Taking my sweet time....

Fixed my technorati issue - don't know how that happened, not gonna worry about it, other than i am pretty sure that at some point, i was asked by technorati to give them my blogger password, which seems weird, but whatever, in any event, i just changed my password - and now I can focus on the nice morning that I had today.

I am enjoying my new routine, getting up in the wee hours, walking Lou the Beagle, making a nice, hot breakfast for the kids (scramled eggs, toast and strawberries today), getting them to school by 8:30, heading up to the East 84th Street Deli for a large black Hawaiian Hazelnut cuppa (it is such incredibly awesome coffee that I go five blocks out of my way to this random corner deli in order to indulge) and then heading to Shala X. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, I have the luxury of taking the bus because there is a late Mysore class, in case I miss an earlier one. So, I get to read the paper, look at my calendar, make a phone call or two. On Mondays and Fridays, it will have to be me and my gas-swilling (15 mpg!!!! oy!!) SUV.

Ran into a friend and fellow yoga teacher, who I used to see all the time whenever I was at Shala X. I'll refer to her as the Student, as she is currently working on her doctoral degree. She and I chatted for a few enjoyable minutes, and then Teacher asked us to come inside. I was embarassed because I didn't realize that Shala X was following an hourly class-time format now. So, the Student and I got started 10 minutes into the session, and it was kind of cool, because we were both started at almost exactly the same time. She actually started about one Surya A ahead of me, but she must take longer breaths because I soon found that we were in the same poses at the same times.

That is, until we got to Janu Sirsasana. Without even knowing it, I was starting to slow down. I thought that my days of dawdling my way through the poses leading up to the Mari's were over. But apparently, there is still some proscrastination going on, purely by reflex. It is completely unintentional. You see, I really ENJOY Mari A and B now. And I am excited about C because it truly is HAPPENING.

Teacher gave me a wonderful assist in Mari A - bringing my elbows in close, making sure that my wrapping hand was gripping my (incredibly sweaty) wrist. I did B on my own. I feel a bit off balance in B - I want to get my forehead to the floor right at the midline, but I feel myself leaning over to my lotus side. But it still is a good pose for me now. Teacher let me take on C by myself for a bit, and I guess he saw that my fingers were touching behind my back, so for the first time EVER, I got a very simple assist to bring my hands to touch, and the rest of the adjustment was about twisting my torso deeper. And deeper. And deeper. I felt like I was going to spin all the way around, a la Linda Blair in the Exorcist. When he let go, I held it for another five breaths.

And then I wasn't sure what to do. Was I supposed to go on to where I used to practice to? Or was I supposed to consider this to be my stopping point. Yep. The latter. And that is SOOOOOOO SOOOOOO good for me because this way, I am going to really learn Mari C, without getting distracted by all of the poses that come after. I am going to learn Mari C once and for all!!!

Hence, I am enjoying taking my sweet time.....

Another benefit - I have more time in which to savor the finishing poses. No more rushing through. I am LOVING sitting in padmasana (lotus), so the more time I have for that, the happier I am right now.

After class, I helped cut some fresh flowers for a mala that Late Session Teacher was planning on making and presenting to Ganesh. That was kind of nice. It did turn out that the flowers were kind of half dead from the inside out, so it didn't seem like such a great offering to Ganesh afterall.

Since I feel good physically and I am loving, loving, loving my practice, I upped my "class card" to the full monty: 6 days a week.

Yoga Chick-itsa!