twist and shout

I read a great article yesterday called Breaking the Blame Cycle. I can completely relate to the situations described: "If class was hard for me, I’d blame the teacher. ... If I had difficulty holding downward dog or plank pose, I’d blame the teacher for keeping us there too long. ... Eventually, I realized that the more I blamed others, the more judgmental I became of everyone and everything."

In my last post, I talked about listening to intuition and finding interior power. This is all great in theory, but sometimes it's really hard! I notice that I often blame outside situations or people for my choices or circumstances. It's easy to think: "I would eat healthy, but it's girl's night and everyone is having pizza; or I would go to bed early, but I feel obligated to go to that event; or I would exercise, but it's raining outside. etc."

The more I make excuses and blame others, the more I feel resentful that I am stuck in a rut. Every now and then it's a good reminder to take responsibility and flip things around. A great way to do that is through twisting yoga postures. Twists can be uncomfortable because you are compressing your internal organs, pushing out blood and toxins. When you release a twist, oxygen rich blood flows in to heal your system. Using twists in yoga can also help to clear out old thought patterns that may have you feeling stuck.

We did quite a few twists in class yesterday along with an extended dolphin plank series that left most everyone flat on the floor laughing and groaning. Of course after all that hard work, it's important to have a nice long savasana :)
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