Welcome to Day 3 of our 21 Day Yoga Challenge. Today’s suggestion for your asana (pose) practice is to reflect on your intentions with yoga and to focus your practice with attention.

Intention:

• Consider your overall intentions for practicing yoga. Sometimes yoga students are drawn to a type of practice that feeds their current energies, instead of cultivating what they may need the most. For instance, highly driven, go-go-go people can be drawn to practicing yoga the same way – always wanting to achieve, constantly measuring their “success”. That’s why it’s good for highly ambitious students to slow down. Students that need a soft kick in the bum to get motivated can benefit from a more fiery practice. Consider what you might need the most compared to what you like the best.
• Pause and take a moment at the beginning of your practice to notice how you feel today and what you need. Set an intention for how you’d like to feel. Then follow that intention throughout your practice today.

Attention:

• When we have a single intent for the body, mind and spirit, we can cultivate greater concentration – both during practice and in our everyday lives. Our busy minds need an anchor. See if you can more fully surrender to your practice. Don’t stop to check your cell phone or give attention to other distractions. Set a timer if you need to and keep practicing until the timer goes off.
• Once you come into a pose, find one point of focus and let your mind rest. For instance, if you are practicing triangle pose, try looking down at your big toe like it’s the most fascinating thing you’ve seen all day. Stay gazing at your toe for a minute or two. It’s hard to do, because we are always so distracted. As the eyes look away, the mind searches for something new.

Above all, enjoy your practice. Let your practice be something that you look forward to, not just another thing that you need to do today.

I wish you peace and joy!

Namaste,

Suzanne