First, I’ve been getting some thoughtful and helpful feedback about these blog posts from other yoga students — and folks in general — so I wanted to say THANK YOU for every time you take a moment to tell me what you liked and what more you want to read.

Second, I attended Classical Hatha Yoga practice with Blake this morning and it was a shareworthy experience!

Hatha is the branch of yoga that is probably most typically thought of when you think “yoga.” It is the repetition of specific sequences and poses that focus on breathing; wonderful byproducts are balance and strength.

It’s one of my favorites because of the workout aspect. If you like to sweat and/or like to have an obvious way to monitor your progress, try this class.

So here are signs of progress I had today:

• I held crow pose! If you don’t know what that is, it’s this. … OK so my form was nothing like what you see in the link. I mean, I think those lady models are professionals. But back to my practice – I got both feet off the ground and had balance and strength in my arms today. Last week I didn’t get my feet up.
• I held both sides of tree pose without falling out of it! Sure, I wobbled. Got really shaky in my ankles and feet on both sides. Blake says: “If your body shakes, let it shake.” I was able to keep the pose for a minute and a half on each side because I’m building strength and balance regularly.

I’m finishing week 3 of my new practice, and I only take a couple of classes per week that have these poses in them. So I’m pretty pleased with this progress.

Interestingly, I did get light-headed this morning during another pose and actually had to take a knee for a second. I have no idea the physiology of it, but I was deeply bent over with my head near the ground at the time — coming out of that triggered the brief dizziness. It passed quickly — oh, and then I rocked tree pose!

Making progress is very motivating. I’m going to keep going to this Saturday morning class to see how far I can take this.

Featured Photo: Ambiance at Downtown Yoga Memphis.