Sigh ... I'm in LOVE

I attempted to get my daily dose of yoga on the balcony today but we had a 5.5 earthquake in the GTA, Ottawa, and other surrounding areas.  Fearing an aftershock, I figured that wasn't the best place to do my yoga today.  I learned this evening however, that it's actually not likely for an aftershock of the same magnitude to take place.  So that's comforting!  I myself actually didn't even feel the quake, but know of a lot of people who felt nauseous for a while after the rumble and some people in tall buildings said they felt the entire building sway which I would imagine could be quite terrifying.  I would have assumed right away that it was the result of the G20 Summit for sure and possibly feared for my life.

The only kind of rumbling I did feel around the time of the quake came from my tummy, but I doubt that was the source of all this earth shaking excitement.  I guess this was just Mother Nature doing her thang.

After today I have exactly ONE WEEK LEFT OF MY 30-day Yoga Challenge With  Eoin Finn!!  To celebrate that I thought I would go old school and revisit "World Champions' Hips" from the Pursuit of Happy Hips DVD.

Here's a shot of me looking like a psycho while doing a new version of pigeon pose that I had actually never seen before until doing Eoin's videos.  Got a tight bum?  This will certainly help you there.  I distinctly remember having a hard time with this one the first and second time I tried World Champion's Hips.  I didn't have enough core strength to hold me up for very long, and my leg didn't necessarily feel like wrapping around like it did in this picture.  I've clearly progressed since then! 

Bridge might very well be my favourite pose.  Really gets the blood flowing to your brain, opens up the chest nicely, makes you work your arms and you get to basque in the sweetness afterwards when you lay flat on your back, tuck your knees in real tight and breathe all the tension right out of your lower back.  It's a glorious thing. 

Once upon a time I dreaded minute 40 and all the minutes that followed in this exact video.  Today it suddenly occurred to me to check the time and it was minute 49 of this hour-and-a-bit-long routine.  I couldn't believe it!  I had already long passed all the boat poses I once hated.  I mean don't get me wrong.... I'm still not a World Champion boat poser, but I can do it.  I can give it an honest go and feel the burn from it.  I also wasn't anticipating it coming because I was so focused on my practice.  I put full intention on doing all the poses the best I could, making sure my alignment was right and well honestly, I was amazed at how different my practice felt because of my new mat!

I have had the same ugly, ratty, old, nothing-special, blue yoga mat since 2001.  There are actual pieces of mat missing from it.  And I don't even own any pets...so I can't even blame them for chewing it up!  Lately while working at lululemon, I've kept staring at this new yoga mat we've gotten in the store a few months ago.  It's called "the Mat".  During this challenge I've been using my beloved blue mat everyday and while using it in Mexico I realized it is literally the same width as PAPER.  It provides no support or cushion, it's just a thin piece of mystery plastic that should probably be thrown out soon.  After doing as much yoga as I have this month, I felt the need to treat myself to a good upgrade.  So I bought myself "the Mat" yesterday and used it today for the first time. I'm in LOVE.  I'm tempted to change my relationship status on facebook from "Single" to "In a Relationship with The Mat." 

Unlike my blue mat which is made of one paper-thin layer, this new mat is made of two layers:  The bottom half is made of Rubber and RECYCLED LUON!  (that's the same stuff our famous stretchy pants are made of!).  This part of the mat provides significantly more cushion than my blue paper ever did.  The top layer of "the Mat" is made of polyurethane and has an antibacterial treatment added to it.  This is going to come in handy when I start using it for my hot yoga classes and begin pouring buckets of sweat all over it.  What I love most about it though is the polyurethane top because it uses the same technology as tennis handle grips so it's anti-slip, even when wet!

This was the main feature that I noticed changed my yoga practice completely today.  It actually made it more challenging/easier at the same time.  I'm not sure how to best describe what I mean here, but I'll give it a shot.
The anti-slip feature meant that every time I flowed into a new pose I really needed to bend harder, flex more, and stretch further than I ever did with my blue paper mat.  On the paper mat, if I didn't quite make it into the pose I could slide into it from where I first landed.  But on this mat, there's no opportunity for a quick slide adjustment.  So I find that it challenges me to set myself up for success in my next pose right from the beginning.  That's why it's a little more challenging.

Where it makes things easier is in holding triangle pose or side lunges of any kind.  With my paper mat, my feet would begin to slide into the splits and I had to find a sweet spot where the sliding would stop, or I would squeeze my thighs super hard to prevent my feet from slipping further.  With this new mat, your feet stay planted.  They set up camp and stay there.  The nice thing about that is I can stop focusing on adjusting that aspect of the pose, and pay more attention to making sure I stretch my sides deeper in Triangle Pose, or that I'm lunging low enough in Runner's Lunge for example.  I can stop worrying about sliding right out of the pose, and focus more on the pose itself.  It's a beautiful thing really!