Have I gone. '...shooby-dooby bye bye', am I a Yoga addict?

Bindi's post has given me pause

I don't want to quote her out of context but here are some of the signs she gives that may suggest your a yoga addict.

1. Does yoga, then tells everyone everyday about it on Facebook.

2. Tweets that they did or are going to do their practice.

3. Talks about every little thing regarding their practice on their blog

4. Judges the rest of the world for what they eat or what they do for a living

5. Wont stand for anyone saying anything bad about yoga

Let me see. 

1. Occasionally

2. Bugger, did that last Friday was excited about heading home from work for a straight Primary

3. Well it is a Yoga blog, as it happens I have two other blogs.... admittedly they're yoga blogs too.

Come to think of it I also have a vintage Sax blog and a Heidegger blog although never get to post on them because I'm writing on the yoga blogs everyday...damn.

4. I think I am the least judgemental vegetarian, sorry pesky-tarian out there, although I was a bit of a judgemental arse the first time around in my late teens. What do I care what anyone does for a living?

5.  I think I'm reasonably fair on this one, tend to question yoga and the different styles quite a bit myself, including the styles I practice.
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Addicted to yoga? can you really be addicted to yoga, to the asana practice perhaps just as to any exercise regime, when those chemicals start a poplin' in your body.... I do practice twice a day. It's not like going to a hot or power yoga class twice a day though, Ashtanga in the evening but a softer vinyasa Krama in the morning, I don't think I'm on a yoga high.

If not addicted how about obsessed, am I obsessed with yoga?

I practice it... twice a day, most everything I read about at the moment is yoga related, I eat to support my practice, I write about it everyday.....

But then it doesn't seem any different than when I was playing the sax. I practiced every chance I got, used to shut myself in a futon cupboard in Japan so as not to annoy the neighbours. When we moved to Kyoto I would go down to the river early before work and stand under a bridge in all weathers. In the winter I cut the fingers of my gloves so I could play while the snow fell. I only listened to Jazz, probably didn't talk about much else and even quit my job as a teacher so I could train to become a saxophone repairer.

view from the bridge I used to practice under each morning

That was a bit of an obsession, Yoga feels more like a lifestyle

Like running or gymnastics or any sport we become attentive to what we eat. We want to understand how our body works more clearly so start to look at some anatomy and physiology.

My meditation practice is older than my yoga practice but closely related of course and have become more so, my asana prepares me for my pranayama and meditation practice.

My background is philosophy and literature, it's to be expected that I would be interested in the cultural and philosophical background to the practice.

The blogging..... now that's a little obsessive, 50 posts last month and this but that's mainly because I'm working on my VK practice notes book. I don't want to dominate my blog completely with that so am trying to include some unrelated posts for those who aren't the least bit interested in VK.

Is blogging an obsession, an addiction or a habit, a routine perhaps it comes down to why you do it.

Why DO we blog?

I started mine with a clear aim, to work on the jump back. I hoped that bringing together all the info I could find would result in information being sent to me. It was also a place to put less than perfect video's and pictures of the process rather than all the perfect ones on youtube at that time. Later it became a motivation to practice, I could see how I was progressing by looking at the old videos and besides there were only about fifteen to thirty readers back then. Of course after the jump back there was dropping back, coming up, kapo's, karanda's and so on.

For a long time it was just a picture or video and a couple of lines, think I still prefer those.

I tried to give up blogging for a while, was back after a couple of weeks, does that suggest addiction? I think it just feels natural to ramble away occasionally or share something I've come across or question something. I tend to just throw stuff up there and then see if I agree with it myself, often I'll leave space for the begged questions.

There's an obligation I feel to share Vinyasa Krama. I'm very aware that there isn't the on line Vinyasa Krama community that I benefited from with Ashtanga. The book project is a way to pass on all the practice notes I gained from the Ashtanga community to anyone who comes across Vinyasa Krama. That should be finished over Christmas and uploaded into the new edition of the practice book and then I'm done.

I'm seriously questioning whether I'll continue blogging after it's finished, started to feel a bit like a second job, be nice to retire to the metaphorical cave and practice quietly, perhaps the occasional missive, always did have cave yogi leanings.

But then I think so many stop blogging after few years, just when their practice is getting interesting, that always seems a shame so we'll see.

So is it an addiction, an obsession?

I'm still going to go with practice as a way of life, where all areas of life become part of the practice.

I'm look forward to practicing more rather than less.