The Light on Light

Okay, so two weeks ago I was doing my daily yoga practice in my dining room. As multitudes of yoga teachers do, I use B.K.S. Iyengar's LIGHT ON YOGA as a constant reference. LIGHT ON YOGA (LOY) was first published in 1965. In over 600 photos, Mr. Iyengar demonstrates asanas (poses) and variations of asanas, complete with descriptions on how to enter and leave each asana and what each is supposed to work or stretch or do.

In the back of this amazing resource, Mr. Iyengar suggests a program - a 5-year program - of the asanas (poses) and the order in which they should be practiced. Each week has a series of asanas, which are referenced back to their photos and descriptions earlier in the book. I thought - wouldn't it be neat to try this? To go through these sequences as Mr. Iyengar laid them out and see what that did for you. I'm guessing that's what early yogis in this country were doing in 1965.

But I've been practicing yoga for 7 years. I teach yoga. I have a pretty deep practice. It doesn't make sense for an experienced yogi to try this out. And then I thought - who cares, why rules, why boundaries.

I didn't want to leave my own instincts about my home practice behind, doing only the sequences in the book. So I decided to set out on a journey. To take one day a week to practice the asanas in the sequences that Mr. Iyengar suggests. And to see what that does. Maybe it will do nothing (I doubt it - yoga never ceases to amaze me). But this is one aspect of yoga that I really like: let's try it. I don't know what will happen. Let's do it and see.

I thought perhaps someone would like to join me on this journey. I asked my friend Ariana as she is as passionate about yoga as I am. She got right on board. And she suggested a blog. Which made me think - we're the Julie and Julia of yoga! Plodding our way through an old book - trying out what the master said. So here we are. We'll be letting you know how it goes. What we find. Good and bad and inbetween.

Here goes . . .