Obstacles

Making our way back to the sutras, we begin again in the first chapter with verses 30-39.  They focus on the obstacles that get in the way of practice and truly allowing one to experience yoga and dwell in their own true splendor.  But where to begin with obstacles. I seem to find them all the time.  Mostly its the lack of time though.  With such a busy schedule, there arnt enough hours in the day for me to get everything done, let alone a good 15-30 min block where I can get some yoga in.  But everything that seems to be the problem for me, isnt what the sutras say are the problems. Granted some of my problems can be included within some of the obstacles mentioned in the sutras.  I just think its interesting that things like breathing, both inhaling and exhaling accompany the distractions. Since breathing is such a big part of yoga and the poses, it is just a little weird that it can also distract you. It then goes on about ways to steady the mind so these obstacles dont affect you. Basically it is the opposite of the distractions. Go figure.  Not much is said about how to have be free from desire (I.37) or something, but it makes sense that once your free from that then you will be able to practice yoga better.

This is one of the problems I am having with my own practice, is these distractions.  Most of the time I relate it to time and not having enough time to practice. But I know sometimes its because Im lazy or just dont feel like it, and that is something that I need to focus on and work on and just like every sport Ive every played or working out and staying in shape now, even if I dont want to, I need to buckle down and get it done.

Class time is so nice because it is already scheduled into my day and I cant then make that excuse anymore.  Also in class we do a lot more than I would do in my own practice, and do a lot of things that I forgot about.  I have liked how we have recently started incorporating a little bit of everything into one practice.  It makes me feel more accomplished because we dont have to work only on twists, or inversions or something but that we are capable of doing everything together now.