What. A. Week. Left my old job and started a new one, interviewed at a third, got my hair cut, did a load of yoga... I'm totally shattered. It's been great, if emotionally taxing.

Mysore this weekend was wonderful. When I started practicing it earlier this year, I had no inkling it would become such a joy. Mysore, for the uninitiated, is basically ashtanga done in your own time. So you work through the sequences and the teacher moves around the class adjusting and offering advice. It means you can work at the sequences, refine your technique and try and actually learn things. For me it's perfect because you're not having to try and keep up with anyone else, you're just in your own practice. I started with a 45 minute practice and am slowly incorporating more of the postures into it (but even the 45 sometimes takes me an hour and a half!). Here's a great article from the Guardian about it.

My usual teacher Sarah is away at the moment so a lady called Ola has been covering the Saturday classes, and Kate on Wednesdays. Both are Sarah's pupils so very much work from the same, inclusive, supportive mindset. I've really enjoyed Ola's adjustments, friendliness and personality and Kate gave me a crucial top tip for vinyasa flow last week. For me getting the core poses right is key, everything else comes once that's in place. Mysore is very soothing and fun. Ola and I talked about teacher training after class last week and she was very encouraging too. Everyone has been - I just feel more and more like a fraud the closer it all gets.

I do feel lucky, someone else in the class was talking about other mysore rooms they've been in and how they'd been told off for smiling (!). I can't imagine doing yoga that didn't have a sense of joy to it, that's not a kind of yoga I want to access. Of course concentration is key to achievement and correct alignment, if that's the type of yoga you're doing, but the best ashtanga and vinyasa flow classes I've been in have been a giggle! Maybe this is another lesson about what I want my teaching style to be...

I've realised that my stamina sucks at the moment. You can't just do yoga and nothing else. I need to get back to swimming and cycling, Pump and Pilates. It has to be rounded. Having left my old job Tuesday and started a lovely new one Wednesday, I am hopeful that I'll be able to change things up going forward.

I've been off to a yoga workshop on sacral stability recently - will talk about that more once it's all done and I've had time to consult my notes...