Ahhhhh! I *heart* Sundays.
I had every intention of waking up early this morning, but when my alarm when off I was very busy with a dream. I was on some sort of campus with lots of buildings identified by number. I had left my yoga mat in a room, in building 108 (I'm totally not making this up and I didn't even really comprehend the significance of the number until I typed it out just now). So I was searching for it. I kept running across memories of people from my childhood (I grew up on a sailboat, lived in marinas): Captain Al and his family who where my parents' dearest friends; George and June who used to give me big, fresh oranges to eat and they had a cat named Tom; the people who lived aboard the 'Faith' , and kept finches.
I always find myself growing bored as I read about other people's dreams, so I won't go on...suffice to say, it was deeply significant to me and I wasn't upset that I had 'overslept', especially since I woke up with plenty of time for yoga and a quick shower before heading to the soup kitchen.
Getting up to practice early on a Sunday is sometimes hard, but there's something deeply satisfying about heading to the soup kitchen to do my Karma Yoga with the knowledge that my Asana Yoga is already taken care of. It's also lovely to know that I can come home and listen to my favourite radio show and be lazy for the rest of the day! :-)
I had a good practice this morning - full primary, very focused, feeling strong. Interestingly, since starting WoYoPracMo, all of my practices have been very focused. A consequence of consistency, perhaps? I truly believe that when skipping my practice is absolutely not an option, I just jump on the mat and get on with it without fuss.
My back was full of morning crankiness but the backbends were happening for me nonetheless. These days, when I press up into Urdhva Dhanurasana, I brace myself for the full awfulness of it, only to be surprised by how relatively easy it is. It's almost anti-climatic. I read some great advice on Vanessa's blog today and may take that up, perhaps do a bit of backbending work in the evening, when my back is more open. I just watched another one of those Ana Forrest YouTube clips and I'm all “Oh! I want to do THAT!”
I'm still faithfully meditating each night before I go to bed. This week, I transitioned from 5-minute sessions to 10-minute sessions. It hasn't been all that different, though my mind protests a bit at the beginning.
On my very busy days (teaching 4 or more yoga classes), I bring my meditation timer with me on the subway. The subway ride home always feels like it lasts forever, but apparently it's only a little over 10 minutes, just enough time for me to meditate. When I move to 15 minute sessions next week, I'll have to brainstorm another way to fit meditation into those days!
3 comments:
It seems to me that you have the busiest life ever!! Yet, you still make time to meditate and practice an hour and a half a day. Wow. When you teach classes do you actually do asana or do you verbally instruct?
When I have a full teaching schedule, like I do right now, I keep quite busy! But I actually prefer it - I get so much more done when I know my free time is limited.
My teaching method depends on the class. I demo more when I have newbies in the room. For students who are already familiar with the practice, I sometimes 'launch' them into a pose on the first side, standing in front of the class,'mirroring' what I would like them to do, setting the foundation and bringing them into the pose.
Then I instruct them to breath and walk around the room making adjustments (mostly verbal, sometimes hands-on). I bring them out of the the pose verbally and then verbally bring them into the pose on the other side.
As a rule, I only demo when it's clear that words are not doing the trick. I never hold poses with my students and I usually only do the first sun salutation with them (after that, I walk around and observe as I lead them verbally).
One of my goals as a teacher is to 'do' less in my classes and 'teach' more. I often teach 14+ classes a week and if I was doing everything I taught, I would just exhaust myself (and not have the energy for my home practice).
Glad to hear my ideas helped! I love backbending.
Post a Comment