Astanga

I was out late partying last night. Like a true party animal, I filled my glass as soon as I got there - with water. And then I hit the veggie tray.

Everyone stood around and 'oooed' and 'ahhhed' over the healthy yoga teacher. But the truth? I can nosh truffles with the best of them. But I spent the afternoon baking cookies and I was all sugared out. Also, crowds of people in formal clothing exhaust me (and wearing formal clothing *really* exhausts me). I was thoroughly tuckered by midnight so I set off for the subway before I turned into a pumpkin.

Then I slept in this morning. I was so looking forward to an entire, glorious day of me, me, and more me. But unfortunately, I slept through half of it. But I did do the full Primary Series today.

With a few geek-related interruptions. :-D

As I've mentioned before, I often practice with DVDs, but after the first run-through I don't actually watch them. This is one reason I enjoy those 'audio' classes so much. I've been trying to figure out a way to 'MP3' my favourite DVDs.

I wrote to Karen a while ago to get some tips and she nudged me in the right direction, but I didn't have time to follow up. I was most of the way through my sun salutations when I decided that now was the perfect time to get started with a new project: turning Beryl's Power Yoga DVD into something I could carry around on my iPod Shuffle.

During the first part of my practice today, I alternated between computer and mat, downloading, installing, converting and exporting. By the time I was ready for Marichyasana A, I rejoined Beryl, via MP3. Success! And who says that geekdom and yoga greatness are mutally exclusive things?

Props to Karen for the assistance (Once again, the CyberShala has come through). I'm now getting all geeky and excited about converting several of my favourite DVDs onto MP3. This is fun!

Oh yes, and I had a good yoga practice. My hip is still crampy but maybe a *tiny* bit better. Interestingly, my flexibility hasn't been impacted at all by the crampiness. If anything, I'm *more* flexible in the left hip. It's so werid!

Predicatably, my quads and shins are sore from my heroic run to class yesterday. In a good way. This makes me miss running (which I can no longer do because of my crunchy knees).

I skipped Janu Sirsasana C and Setu Bandhasanad. Sirsasana is back to being strong and stable again after a period of flakiness.

Now, on to my regular Sunday feature, The Internet Asks...

These are actual Internet search terms that brought people to this site over the past week. I pick three of the most interesting ones to share, in hopes of being helpful or, failing that, entertaining.

reluctance to practice yoga
Raise your hand if this has happened to you! *entire CyberShala raises hands*

Okay, here's the thing: After that first flush of OMG-this-is-awesome fades away, Yoga is hard. Reluctance is bound to come up as you face your daily practice, particularly a home practice. Here's my advice: commit to five minutes on the mat. That's a few sun salutations, no big deal. At that point, if you're *still* reluctant, you can bail, but I'm betting you won't.

yoga chickie ashtanga DVD
She doesn't have one, as far as a I know. And (I know I'm really going out on a limb here)I don't think one is in the works. ;-)

tightness diaphragm supta kurmasana
Wow! You're very attentive to that pose! To be completely honest, I'm so busy trying to bind my fingers together and get my legs crossed behind my head in Supta K, it's never occurrs to me to think about what my diaphragm is doing. And yes, I *am* breathing as I'm doing all of that.

Incredibly, I'm the very first site that pops up for that last search string. Emboldened by this success, I was hopeful that I would come in first place for i can't bind in supta kurmasana, but I don't even rate. Yoga Chickie has that one in the bag!

Maybe next time...