100 days and The Lotus

Experience of a daily practice

I do not want to blame all on my kids but it took me an incredibly long time to find a routine in my new life. Not so much caring for the kids but meeting my own needs. Sadly it included a vast amount of energy to make all the family members take their share, not sure but it might have been easier to accomplish this with female household members, saying that, my oldest son complained this morning that the kitchen has too many things lying around and it was impossible for him to get some more breakfast (being 4 and a half he is climbing everywhere to get what he wants).

I never have stopped with my yoga practice but I have been drained for a long time mainly due to sleep deprivation. But combined with Aqua Running and 3 weeks on my own with the kids (where I had nothing better to do in the evening than doing yoga) I could gather a lot of stamina that I do not wish to loose again.

It has been almost 100 days since I have started with The Bound Lotus. As so often I do not know how things make it into my life but there it is and I am very fond of this practice. 

I must mention at this point that also this practice challenges me a lot. First I had to practice the Lotus position as I have been avoiding full Lotus for the past years. So part of the warm-up set now is to stretch my legs to achieve Lotus easier. And it is working. I manage to sit without props in full Lotus. My hands are still far away from grabbing my toes (after crossing them on the back) but I think I will emphasize on this stretch from now on. Also the head does not touch the ground yet, but I approach this while sitting in Bound Lotus, and I get closer, every day a bit more. But there is still much more stretching to do for Lotus and arms, so this might take a bit longer.

As the practice only counts if you do not skip one day I had to discipline myself to start the day with Bound Lotus. So no matter what conditions I will warm-up and stretch and do the Bound Lotus before I start anything else. Because from experience I know once I have started the day there is no stopping and a day would feel wrong without Bound Lotus at the very beginning. 

And here I am 100 days later, happy to have found this practice as it replaces meditation for me at the moment. Because to sit still in mediation will require another quarter of a lifetime.
Practice on.

More about Bound Lotus here.

3 min dis-traction

Restless night

Thinking of when I lived on the small remote Island in Scotland I remember one really cold winter, so cold that the water system froze. We had very brave longterm guests back then and while I was really inventive to gather some water to wash my hair, the girl solved it with Dry Shampoo that she had brought with her.

The other night, I could not concentrate on anything which is a shame because I really honor those quiet hours, and nothing mind numbing was broadcasting, so I remembered the upcoming wedding in our family and browsed for some special hair do. Vimeo has quite some arty films and I once watched a really nice series of Tiger in a Jar like making your own pesto or bread but also a nice hairstyle. From that I ended up at Hair Dresser on Fire which is kind of entertaining to watch..... On her blog she talks about no poo which is when you don't use shampoo but water, baking soda and cider vinegar. She says she cannot handle that herself but tries to reduce the times of hair wash and that is where the Dry Shampoo came back to my life.

I thought I give it a try after all and went into the shop I pass on the way to get my son from school and tried it this morning. A funny thing. The hair feels lighter but it turns white so I guess you have to spray it with a bit of water?.....I really don't know about that.

Anyway it is fun to play with hair for a while but last night I had a much better distraction result after exhaustion of a restless mind and Aqua Running:

3MS - 3 minutes to shift the flow in your body and mind...