Today in my 6am Mountain practice, I mastered Astavakrasana- also known as eight angle pose in normal speak. Waking up at 5:30 is never an easy task, but it pays off to start the day as the sun rises. My foggy brain progressively clarifies throughout the practice and bring peace to my day. There are many times where I am not focused- thinking about school, where I’m going to get food after, or how I’m going to handle a problem with a friend. Today was not one of those days. I think it’s because it is the first thing I did today, making it a clean slate to set my daily intention. I have been disciplining myself to wake up for these early classes, and after today I can say it makes a huge difference! 

Oh yeah! This is what eight angle pose looks like-

That’s not me of course, but I want to get a picture of me doing it next time! The word Astavakrasana is rooted from the word “asta”, meaning eight, and “vakra”, meaning bent. The teacher challenged us in the pose to exit by undoing your bottom foot, then bringing it back behind you and balancing in Running Man pose. I didn’t think that I could do that, but I had enough hope to try and mastered that too-although I did plop onto my stomach shortly after-but I still did it! 

This is a perfect example of why I love yoga so much. It challenges the body and the mind, and I can only learn more by going deeper and trying new things. I can already tell you that today is going to be a good day, and it’s only 8:30am!

P.S.  I’m going to remake this picture when I go abroad to Australia next fall! 🙂