Today I woke up and felt that I might be having a cold coming. I decided not to practice. I really don´t have time to become ill right now. So much to do before leaving! So I´m hoping that my decision is a good one, and that my body can rest and fight whatever has gotten into it!
This thing about practicing or not practicing when ill is a tricky question. I´m not sure there is a right or a wrong. I guess it´s up to everyone to feel what is good for them. If you ask different teachers, they will have different attitudes on that. Some will say that it ok(or even good) to practice when ill, just as long as you don´t have a fever (like Lino Miele). Some teachers say to listen to your body, and you will know if it´s ok or not. Maria says never to practice with a soar throught.
My view is that I don´t practice when ill. I think the body needs to rest then. When feeling low of energy, having a headache and so on (like today), I think it´s ok to practice. If you´re lucky you will feel better afterwards, but if you´re unlucky, the cold might break out. Now we´re talking about vigorous ashtanga yoga. I think a restorative yoga session might have done me good this morning.
And we have the issue of ahimsa. Being kind to yourself. This morning I was being kind to myself and letting my body rest to be able to heal. But then I have my thoughts: "you´re a bad yogi for skipping practice this morning", "if you skip one practice, it´ll be easy to skip the next, you should have gone", and so on, and so on. That´s not ahimsa. This brings up the question about dicipline. To do you´re practice despite all the thoughts about why not to get up in the morning and practice. How do you distinguish between a good and healthy reason for not practicing from the lazy reason? I guess that takes practice too!
99% practice, 1 % theory!
Please share your thoughts on this.
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I think the question here is: How can you skip practice if you feel ill and be able to be content with that decision. Or even how can you skip practice once now and then for maybee not only the reason of feeling ill and still be content. Lino said in a WS that he never skipped more than three days in a row. Rest on a day of travelling, moondays and three first days of menstruation. I believe that´s a good rule. We do practice a lot as it is, and too easily we get the feeling of being lazy. That is not so. Being an ashtangi is having made a decision that is the opposite of being lazy :-)
Krya på dig Tina och Kram!
I find that I rarely get ill when doing my asana practice regularly. It's like the ujjayi breathing cleanses everything out before it gets time to get stuck in me. Or that's how I imagine it...
I haven't had a cold for 1,5 years and now, after having a break in my asana practice, I got sick after just a few weeks break. Funny.
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