31 Days of Yoga and Meditation: Day 1

Wrote this last night, but didn't get a chance to post it.

Yoga: What I thought was a 30 minute work-out video turned out to be about 18 minutes after subtracting the talking part. Other than that, it was a good stretching. Nothing too strenuous, but with my hips, I need the stretching. Since I did toning last night, I don't feel so bad.

Meditation: With my trance group meeting this Monday, I decided to try a trance pose that I may get the group to do. They have not yet done any floor poses -just standing poses. Kneeling with knees about 10 inches apart, sitting on heels and leaning forward slightly. Hands are in a specific position on the knees.

The meditation was good, but not the most powerful I've had. I kept falling forward and it did not feel like it was part of the trance. About 2/3 of the way through, when I admitted that this pose was not working for me, I switched to another more powerful one. It's still a kneeling pose, but slightly different configuration.

The meditation aspect of ecstatic trance work is not as relaxing as standard meditation (well, ET isn't really a meditation). But the several minutes of breath-work and visualization before makes it count. Of course, as with any floor posture, I continued the deep breathing afterwards in order to bring the circulation back into my legs, which are still tingling ten minutes later.