I made a new AYP Practice Chart

13. Building a Daily Practice with Self-Pacing
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Hi Everyone,
I’ve been practicing AYP for two years now, and I thought it was time to share a post of my own - one can only lurk for so long. First and foremost, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Yogani, Christi, and all the other wise souls on this forum who have been dishing out golden nuggets of wisdom and providing endless guidance. Because of you, I’ve almost always found the answers to my questions without even having to ask. This is truly an amazing community.
When I first began, it took me some time to sift through all the information to figure out what was going on and what a complete practice and progression would look like. One of the best tools I found to shorten that learning curve was the practice chart originally covered in the Eight Limbs book and Lesson 385.1. However, when I first encountered the chart, I found it a bit confusing. It wasn’t until I had read more lessons and posts that I began to understand it better. Maybe that was intentional, and I certainly benefited from reading more, but I eventually created my own practice chart to help me stay organized.
I’d like to share this chart with you all for feedback, improvement suggestions, and to identify any potential inaccuracies. If it passes the scrutiny of some of the more experienced AYPers, maybe it could become a helpful resource for others someday. One can only dream :slight_smile:
Here’s the link to my PDF version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfN27Ql0jPmuLPTGzgX6P9qCWdHhID-v/view?usp=sharing
Here is the list of changes I made:

  1. I found the overall setup of the chart to be confusing. The way I think about it, the practices themselves (meditation, spinal breathing pranayama, samyama, etc) should all be on one axis. The mudras and bandhas should be on another axis. It seems to be, the main purpose of the chart should be to communicate “which mudra/bandha should be done during which practice”. Putting yoni mudra and chin pump (practices) on the y-axis of the original chart (which was otherwise entirely mudras and bandhas), really threw me off. So I moved yoni mudra and chin pump to the x-axis.
  2. The practitioner levels from the original chart (basic, intermediate, advanced) always confused me because they weren’t clearly defined by time or stage. Additionally, it makes the chart a fair bit more cumbersome to read and understand. I think its more approachable to make a chart which is intended to say “here is what you could potentially work up to, over the course of many years”, and then let the practitioner guide themselves towards this rough end goal. If the guru within me is guiding me towards certain practices fueled by bhakti, then as long as I’m self-pacing properly, shouldn’t that determine what practices I should be doing, rather than relying on an arbitrary and undefined label like “intermediate”? As a result, I decided to omit those labels and instead included a note about self-pacing.
  3. The distinction between intentional and automatic practices seemed a bit convoluted to me. Instead, I just listed the intentional practices and made a note about allowing any unintentional practices to happen naturally, which I felt covered the concept.
  4. I found the numbering of the learning sequence in the original chart somewhat difficult to follow in relation to the lessons I had read. I did my best to simplify this, but please let me know if there are any issues with my approach.
  5. Given that whole body mudra is a purely automatic practice, and given that it simply encompasses all that is already featured in the chart, I find its inclusion to be rather confusing. I feel it would be more straightforward to learn about whole body mudra as more of a “high level concept” to be aware of, rather than including it in the chart.
  6. I added hyperlinks wherever possible to make navigation easier and to push to further reading.
    I am very open to feedback from the community on any changes they feel should be implemented, or reverted from my change list. I hope this chart is helpful to others, but in any case, I really just wanted to thank all of you for the years of lessons and wisdom.
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Just one data point here.
I actually find this new version of the chart to be extremely helpful.
Initially when I found the chart in 385.1 I was super excited because it really lays out all the mudra and bandha interactions under one roof.
But I was always super confused by the fact that practices were mixed in under the same column as the mudras. I found myself wondering “okay” but which madras and bandhas should I do during YMK and chin pump??
Your addition of the practice specific enhancements such as ujjayi, mantra enhancements, etc all in the same chart is also a really nice touch.
Great work!

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I too think the chart is visually comfortable, and outlines what I consider the apex of practices. This is the path of conductivity, and for some sensitive yogis, myself included, this would be too much; conductivity by definition makes you sensitive (less is more). One chart cannot speak for everyone’s individual experience. I would call attention to that.
Once conductivity commences, this yogi’s practice is extremely simple: a few minutes of spinal breathing and upper body movements, to become snake-like and limber, to dissolve thinking, to be in the solar center and the white noise. I’ve pared all enhancements and have been back to (Wilder’s) AYAM for years. From the center ayam seeps forth, as does ketchari 2+ and off I go into DM, which most times goes ten minutes before I must open my eyes to calm things down, offering all to ishta then close eyelids again picking up the AYAM thread and ending when it should.
Sometimes samyama sometimes immediate rest. Perhaps less is more in seated practice is because a conductive body brings yoga into your everyday movement, at least in this yogi. Once you are conductive, you will no longer need a chart.

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Hi Driftwood,
Nice chart! :slight_smile:
I like the improvements you have made. Putting additions down the side and practices across the top does make things clearer. And only marking things that can be deliberately added also improves clarity.
A couple of suggestions:

  1. Maybe add a note that YMK is usually practiced before DM and only moved to being after DM if a second advanced pranayama is added to the routine.
  2. The line: “Practice durations may vary by +/-50%” is perhaps too limited? Samyama is usually 10 minutes, but can be extended to 20 minutes by doubling-up on the sutras and extending the time for the last sutra to 10 mins. People can also add additional sutras such as the Self-Inquiry sutra, or some of the sutras from the appendix of the Samyama book. That could take practice time over 20 mins. And if someone gets lost during practice, and then realises they are lost, they can simply pick up the next sutra and continue, so the practice could be half-an-hour or more. And as Dogboy mentioned above, someone who is self-pacing could have a Spinal Breathing practice of just two minutes, or even just two breaths. You could change it to:“Practice durations may vary by +/-50%, or more in some cases.”, which would cover all situations.
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I’m glad you found it helpful, Elderberry.
Christi, thank you so much for the feedback! It was incredibly useful, and I’ve updated the chart accordingly.
Dogboy, I have to say, every time I read your posts, my excitement for what’s ahead only grows. It’s always inspiring to hear about the practices and daily life of those who have been doing this for a while. I believe Christi’s suggestions have further refined the chart, making it more representative of your practice and even more universally applicable. Thank you for consistently showing us what this journey can look like down the road.
Here is a link to the updated chart: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfN27Ql0jPmuLPTGzgX6P9qCWdHhID-v/view?usp=sharing

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:pray:

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Hi all,
This chart can now be downloaded form the AYP Academy website here.
Thank you Driftwood for taking the time to create it!