Astanga

I had a nice practice today, did the ‘Primary Express’ in about 75 minutes. When I cut out all of my futzing around and just do it, I really MOVE!

Confession: I don’t tend to be terribly competitive about the poses themselves, but if I need to motivate myself to get through a practice, making it into a ‘race’ - against the clock or someone else in the room - is an excellent strategy!

Today, I started well after two other people in the room and I was finished with Primary before both of them. All of my years of competitive running have made me a sucker for any kind of time challenge. ;-)

And yes, I *know* it’s not a race. But sometimes, it’s whatever gets me through it.

My focus today was on the breath. I didn’t worry about binding deeply in poses are making any breakthroughs. I moved through Primary in a measured, careful way, noting the places where the breath counts are still unclear to me (and I’ll study them this weekend). This is the first time I’ve ever done this with Chakrasana in all the correct places. I was amazed by how Chakrasana keeps the flow going in the series. Now I understand why the transition is there! No neck pain at all, by the way. I love my Chakrasanas!

I received five adjustments today, the usual suspects: Padangustasana, Prasarita C (very gentle today and it felt good), Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana, Kurmasana, and Supta Kurmasana. Most ot the time, Teacher P tends to just leave me to it, no comments, no chatter. I get into a genuine flow, very inward directed.

Afterward, I stopped at Tim’s for my ritual end-of-the-six-day-week treat and went home to walk the dog and do the cleaning. I taught one class and then...freedom! I crawled under the covers and took a nap. It’s a cool, rainy day here, perfect napping weather!

After my shift at the soup kitchen, I’m staying in. In theory, I’ll watch a movie, but it’s very likely I’ll just fall asleep. I’m WIPED!

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A few days ago, I came home from class after a string of thunderstorms moved through the area, our first this season. The Princess *loathes* thunderstorms. She’s very afraid of them. It made me sad (and somewhat guilty) that she was alone during the storm. In her panic, she hid underneath her dog bed in the crate.

This isn’t a great photo, but you can see that she’s half-emerged from her sanctuary and is giving me a pointedly accusatory stare.