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I blame the dog.

My friend Rusty had a recent post where he was looking for recommendations for “music to do Ashtanga to“.

Traditionally, Ashtanga is without music. And the mention of music and Ashtanga in some circles will certainly elicit a look of distain if not an outright objection. So, let’s call it Ashtanga based vinyasa. Or just vinyasa - except you do the primary series postures, hold bhandas and breathe the Ujjayi breath.

Ok, if I was outside next to an ocean, I might feel differently about not using music. The ocean would provide a nice rhythm. But most of the time, I like music in the practice. Maybe music makes me feel good already and, mixed with a vinyasa practice, combines for the ultimate “natural high”.

5 minutes out of the experience, I recommend Leon Parker. The album Awakening is a mix mash of percussion and bass that keeps a pleasant, groovy pulse. It’s an unusual, “world’ music-ish sound. A friend of a friend gave it to me in Memphis several years ago and it’s been a favorite ever since.

Paul Simon talks about getting old and jokes about perspective - “the Bible is old…you’re NOT old.” But sometimes comparisons like that don’t mean a whole bunch to personal perspective.

This week I actually had a developer tell me, “thank you, sir”. And that was a real kicker. It might be different if I thought he was being sarcastic. But he meant it, and that’s what stings. Not that it’s bad for me to be treated with respect. Respect is good. But I would rather some pimply-faced kid call me sir than someone who is likely my age. But pimply faced kids usually just give me the shivers.

A few weeks more and I’ll have a new daughter and that will certainly make me a sir. I’ll be someone’s dad, someone’s parent and, hopefully, someone’s hero.

After what seems like an eternity of very light yoga and delicate stretching, I finally jumped back into the primary series of Ashtanga and blazed through the standing postures. I kept in mind the brief time I spent with Pattabhi Jois and how quickly he leads his class through the practice. And for the first time in months, it was fun!

For those who don’t know (I have to at least feign readership!), Ashtanga yoga synchronizes breathing with movement. The series of postures moves rather quickly and keeps a sustained pace. Initially, it is overwhelming and extremely difficult to do. The practice quickly raises the body’s temperature and, if you’re not accustomed to sweating, it can be quite a surprise. But it feels great!

Because it is so challenging, the Ashtanga series can create problems if not approached with respect and awareness. I have witnessed many avid practitioners injure a shoulder, wrist, neck, back or knee just by doing the prescribed series of postures (myself included). Most of them were over 30 years old. Sometimes a teacher pushed them beyond their limit. Often they pushed themselves beyond the point of stretching. In all cases, the effort exerted to “achieve” a posture was greater than their body’s ability to comply.

Guruji began his practice at an early age so it makes sense that his yoga studies included a more robust physical component. His teacher, Krishnamacharya, taught others different approaches to yoga that were less physically demanding. Krishnamacharya’s son, T.K.V. Desikachar, studied with his father for over 30 years and approaches yoga completely different than the Ashtanga system. It is easy to speculate that Krishnamacharya taught individuals based on their needs as a student of yoga. Age was likely a factor, as was health.

Many Ashtanga devotees appear to be limiting themselves when they delcare their belief that the practice is ‘perfect’. I have to ask, was Krishnamacharya only perfect when he taught Guruji, or are all the forms of yoga perfect as well? I would go with the latter arguement.

My favorite Ashtanga teacher, and the first Westerner to study the full Ashtanga series with Pattabhi Jois, David Williams, lays it out simply: “If yoga is not the second best feeling thing in your life, you’re missing an opportunity.” David just happened to show up at Atlanta Yoga at a time when my aching back was making me question my ability to practice Ashtanga. David reeled me back to the basics - bhandas and breath, and emphasized the wholistic approach to yoga that is about healing. I probably would have given up years ago if I didn’t get a dose of his wisdom just in time. “If you were to go up to one of these old, grey bearded Yogis in India, one of those wise men living in a cave, and you told him that you hurt yourself doing yoga, he would think you were crazy.” Amen.

It was a last minute trip that materialized over the course of a few hours and ended up being a great event full of those nuggets that can only be found when a bunch of search engine geeks get together with booz.

Many thanks go out to Matt Williams of Prominent Placement for hooking me up and helping me with a guess pass. Once I was there, I met Li Evans who is a bit of a social media expert and a really good somebody to know. She introduced me to Mike Grehan, and the next thing I know, we’re all having dinner and discussing the future of the web and search engine marketing.

When I say “discussing”, I mean “listening”. Mike is truly a forward thinking, insightful, and downright brilliant SEO guru. Sitting at the table with him was like sitting and discussing basketball with Michael Jordan. You listen. No wonder Bruce Clay recruited him to come onboard.

The conference itself was the smallest of any SES event that I have ever attended and I found myself being addressed in Spanish quite a bit. My Spanish is quite rusty but I managed well and met some really cool folks from Spain, Mexico and Costa Rica.

What did I learn? “Trans-create” instead of translate. If you try to translate your English site to Spanish, expect it to flow with the genius of a 10th grade high school student. By having a native speaker do the initial writing, translating quirks are minimized. I also learned that the Latino market is largely a mobile market. Computer saturation is minimal in Latin America, but everyone has a cell phone. If you want to get into the game, expect to go mobile.

The Latino market is just beginning to flourish. One of the best quotes that seemed to encapsulate the landscape came from a speaker who said, “it’s like going back 5 years in the United States…banner ads still work in Mexico because the average user there isn’t jaded yet.” Sweet.