For many years I have been listening to older teachers and practitioners talking about the 7th  Ashtanga Yoga Series as being the most difficult and demanding.

But in reality this dynamic method of Yoga is defined by the existence of 6 sequences of positions, distinguished by the sharp increase in the degree of skill, demand and integration. And when the practitioner enters in family life, common and shared life, marriage and children, begins the experience of a sequence that has no positions, but is presented as the most intense and complicated, the 7th series of life – the one where we have to put into practice everything we learned in the “million” hours spent on our mats! I think it’s the one where we slide big inside ourselves and realize how much we’re still at the beginning of knowing how to live Yoga in life. Because if there is a way to get a glimpse of where we are in Yoga and life, it is to notice how we have experienced crises, difficulties, sleepless nights, the accumulated fatigue of caring and educating our children, the demanding sharing of a day- day that implies having very little time to be alone! And there are those who adore, and there are those who, in short, live everything else in a different way!

After a whole year in the life series, I look at all the other 6 sequences of postures described in Ashtanga Yoga and it makes me want to laugh, because really this 7th is so more demanding, that sometimes I feel like giving up, and yet for a long time I have learned that we must continue to try, breathe, reflect, perceive what is not going well, change what makes us feel bad, banish what hurts us, forgive what we need and move on to another day with renewed confidence that we will be masters in this sequence of life filled with new responsibilities, functions, burdens, and difficulties.

But calm down, not everything is a drama!

There are so many good moments, rich, full, full of pure inspiration, samples that you can overcome the less positive days. The smile of our babies, the first word, the first steps, the live laughs, the tender look when they fall asleep, his/ her hand on our face, and so many other examples that extend to thousands of seconds that illuminate our heart. And so many other collections of moments such as the special joy of seeing our parents to be frilly grandparents, our in-laws who are so our friends, our husband or wife who even in the heights that give discussion are the people we love the most, the friends who have become family, and so many other situations that help to overcome the difficult!

It is necessary to be calm, to step many times on  the Yoga mat, many as we can, to practice with the soul attached to our body, so that the mind has no chance of wanting to flee from the present moment. Breathing, moving  the tired sleep-ridden bodies for many sleepless nights, creating energy to pull apathy, demotivation, and negativity away from hearts, and gain renewed faith and joy to continue to try to walk into the seventh series of life with dexterity, focus and balance.

BOAS PRÁTICAS