Harried housewife, chilled out yoga teacher??!! Neither, both

From chakrasana, advanced variation

Yes, ya, top pix is what I am (three bags full:) when I am not teaching yoga. I put the grocery on the weighing machine and weighed it -- all of 20 kgs. I rush about doing several things -- arm-chair columnist, obsessive blogger, on-call mom, author-on-the-third book:) Other things too, but those things apart...

So, yes, whether it is a fully loaded suitcase larger than me, or pots wider than my hips, I am at it with zeal.

 This is called karma yoga (or, by the sceptics, body-berating:)

The thing is, for me yoga is not just about the mat. It is being all things at once, comfortably. That's why I am a bit amused when I see some type of people wanting to do certain poses because I feel it is not going to happen to them .. I mean if they look like the sort who suffer activity or feel it has to be endured, then they bring the same sense of huffing-puffing effort into their mat. Sorry guys, but this is particularly true of Indian men, since they are so pampered. If they lift their tea cup and put it in the sink, they will ask for a fee for having done that, and a badge announcing it to the world:)  So, unless u feel that doing for others, including your (and especially) your family, was not an effort, and if you are in a state of flux-steadiness  24X7 then, only, do the difficult asanas,  fall into place. 

I learnt that when at the ashram... If I cleaned the toilet well, I was ok on the mat. The karma yoga shirkers, they  stunted their own progress..You could see that too... the sleepy, nasty ones were pretty lousy or stiff in their poses..

On pose depicted at the bottom -- the chakrasana variation -- it was surprise to me, really!! Heavens, it is so tough I got a crampy feeling on my inner thigh.. Hey, housework, here I come... Clear that for me too:)!!

And more on that pose soon:)