Astanga

It’s a holiday here, which means that the Shala was running on later hours. But since I was teaching a full schedule and then some, it completely threw me off! The morning was sheer chaos. I slept in a bit too much, walked the dog a bit too long and then frantically tried to get organised for the day ahead. I was hungry, but I couldn’t eat because I hadn’t practised yet (but I was starving because I hadn’t eaten a meal in 15 hours).

I arrived at the Shala just before 9 and launched right into my practice knowing I had exactly 90 minutes to move through it. I had to be efficient, but this is do-able.

I was a tiny bit distracted by my grumbly stomach, though. By the time I got to the Marichyasanas, I was so hungry I think I would have eaten my own yoga rug if teachers were not there watching! I zipped through the remaining poses and went right into backbends.

I did my three warmup backbends and R verbally corrected the alignment of my arms: fingers need to point forward and my arms need to be straighter. Then on to ‘rocking’, which is going pretty well, actually. I’m lengthening my inhalation, coming right up on my fingertips and trying to hold there for the duration of the inbreath.

During the third go, I actually rocked forward until my hands lifted! It was awesome! I was so proud of myself and I snuck a sideways glance to see if R was even watching.

She was - she saw it from across the room and said: “That’s a valiant effort, but it’s not going to get you where you want to go.”

BUZZ! No dice. Thanks for playing.

I’m not sure why, but I found this VERY funny and I started laughing. I managed to get a hold of myself long enough to listen to the reasons that my ‘valiant effort’ wasn’t cutting it. Wait for it...my hands are not close enough to my feet. But I thought THAT was funny too so once again, I dissolved into giggles.

Backbending used to make me cry. Now it makes me laugh! I think I might be going a little bit crazy. Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone!

Also: The more I thought about my ‘valiant effort’ the more I thought about Prince Valiant! This was NOT helping me take backbending seriously. :-D

Nice horse! If I had an awesome red cape like that, I’ll bet I could stand up from a backbend!

The clock was ticking and I had to get to finishing, so I did chakrasana and unrolled my rug. R chose this specific moment to come over, shake her head and say: “More.”

Usually, I wouldn’t mind backtracking, but I was in a time crunch. I replied: “Not today. I have to finish now. I have classes to teach.” Since I’m blind as a bat without my glasses, I have no idea how this went over, but I suspect I may be ‘in the doghouse’ now because my ‘good-bye’ was ignored as I left the room.

Oh well. Prince Valiant and I, we'll keep doing our practice! ;-)

I raced home and in my spare ten minutes, I managed to bath, feed the dog and eat. I didn’t have time to prepare anything, so I stood in the middle of the kitchen inhaling the horrible blueberry crumble squares that I had decreed were ‘not good enough’ for the Shala. Apparently, when I’m hungry enough, anything goes, even if it’s heavy on the nutmeg!

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Second Practice:

30 minutes, after lunch (as it was the only spare time available to me).

I wondered how that would go: dropbacks on a full stomach! *burp* But it was fine. Dropping back is no longer a Big Drama, so I just moved through them.

Rocking was interesting! I rocked after pushing up into Urdhva Dhanurasana and then I rocked after each dropback.

I really *was* paying attention to R’s feedback earlier today (despite my giggles and Prince Valiant obsession). I know I need to walk my hands in more, so I was trying to do this.

One of my shalamates is trapped in this 10th Ring of Hell along with me (she has a terrific Primary, but can’t move on since she can’t stand up). She’s mastered rocking to her knees. I noticed that when she’s rocking, she walks her hands in on each rock.

So I tried this and it actually felt like I was coming ‘up’ more by the third rock but then I balked because I was afraid of the ‘knee landing’. I just need to get over that! A few bruises are not going to kill me (and it wouldn’t be the first time I’m black and blue from Astanga).