Astanga

I've been sitting at my window seat, reading RSS feeds and eating lunch for the past hour. In that time, the weather has created a constantly shifting panorama outside my window. It has been very sunny and clear, overcast, darkly stormy, windy with torrential rains and then brightly sunny again. Right now, it's gorgeous - bright blue sky, brilliant sunshine and thank goodness, since I walk to my class in about an hour.

I'm having a great day. Since my noon class cancelled, it felt like a holiday. I didn't sleep in, though. In fact, I woke before the alarm clock, which is a kind of victory for me. I was trying to get to that point before the time change hit. On Sunday morning, I found myself waking up an hour *before* the alarm. Argh!

My internal clock seems to have finally received the memo about the end of Daylight Savings Time. The waking-early-without-the-alarm thing was one of my goals when I set out to regularize my sleeping schedule. I'm glad that it's finally bearing fruit. I'm also no longer feeling drowsy in meditation and I'm feeling more wakeful and energetic in my day-to-day life. These are all good things!

One thing I'm learning is that I seem to need more than 8 hours of sleep. I think 8.5 may be the magic number, with an occasional 9 hour night.

After breakfast and a walk, I meditated, then popped Beryl into the DVD player for a fun half Primary. My asana practice took a bit more than an hour. I had a great practice, nothing special but it was nice to do some Astanga mid-week. My hips are really feeling it after the fact, but in a good way.

Recently, it occurred to me that I'm now spending as much, or more time meditating than I am doing asana practice. I never imagined that I would enjoy meditation this much! It's surprising.

I'm absolutely *loving* my Mobile Meditator. Since I first inflated it last week, I haven't used my buckwheat hull zafu at all. Right now, I'm learning to fine-tune the amount of air in the three chambers to create the best alignment for sitting. So far, I'm finding that the best approach is to inflate the zafu with more air than needed, then let a little bit out while I'm sitting on it to adjust the height.

Now that I'm used to air, it feels very stable and solid to me. It creates a good foundation while still being soft enough that my bum doesn't get numb. I'm particularly delighted that I can adjust the height at will - my hips are not the same for day to day, and the MM is infinitely adjustable. A more comprehensive review is coming - I just wanted to offer an update.

The other 'portable' zafu recommended to me was the Prapatti. I contacted the Prapatti people and heard back a couple of weeks later. In order to receive a price quote, they needed very specific information about my measurements - the height of my knees relative to the floor in a seated meditation position. They requested photos which, of course, roused my inner-geek into a state of ecstasy.

I got out my digital camera and shot several photos, including this one:


That was fun! But I haven't heard back from them. I'll keep you all posted!