Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Astanga

The 5:30 alarm was painful this morning. I guess I've adjusted to a later schedule.

To be honest, the lack of a steady routine is making me a little bit batty. It feels like life hasn't stopped churning unpredictably since I left the Shala.

One weekend was the yoga festival, the next I was travelling and this last was a holiday. Tomorrow is a Moon Day and my Lady's is imminent, so it may be Sunday before I'm back to my Astanga practice (I'm hoping I'll be able to squeeze Thursday in under the wire).

With this in mind, I was determined to have a solid, strong practice today and I did. I had one Space Cadet Moment when I skipped Baddha Konasana, but otherwise it was all good.

I'm back on track with my back bending. I did three really deep Urdhva Dhanurasana, walked my hands in far, lifting up through the hips. I'm not sure if the hip opening stuff I've been doing is having any effect at all (but it hasn't been a week yet, so I'll keep at it for now).

I'm still trying to keep my stance shorter for dropbacks (feet on the mat) even though it feels *impossible*. At one point, my brain was saying "You can't drop back like that! Your back isn't open enough today!" but I recalled my deep backbends from the floor moments before and pushed through.

And it was fine. 'The body is flexible, the mind is stiff'. These were not graceful, pretty dropbacks, but it's all a process, after all. I have the flexibility, I just need the muscle memory and the body mechanics. And I need my brain to shut up!

I also worked on rocking up to standing, but standing up feels as far away as ever.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

3 comments:

karen said...

The first time I ever stood up from a drop back was on a Friday, after just primary. If I'd thought about it, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to do it. Best not to think, in these cases. :)

Michelle said...

Hello there. How have you been? Just stopped by to say I am thinking of you. Hope all is well. M

Kaivalya said...

@Karen
Thanks, I'll try to do that. Still trying to find the 'off switch' in my brain though. :-D

@Michelle
Good to hear from you! I've been following along with your homeschooling adventures. Sounds like you're having fun and learning as much as A is! :-)