Astanga

I’m accustomed to yoga studio visits being a once-in-a-while treat. Last night, as I prepared my things for the shala, my brain asked “Already?” and even now, I’m thinking about tomorrow: “Again?” Yes, again! (and the next day too!)

I’m VERY tired. Getting up in the early hours is becoming easier, but I need to find a way to go to bed earlier because it’s not happening. Thus: sleep deprivation. I *look* like I’ve been getting up at 5 a.m. to go to a yoga class and it’s not the bright eyes or bounce-in-my-step that gives it away. I just look haggard.

Tonight will be early to bed and tomorrow I only teach one class which will give me a break in the afternoon (read: nap). I’m glad I’m starting this Mysore thing now, when my teaching schedule is light.

Today’s forgotten pose was *drumroll*...Navasana! Ah, it was bound to happen eventually. I’m beginning to figure myself out: I don’t like being watched. I get performance anxiety. Teacher P scrutinzes my transitions because so many of them are sloppy. It’s important that my Ujjayi breath be audible because that’s how he knows that *I* know the breath counts.

The Chakrasana project is going well. Yesterday afternoon, I unrolled my mat, did a few Surya Namaskara A’s and then practised Chakrasana over and over again. I managed to figure out how to lift my hips so I could roll. Afterward, my neck and upper back were sore, but not in an injured kind of way, more like a ‘breaking-new-ground’ sort of way.

This morning at the Shala, I managed to get one Chakrasana on my own. It wasn’t pretty, but it was mine! Teacher P helped me with the others.

And aside from that, nothing new to report. I’m doing my practice and trying to break a million small habits that I’ve picked up that are apparently not kosher. I’m taking careful notes. If my yoga practice wasn’t a mindfulness exercise before, it certainly is now!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A side note about the Shala and this blog (in the event that anyone from Shala Central is a reader here and is wondering). I have a firm policy regarding blogging and the yoga classes I attend and it’s this:

This blog is about MY experience of yoga. This means that I blog about my own practice and no one else’s. I may share insights and describe the help and advice I receive from my teachers (in hopes that this is useful to others in the ‘CyberShala’). Basically, anything that happens on my Manduka mat is fair game for the blog. Outside of that boundary, I won’t write about it.