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I'm a beginner of yoga in a small Swedish town (less than 150,000 inhabitants) since two and a half years (Jan. 2007), on account of my sister luring me away to the newly opened shala nearby. The first year I went to class two times a week and occasionally practised at home (less than once a week). When I was younger I did all kinds of sports. I was raised to be a Christian, however as a grown-up it turned out that my religious inclination is rather towards agnosticism and atheism, and my limited studies in philosophy has both affirmed that and in a way replaced the religious world view of my youth.

For little more than a year ago I got a herniated disc from work, which pretty much weakened and immobilized parts of my left leg, and I could not in any way do Surya Namaskara or any forward bends at all (even sitting down in a normal fashion wasn't any good), until a few months later that is - meanwhile I did some easier yoga poses that were more beneficial to my back and mostly tried to do more of recreational sports instead; just walking with a cane and painkillers for starters.

Now, I'm almost back in the asana practise where I was before the intervertebral trauma, which is about half-way through Yoga Chikitsa (Primary). Because of the injury I discovered the therapeutic side of slowing down the pace of the vinyasa, breathing deeply and slowly, which in no way makes the asana practise any less exhausting for me, as I've always had a tendency to go as deeply into the asanas as I possibly can. During the last six months or so I've also tried to practise 3-4 times a week - and because of the addictive nature of the practise I'm currently upgrading it to 5-6 times a week.

On the laziness aspect - being one of the six major obstacles/poisons, according to tradition - I would say that even lazy people can practise Ashtanga Yoga, and thereby overcome their laziness - leastways I know I did, to some degree.

Recently I've also found that (in my book anyways) Yama and Niyama are indespensible limbs of any yoga practice, including the asana practise, as well as potentially having a very powerful effect on one's entire life and way of perceiving the world and all beings around us. In my own practise I struggle very much with not pushing myself too hard, as I've come to realize how detrimental/counterproductive this is - probably in life in general as well.

I just found this Ashtanga forum a few days ago, while doing one of many web searches on yoga, and I'm so very grateful that I did, even though I haven't read more than a fraction of the contributions. And when signing up on Yuku, I decided to attempt a translation of my name to Sanskrit - I'm sure it didn't turn out quite right as I am in no way a linguistic scholar, but "Panchama Viramitra Iraputra" was the result; Iraputra for short then. [Panchama - the fifth ; Vira - hero/warrior ; Mitra - friend ; Iraputra - born of the wind]

Starting out, I thought Ashtanga was a great physical exercise - and I've always appreciated stretching my muscles, so why not - I went with it. These days, besides the health benefits of yoga and the fact that yoga makes me feel great, the goal of my yoga practise, if there is one, is not at all to perfect my asana practice and whatnot - but rather peace, love and understanding.

Thank you all for being here!