Pranayama, Another Start

Even though I've been practicing yoga for almost 10 years, I still tackle dedicating myself to a consistent pranayama. Typically, a yogini should not begin practicing pranayama until, I believe, 2+ years of a asana practice has been regulated. So, what have I been doing for the past years, pranayama-wise? Why can't I be a regular "breather"? I decided to start reading a more basic, bare bones pranayama book, "The Yoga of Breath: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pranayama," by Richard Rosen since reading "Light on Pranayama" by: B.K.S. Iyengar was not enabling me to grasp the basic knowledge I needed to practice consistently. Don't get me wrong, Light on Pranayama is a definite must to any serious yoga practitioner, but I find the content to be very complex and detailed for a beginner like myself; I use it often mainly as a reference book. The Yoga of Breath seems like a good starting point for someone who is an absolute beginner and wants to start practicing. Richard Rosen definitely gets to the basics of pranayama and yoga, introducing you to what you need to know about yoga and how to start a practice. Unfortunately, you don't start practicing the actual pranayama breathing until later on in the book, but that's alright because I actually just started, last week, a regular practice, every morning at 6:30 AM. I decided to wake up 30 minutes before I normally do for getting ready for work to practice savasana and breathing deep smooth inhalation and exhalations (Ujayi) for 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I had to take the last few days off since I was rather ill. Richard Rosen strongly suggests writing in a journal for your pranayama practice. Of course, he meant physically writing in a journal, but I decided to blog about my experiences since I do have this yoga blog and have been abandoning it for weeks now. I did write an entry not too long about wanting to start meditating and since I find pranayama to be a great introduction to meditating, I haven't fall too astray from my pursuit! Actually, in the eight-limbed yoga system, you start with a regular asana practice and then pranayama practice followed by withdrawal of the senses, concentration, and meditation which leads to samadhi, enlightenment.

On the right track.