Astanga

I'm barrelling into the busy part of my week, but I still managed to squeeze in a full Primary practice this morning. Might try to do the same tomorrow, but Thursday will definitely be something lighter.

I had a good practice! I'm binding effortlessly in Supta Konasana these days. I'm certain this is due to the shoulder openers I've been working into my practice. In the comments, Michelle asked about these. I've been doing the sequence offered by Erich Schiffmann on his website. You can find it here.

I'm grateful to Erich for his generosity in offering access to his book, 'Moving Into Stillness' on his web site. The sequence on the site is exactly as it is presented in the book. He also offers this sequence with some additional material on this video (Props to Karen for finding this; it's on my 'wishlist', it would be wonderful if he had an audio-only version of it).

Two days ago, I stumbled across another great resource for Astanga yoga practitioners: this video series by Jackestonia on YouTube. In the video of the standing series, I was particularly attentive to Parivritta Parsvakonasana, because I'm struggling a bit with that pose. I always feel like my bottom arm is horribly hyperextended.

Then I had a bit of an epiphany (I've been having these epiphanies all over the place lately, in yoga, meditation and even in my guitar lessons). The current epiphany: I noticed in the video that his bent knee seemed like it was into his armpit.

I tried to apply this concept yesterday and I found a much deeper pose, with less hyperextension in the bottom arm. Not only that, but when I applied this same principle to Marichyasana C, I found that pose much deeper too. And today in Marichyasana D, I could bind while still bringing my half-lotus knee to the floor on both sides of the pose. I've never been able to do this before!

So, hooray for the Internet and oceans of gratitude to those who share their knowledge through this medium!