On Ashtanga Yoga...

This weekend gone I attended a yoga weekend course with the lovely Jill Jones. The workshop was on Ashtanga yoga. I've dabbled in Ashtanga in the past; I discovered Ashtanga in a free class during my first year of uni and it was a bit of a revelation. Following that initial class I watched some David Swenson videos and was, frankly, gobsmacked (pic of david on the right). I didn't have the time or the dedication to start a 6-day 90 min Ashtanga practice at home, but I dabbled in the primary series in my personal practive, and trotted over to the Burren in Ireland for a week long yoga course (which further confirmed that I lacked the willpower to be a Ashtangi).

Browsing youtube last week I found Kino Macgregor and Pilar Carillo and the numbers further dismayed me. 4 years to master the jump through, 5 years to achieve push up to handstand. This is, of course, with devotion to aformentioned 6-day practice. I started to do the numbers in my head 'so if I start now I'm going to achieve jump through and handstand aged 33, if I'm lucky'. Hold on. What am I doing? Mentions of timescales, instead of comforting me, have suddenly made me fraustrated; surely yoga is about the personal journey not the destination (certainly not showing off). What am I doing comparing myself to others?

I stumbled across this article on Ashtanga written by Norman Blair, an Astangi with some considerable experience. Interesting reading.

My reflection would be this; is is that Ashtanga leads to the competative, body obsession exibited by it's many practitioners? Or is it that the vigerous nature of the yoga attracts the kind of person that has a tendancy toward these diversions in any case? Whichever, I'm worried that my ego will not be improved by excessive Ashtanga... for me I think the slow path.