 as I worked to make roots in
a brand new city. My southern upbringing provided me with robust
social skills but I lacked the personal moxie and evolution to know what
my true calling could be. Enter my very first yoga teacher, David. He
knew nothing about me, we did not speak for the first month I took class
at his studio, I kept my head down and did my work on the mat. Under
his watchful eye the magic of Yoga began to sink into my muscles and
immersed more compassionately into my soul. Things began to shift and
a glimmer of that taller version of myself began to take a stand. As I
grew stronger and more agile on the outside, I grew kinder, more
confident and softer on the inside.

As a martial artist, prolific mover of all types of fitness and dance I felt
very at home in powering through circumstances both physically and
emotionally, a dead end destination. As yoga began to open my eyes I
no longer saw this new city as a one-track highway but a grid with
infinite possibilities. I learned to navigate my life on my own terms, take
risks both professionally and personally and chose to spend time with a
new community; one that challenged me and my less, cultivated
perspectives on “real life” and learned to become a person of service.
After a steady practice for 3 years I became a yoga teacher, that’s when
the above mantra began to take real shape. As a guide, I could no longer
hide behind the movement, the postures and the breath, I had to take a
tall stand and trust that I actually knew what I was talking about; my
diligence and hard work at the forefront of my new journey.
Coming from an OCD, often thin skinned, tenderhearted individual like me,
this was quite the RISK. BIG TIME!

Fast-forward 17 years. That risk has awarded me with incredible
experiences and life moments. Gaining insight into who I am and who I
continue to become has presented opportunities beyond my
imagination. Today, as a small business owner and teacher I have been
honored to teach on International teaching platforms, film videos, teach
First Lady, Michelle Obama in the White House for her “Let’s Move”
initiative and other amazingly fortunate experiences that as a budding
yogi I could have never fathomed.   I continue to be inspired to seek, to
reach, to serve, to explore, to love, to risk, to think waaaay outside of the
box and to be still and let things happen (very hard!!).   

This is a brief glimpse of how my valued family, the practice of yoga, and
the willingness to diverge on a different path has contoured my soul.
Keeping myself healthy with practice, time with my family, laughter,
travelling to my bucket list destinations, cultivating my design business,
and taking time to just “be” has created a cornerstone for me in DC. As
my story continues to unfold and my insides continue to rise taller I am
excited to see where the next path leads me…

You can practice & get inspired by Mimi throughout the week at Flow.

All is Coming?

Pattabhi Jois, the father of Ashtanga, was notorious for rarely giving straight answers to questions. Whether it was a language barrier or just his cryptic charm, he would often respond, "Do your practice and all is coming." 

Some interpret this to be a transactional statement, that Guruji was promising that you would attain what you desire over the course of time, so long as you continued to practice Ashtanga.

Instead, perhaps he was really saying, "Do your practice because all is coming."

In your practice, you will face adversity. You'll fall. You'll be asked to do things you can't do. You'll face injury and embarrassment and learn a lot about yourself in the process. This is good training for life.

Yoga doesn't promise that you'll master handstand in your lifetime. But it does promise to better prepare you for the things that actually matter that lie ahead.