Astanga

Glancing back at last week’s entry, I can hardly believe that 7 days ago we were buried in snow.

It’s all gone now, the sun is shining, the temperature is soaring above zero. While out walking, Princess Fur and I saw crocuses peeking through the soil of a south-facing garden. The coming week is forecast for sunshine and balmy (for us) temperatures.

And my yoga practice today sucked.

I knew that I would be a tad scattered when I hit the mat because my meditation was so icky. My mind was all over the place. Plus, I’m still struggling with a sore right hip flexor. I heavily modified my practice today in order to rest that area and, in really getting into the spirit of things, I was lazy. I didn’t work hard. I studied my fingernails. I skipped poses because I forgot they existed. I dawdled.

I skipped the lift-ups to rest my hip and instead focused on the alignment of my feet in vinyasas - particularly jumping back to Chaturanga and moving into Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Teacher IM pointed out that I bring my feet together when I jump back and leave them there in Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (they should be hip distance). Where did I pick up this quirk? I haven’t the faintest idea, but now it’s ingrained, part of my muscle memory. This will be hard habit to break (but I intend to break it by next Wednesday).

I was in a ‘mood’ for my entire practice. At the end, I decided that I wouldn’t bother doing my Intermediate poses - I would just skip them. But then I stood at the window, looking out on the city and feeling all glum because I was skipping my Intermediate poses. So I changed my mind and did them. I’m fickle, but they were fine, felt good actually.

And thus, with a ‘whimper’, concludes my yoga week. I’m SO ready for a day off!

While I was taking a photograph of Urdhva Dhanurasana today, Princess Fur decided to get in on the action. I’m allowing her to introduce the new futon cover. In this photo, she’s practising one of her favourite asanas, ‘Roll Over’. She loves my Manduka. She would totally sleep on it if I let her.


The cover is pretty, isn’t it? It’s fuzzy the same way a Manduka eQua towel is fuzzy. I like it! It really dresses up my shoebox of a city apartment and it sort of matches the bean bag chair too.