1. I do the practice when I feel good, when I feel meh and also when I feel down. When I step onto my mat with thoughts like: I’m tired! Or, I’m sore! Or, I feel lazy! I think about this nugget from Kino MacGregor. It’s about third series, but I think it applies no matter where you are:

“The key with Third Series is to do the practice when you feel good, when you feel just ok and also when you feel bad.

This Advanced practice is a daily practice and you take whatever body you have, whether it is sore, tired, tight, open or strong, into the practice and just do it without adding anything special. “

I can’t tell you how many times I have stepped on my mat thinking I’ll never make it to my final posture…. and then this quote pops into my head. Mind you, this isn’t about pushing — it’s about not letting your mind decide what you do, but instead letting your breath guide you. (I’m assuming that when Kino refers to feeling “bad” she doesn’t mean the day after surgery or during the flu or anything like that):

“It is a lesson gained not in the first years of sustaining this practice, but after five or ten years of consistent Third Series practice. Only then can the ego be burned through enough to realize that it is just your practice.“

2. If I make it halfway though, I can finish the series. An insta friend turned me on to the fact that yogi nidrasana pose is roughly the halfway mark of second series. Now when I land there I always have this feeling of…. Halfway! Then, even if I think I can only manage second series, by the time I reach it’s end, often third series seems possible again.

3. I Plan to do my practice for that day. Period. If it’s primary day, I plan on primary; if it’s second series day, I plan on second. If it’s fifteen back flips and a cha cha day, I plan on that. O.k., maybe not that.

This tip comes from noticing that sometimes I’ll wake up sore or tired and immediately think: maybe I’ll just do sun salutations today, or maybe I’ll just do half primary today, or maybe I’ll just not do anything today. The minute my mind goes there, sometimes within the first five minutes of waking up–I stop it. The plan for the day is all my postures? Then that is the plan.

Does it mean that it will happen? Not necessarily. I have days of just Sun A’s, days of primary only and days of one breath and running out the door for a vinyasa class because I need people. I’m human. I am not perfect and this practice allows all of me, not just the best of me. But most days I practice as prescribed.

There is a difference between intending to do your practice for that day, versus intending to drop it from the get go. Drop the mental maneuvering agenda; start with the assumption of doing what’s prescribed (for lack of a better word). Change it if your body and breath make it clear you must. But don’t set out before your first sun salutation to close the door on anything –before you have even taken a breath. Plan to start the practice for that day. Then let it happen however your body unfolds it, not as your mind plans to fold it in early.

So many days I think I will only make it through sun salutations and then I find myself dripping in sweat attempting a final third series arm balance.

I hope this helps, and if you are in primary or standing postures only or second, I think you can replace any mention of third series here with your own practice, and it still applies. We are all in the same place, in that we are all working on something.

Let me know if this helps you.