Astanga

I appear to have reached out and grabbed that New Moon and now I’m swinging along, riding its energy. I feel bouncy!

I woke up before the alarm this morning and wanted to practice, so I did. It was an interesting experiment because this is the first time I’ve practised the full Primary Series on my own at home, since I started going to the Shala. It was good! No music, no recording to lead me, just my breath and the city skyline out my picture window, sunshine streaming in and Princess Fur snoozing contentedly in her basket.

My practice has changed in the past month. Everything is a little bit deeper. My hips are more open, the hamstrings have opened up a LOT. But the biggest change I noticed: Ujjayi. I breath LOUDLY. Holy! Just one month of Teacher R’s good-natured nagging (“Big Sound! Big Sound!”) has turned me into one of those loud breathers. Don’t get me wrong, there are many at the Shala who can drown me out easily, but in my tiny apartment, I could HEAR my breath.

And there were the distractions! With no teacher watching, I was much more prone to fussing and fidgeting. I managed to stay very focused right up until Supta Kurmasana. Then I was messing around with trying to get that left leg behind my back. I sort of lost momentum there. I could do it, but getting my right leg behind my back was too challenging. I ended up placing the left leg, lowering down, crossing the right ankle over left. I still managed the bind though. I’m looking forward to getting some help with this at the Shala. I think the teachers will be game for it - Teacher P was encouraging me to cross my ankles before binding the other day.

My two big breakthroughs - the wrist bind in Marichyasana D and the heel lift in Kurmasana (I almost typed ‘hell lift’ there; that’s what it feels like!) were repeatable today. I was watching Kino’s Primary DVD last night (yeah, that was my Big Excitement for Moon Day Eve - that and a hot bath). I noticed that when binding in the Marichyasanas, she tried to straighten the non-binding arm and, if possible, tuck that hand around the leg to get some leverage. I tried that today and it really made a difference in both Marichyasana C and D (C was just easier and in D, The lotus knee sank closer to the floor).

I did three backbends, which I filmed for posterity (but not public scrutiny). I also did a film of my jumpbacks/throughs and surprised myself with a jumpthrough that didn’t touch down - I straightened my legs and lowered! Kind of funny that I’m all obsessed with my jumpbacks, but it’s the jumpthroughs that are improving!