That is one of the main reasons for practice—to inspire yourself. It's not only discipline, determination, toughness and stubbornness that gets me on my mat each day…
Its not extreme. It doesn't mean there aren't physical or mental benefits but it's like trying to fit a square peg through a round hole.
Asana practice can teach me the necessity of allowing thought to be born out of bodily awareness, out of feeling, sensing, and perceiving in a very distinctly animal way.
Sharath spoke about each of the 6 classic yogic cleansing practices and concluded that Ashtanga practice achieves the same benefits and thus largely replaces these practices.
Balancing in a full squatting position is one of the most important and challenging aspects to this posture. The feet are your foundation, they are directly in contact with the earth.
Karandavasana is one of the Second Series top 3 most challenging postures and like all asanas there is a progression. One of the first steps is being able to smoothly, rapidly, and dynamically execute the inverted padmasana.
Often I'm trying to create a new pattern where an old, rutted pattern exists. And the chances of that rutted pattern continuing are great and so to create a new pattern takes a total investment from the student and I have to have that agreement.
