Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Astanga

I’m back on the Chakrasana train. Sort of.

This morning, Teacher P asked if I wanted to know how to roll Chakrasana without hurting my neck. Well...HELL YEAH!!! Bottom line seems to be that I need to stop worrying about landing in Chaturanga (any old landing is fine for now, including bent knees) and I need to PUSH with my arms. My arms need to push to straight as I roll. This will help to lift my head, so the neck remains neutral.

P helped me roll one and Teacher R helped me with another. I tried one on my own but I could feel the pain in my neck so I stopped, took regular vinyasa. Baby steps!

I had a pretty good practice today. I think the 7 a.m. start time may be the big winner. It’s early enough that the Shala is not *too* crowded, the temperature is perfect and it’s just busy enough to be interesting. Best of all, I didn’t feel like I’m getting up in the middle of the night to go. In fact, I woke before the alarm this morning, after going to bed at a reasonable hour last night.

My practice wasn’t flakey at all today. I remembered all the poses and didn’t get rattled when the teachers stopped by to make suggestions. It’s certainly been an adjustment for me, moving from a home practice to a Shala, but I’ve come to love the sound of a teacher’s voice floating across the room: “Kai, blah-blah-blah...driste....blah-blah...big breath!”

Given the sad, crazy couple of weeks I’ve had, it’s nice to know that someone cares, even if it’s only to tell me to look at my nose. Or to breath.


(Princess Fur likes to do this a LOT!)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Kai, nice to hear your settling into shala life. Re chakrasana make sure you are bringing your pelvis far enough over the head so there is more weight behind you. This should alleviate neck issue.

Boodiba said...

I always like to get into the studio 15m before the hour. It makes me feel like I have a head start somehow. But now that I'm going to Pluto it's 5m before the hour if I'm lucky. 7am is my start time too. Has been for years.

word veri: fucring

susananda said...

That poster is just bizarre!!

I'm really enjoying reading how you're settling into mysore. And Kino should be fun!