Feeling completely out of sync with my regular yoga practice (and daily routine as such), I have decided to challenge myself this year by trying out the traditional Ashtanga practice.

I set a simple goal for myself: to engage in Mysore practice 3 times a week for the next 6 months and see what happens to my mind and body. Like an experiment of some sort.

When I arrived to the studio at 6:30 am this morning, I felt excited but also a bit nervous as I didn’t know what to expect. At the same time, I was ready to embrace the uncertainty and let the teacher guide me through the first parts of the sequence.

Feeling so out of shape, I felt almost embarrassed to tell her that I have been practicing yoga on and off for more than a decade and that in the summer of 2021 (so not that long time ago), I completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training.

In a way, I wanted to turn a blank page, to forget all that I have been taught so far and what I have been teaching others since my YTT graduation—and start from scratch.

Embracing a Beginner's Mind

In Zen Buddhism, there is a concept called shoshin (originating from Japan) that stands for “a beginner’s mind”. According to Wikipedia, it “refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying, even at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.”

I love this concept because so very often our ego gets in the way when we are starting out with something new, let alone when we return to doing something that we’ve already gained some experience in or have some previous knowledge of.

So much so that it sometimes prohibits us from further learning and advancing.

At other times, we get to build what we perceive as our "truth" on very shaky grounds.

For me, approaching Ashtanga practice with a beginner’s mind means going back to the foundations and trying to (re)build my strength from there. Funnily enough, it feels almost cathartic as I can see so many parallels with other areas of my life right now.

As for my first practice today, I did not get to even half of the asanas of the primary series. But I was nevertheless proud of myself that I have started—as a complete beginner would.