Astanga

Feeling tired and stiff

But I practised anyway

I did not want to

I wasn’t joking about the Haiku! I’m in the throes of major ‘writers block’ at the moment. I think my brain is tired of being clever with words.

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Practice report:

I had one of those practices where I couldn’t seem to connect fully with my body. I recall R once telling me that when you’re in that kind of headspace, the best thing to do is just focus on your breath and it will carry your through, give you energy. So that’s what I did. Each time I felt my attention slipping, I brought it back to my breath. In the end, it wasn’t a bad practice. If I did only one thing right, I had a strong, steady Ujjayi throughout.

So as I was preparing for backbending, I was astonished when R walked over and announced that I was ‘breathing too shallowly.’ Seriously? There must have been a huge question mark dangling above my head given that I had just finished what I thought was a very breath-aware practice.

But she was talking about my backbending and, of course, she’s right. I *do* breathe too shallowly in Urdhva Dhanurasana. So that’s what we worked on today. No heroics, just the basics: inhaling up into the backbend, exhaling down, deep breathing throughout and a gaze to the tip of the nose (the bar is being set lower and lower, but I’m okay with that).

She did ask me to walk my hands in a few times, just to fulfill the bare minimum ‘suffering quota.’ Now I feel like I’m truly back at my home shala! :-D

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Audrey Hepburn lost her contact lens. Can someone help her out?

‘The Panther’?! I really don’t think this pose is part of the Primary Series (or any series)!