Long time gone

I think too many moons have passed since my last post so here I am.
Not to talk about ME but my life is a little crazy which is why it took so long to get back on track. I have picked up 7 classes to teach, I'm planning a wedding on a short engagement, work full-time, and are STILL learning how to be a stepmom.... there, the short version.
What I have found to be one of the most challenging things about all of this is the lack of time for myself. I spend 24/7 running around town, doing all of these jobs, then come home and barely have time to breath. The end result is I have no yoga practice of my own and I'm a bit short, crabby, and my mind goes 100 MPH into nowhere.
Sometimes we need a little kick start... a kick in the ass if you will. This past week I attended a 5 day Mysore Ashtanga workshop. Every morning I drug myself out of bed to arrive for yoga at 7:00 am. Now this may not seem early to most of you but I am not a morning person, I am a night owl Combine this with the fact that my body ages about 10 years overnight, everynight and I am a stiff, morning, crab ass.
My workshop was with David Keil, an amazing instructor of Ashtanga Yoga, Kinesiology AND a certified massage and neuromuscular therapist from Miami. This guy KNOWS anatomy inside and out.
I won't recap the entire week but here are the Cliff notes... We began slowing learning the vinyasa flow of the primary series and each day, then added in more poses each day. I should mention that 5 days is not enough time to learn the entire flow. As with all yoga, it is a lifelong practice.
By day 3 I was so sore that I walked into the room and thought, "ugh, I have NO interest in being here". Once I left, I had pushed through a lot of the soreness which made the rest of the week much more bearable.
David does some pretty deep adjustments, however knows the body well enough to know how far or how shallow to push each student. I was pushed, and pushed, and twisted, and pushed some more!... lucky me....
The workshop ended yesterday and what I am observing today is that my body feels regenerated, refreshed, (still a little sore) but more open and aware. My mind is clearer, and less cluttered. My breath work is more focused and stable.
I am looking forward to not only continuing on to learn the Ashtanga series, but adding a lot of what I learned into the classes I teach in Hatha Yoga. So there, not only do I benefit but so do my students (or they might hate me for a while!).
This has opened me up to realizing that I need to take some time for myself each and every day as we all do. Not matter how busy we are, we are no good without being clear headed, healthy, and emotionally able to handle what comes our way.
As I'm struggling to find a final thought, I realize that I have to just come back to basics and quote my tag line....
"Find yourself and love what you find" - me

Check out David's web site at www.yoganatomy.com