For me one of the fascinating aspects of yoga is that over the 15 years or so I have been practicing I have found that the more I study and practice the more I realise there is to learn. As you move down one path more paths open, as you discover more about yoga you start to discover more about yourself - it really is a journey of discovery & is up to you which way you want to go.
As a beginner I recall the first few lessons where I was keen to give it a go getting to what I saw was the 'final' pose. I got frustrated with my body trying to make it get into positions it was not used to, then at some point I thought I knew the basic poses and wanted to move on to more challenging poses. Oh how much I still had to learn!!! I was not 'wrong' to want to try knew things however at that stage I still had not learnt patience and the all important lesson that yoga is not just about getting into a pose and a key part is the quieting of the mind - allowing ourselves to just 'be' in the moment.
I began to realise how important those familiar core asana were - they provide a grounding, the foundation to build on and indeed in themselves provide us with a full balanced practice for body and mind. I come back to these core asana time and time again allowing myself time to get into the poses, bringing my focus to different aspects, and then allowing myself time to be in the pose, allowing my mind to quieten and then finding a most wonderful balance of effort I put into the pose is returned 100 fold by what my mind and body get out of the pose. The more I practice & am open to learning the more I see the benefits on the mat and more importantly off the mat in all aspects of my life.
Be open to learning and discovery but remember that often 'less is more' - come back to basics to ensure that your foundations are good and strong, listen to your body, as your body becomes quiet the mind will quieten also. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter 1 v2 gives us the ultimate goal of yoga 'Yogas citta vrtti nirodah' - yoga is the progressive quietening of the fluctuations of the mind.
Namaste
