Tandava (Siva Nataraja)

About a week ago, maybe even a little earlier in the month, daylight savings time started feeling artificial.  My body started insisting on sleeping nearly an hour later, and I found that I wasn’t really using the hour of light at the end of the day.  It was time to go inside and cook or read or otherwise move inward.  When we change the clocks this weekend, I will already have shifted, and the clock will feel as natural as living by a clock can feel.  Part of the refinement of a deeper yoga practice is learning to pay attention to such subtleties, to learn what is most optimal and when, both time of day and time of year.  This applies to asana practice (i.e., when to emphasize forward bending v. backbending),what we eat and how much, and what kind of activities we choose.