Security Blanket

Today I got up and taught yoga at the gym. Then ran some errands and came home. Chai & I had a relaxing day!
I did a 45 min. asana practice followed by meditation.
I have to say my practice was moderate but I was excited because for the FIRST time ever I got into headstand without the wall!!
I consider myself an advanced beginner/intermediate level if you had to label it. (just to give you an idea of my practice)
Most of my practice is pretty comfortable but I've been struggling with headstands since I started yoga over 4 years ago. It was like my security blanket--using the wall. So today I moved away from the wall and tried on my own. Sure enough I got up! I have to tuck in the raise my legs. But it did make smile!

After practice I showered, ate and started to read the most recent Shambala Sun. There were some interesting articles on Yoga and interweaving Buddhism.
Here are just a few excerpts from the articles I read:

"With gentleness & mindfulness we can appreciate what we have. We are enormously capable & free, and if we begin to develop appreciation, our mind doesn't dwell on what we do not have or on what we have lost"

"If we bring mindfulness to our feelings, we can experience pure pleasure, untainted by clinging or grasping. But in order to be able to experience pure pleasure, we must be willing to experience pure pain or pure discomfort, free from aversion & resistance.
The most pain-avoidant people have the least joy in their lives. In trying to armor ourselves against pain; we numb ourselves to all experience. In opening ourselves to live fully, not caught in habitual patterns of reactivity. Rather than conditionally reacting to experience. We can choose to respond creatively. The doorway to this freedom is in bringing mindfulness to our feelings before they condition our reactivity."

"If we are attached to strong ideas of what we need to be happy & free; the attachment to those very ideas becomes an obstacle to happiness & freedom."

"To appreciate & be firm in our commitment to a practice is one thing, but if we become overly attached & obsessive with the form, we can all too easily lose the liberating spirit of the practice"

I enjoyed what I read. Now onto reading more stuf! Then off to bed soon.