A wonderful practice, despite Marichi Dreadful
Now THAT is the mark of a great practice, in my mind. I had a HUGE struggle today with Mari D, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed my practice. I stayed focused. I remained calm. I just felt GOOD.
I really do need to work on my twisting outside of class though. I want to make a breakthrough eventually and just sail through the Marichi's the way I sale through the Janu Sirsasanas. After class, I was looking in the bookcase for Yoga Mala, but what I found was maybe even better for me at the moment: David Coulter's yoganatomy tome: Anatomy of Hatha Yoga. It really looks like a wonderful book - I like the shiny pages and the nice large print. I also like the way the book is divided into categories of types of poses; of course, in particular, the chapter on "twisting" interested me.
No drop-backs today as Gary was gone by the time I got to backbending. He did help me to lift my crossed ankles over my head in Supta Kurmasana, after noting that I had done a nice job getting myself into the pose by myself. Yay. Stuff like that always feels good. Who doesn't want to hear "nice job" sometimes?!
:)
YC
11 comments:
Hold on a sec - Guy gave you Kurmasana?
Mark Robberds gave me Kurmasana (as well as Navasana, Bhujapidasana and Supta Kurmasana), and when Guy came back from Crete, I asked him if he thought I should cut back some of the poses. He said that typically, a student would not be given these next poses until they could bind on their own in Mari D, but in my case, he thinks that Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana are important for the opening up of my chest and shoulders and therefore, he said I should keep the poses and carry on.
May I ask why you ask?
Lauren
Interesting - just curious.
I do find it interesting that teachers other than the main teacher at the shala give out poses. At Tim's only Tim gives out poses... if Tim is gone, no new poses.
Out of curiosity... when Guy gives you a new pose do you also do it at Eddie's? Do you tell Eddie that Guy gave you the pose or vice versa?
I practice only up to the point the particular teacher has taught me up to. So, at Eddie's, where my teacher has been Sarah, I am only up to Navasana. The first time I went there, she stopped me at Marichi C. Then the next time I went there, she gave me D. Then a few weeks later she gave me Navasana. I don't remember why or how she came to give me Navasana. But I am sure I didn't ask for it. She and I discussed the fact that I am able to do Bhujapidasana, Kurmasana, Supta Kurmasana and that the poses after Garba Pindasana are not challenging to me at all. She told me that in her experience, it is not unusual for a student to be "stuck" at a pose, even though he or she might really be able to do all the poses that follow. I trust her judgement and I do as she tells me. I should mention that I only am at Eddie's shala about once a week, twice at most. Before, my schedule was determined by my teaching schedule, but this month I have pared down my teaching schedule quite a bit in anticipation of recovering from surgery and then going away at the end of August on vacation. So with a lot more time on my hands, I figured I would "choose" one or the other shala...but here is where real life comes in: I still have two weeks left on the month I paid for at Guy's shala, and Eddie's place is closed until Sunday. So, even if I wanted to be spending all of my time with Sarah, I couldn't. I figure that after I recover from my surgery, and as my teaching schedule becomes set for the fall, I will hopefully be able to move toward one shala or the other. Whew...that was a lot more info than you asked for!
I'll only add that before I began practicing only with Tim I was going here and there... and then I said "Oh I'll just do Mysore once or twice a week" and then there were so many profound differences, not really physically per se, after starting my practice with Tim that I eventually started practicing 6 days a week with him. This took great effort on the part of scheduling and was not easy but I can tell you the difference is absolutely, remarkably profound.
I would have a terrible time remembering at which shala I did which poses too :) I often find that I get halfway through primary and think "how did I get here?"
I started out doing led classes twice a week, then three times a week, and then it wasn't enough for me, so that is how I tried Mysore style. And once I tried Mysore style, I never really felt like practicing led anymore. And that is when I started going six times a week (mostly at Guy's, and sometimes at Eddies, as I mentioned). It's been two months now, and I don't think I have missed a day yet! I love it. I am really worried about how my surgery recovery is going to impact my routine. How are you dealing?
dealing... I'm in denial. Essentially I have no routine. I get up, I go back to bed and I work. I'm not at a point yet where I can work a full day sitting upright in my office so I'm staying on the laptop in bed.... I imagine that when I have the green light to chatarunga again I will go back to a regular scheduled Mysore practice. Not my practice but regularly going and working towards it.
When did your doctor say you could chatturanga again? Is it possible to begin practicing at the shala without the vinyasas? And this is going to sound even more radical, but just to get your blood moving again and your muscles awake, could you possibly go to a bikram class before you are released to vinyasa again? That is what I did when I had my last surgery...
My doctor told me 8 weeks of no ashtanga. Frankly, no, I won't do Bikram. I think it is a dangerous practice and not something I'm at all interested in. My practice is ashtanga and it is where I will stay. Tim is fine with me coming back to the shala and doing my practice to the best of my ability before I'm able to do chatarungas again... I imagine that even after 8 weeks I will not have the strength mentally or physically for them... it will take time and I wouldn't want to pop the implant out of place.
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