...in my training lately has been Kundalini yoga.  I seem to go in tangents with yoga, where I want to do nothing BUT that for a while, then you have to force me at gunpoint to do it, even though I still LOVE Kundalini yoga.  Go figure.  I stopped trying to figure that out ages ago and I just know it's a cyclical thing for me.  But what I am also noticing is that during the in between periods where I am living sans yoga, I'm more of an angry, impatient, easily stressed person.  Most of the time when I do a Kundalini set, I'm smiling, having a ball and I feel completely blissed out afterwards.  Of course, there are days and sets where it's not all fun and games, it's work and it pushes buttons while it comes up against blocks but even then it's like getting a massage where the deep work isn't always comfortable, but you're grateful for it anyway.

Last night, I didn't feel like doing much of anything and because Oct. 31 is one of the two biggest Pagan holy days, I had some things I needed and wanted to do in honor of the day.  Having been at work later than usual, I had to skip one of my short runs just to have time for my rituals, but it's just more important.  I'll run my 3 miles tonight and I might start a trend of doing yoga again sooner than I thought. I'd planned to slowly introduce that in the morning, but for some reason in the past year or so I love sleeping in and it's a wrestling match to get my head off of the pillow even when I AM awake.  I love to lie there, with Owen T purring on my head, his cheek on my cheek (and isn't that the cutest frickin thing ever) and comfy blanky all around me...nope, just haven't found the discipline to leave that behind an hour early to do yoga. Perhaps that will be what I have my hypnotherapist work in this weekend?

But just to see how I'm really feeling about it, I popped in one of my favorite yoga DVDs last night to watch as I laid in bed, ready to doze off.  I found myself hopping up more than a few times to join in and do it with her, though I didn't want to do a 90 minute set before bed.  Still, it felt good and today as I sit here at work feeling tired and cranky, I'm thinking of two things that I know are behind it; needing more water, and needing yoga in my life again.

So this must be the holy trinity of training for me; running, Pilates, yoga.  I'm also really drawn to T'ai Chi and I have a wodnerful DVD at home for practicing and getting ready to really learn the short form, but ultimately, I need a live teacher for that one.  The one time I did the warm ups (45 min) I was amazed at how wonderful I felt afterward and how hard I worked without noticing it during the moves. Seems like T'ai Chi would be a fabulous early morning routine or a pre-bedtime cleanse.

Oy vay! What do you do when you love so many things?! Rotate them, I suppose, so you can enjoy them all.  

But it's time for a yoga resurrection.  I've still never risen to the challenge of a 40 day yoga practice, where you do the same set for 40 days to master it and break old patterns and habits. That might be a really fun thing to do soon, but I wonder how that would work on my long run days? Might be something that has to wait until after the marathon.  I'll just have to see how strong I get. ;)

If you've never experienced Kundalini yoga, it's quite different from the traditional Hatha most people are familiar with, though I do love both.  But Kundalini is just in a class by itself, as far as I'm concerned, and nothing else in the world does for me what it does.

Tonight, after my 3 mile run, I'll either do Yoga Beauty Body (which includes the Magnificent Seven) or the first and/or second sets from Ana and Ravi's Weight Loss DVD (4 sections, all amazing). I'll view it as an experiment, to see how my mood and energy fare tomorrow.