Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Astanga

I did another speedy Primary this morning. I finished in 80 minutes and I only skipped one pose - the last Paschimottasana. I did that on purpose, opting once again for a longer Tadaga Mudra before Sarvangasana.

Yesterday marked six weeks since my injury occurred. Six weeks is the *minimum* healing time for even a 'Grade 1' hamstring pull. It can take up to six months. Or a year.

I've come a long way, but I'm still far from 100% in my forward bends and Paschimottanasana is still touch-and-go. I miss easy, blissful forward bends! I miss getting a wide variety of adjustments in my postures. And I really, really miss squishes!

My summer practice has revolved around modifications with a heaping spoonful of surrender as this injury has healed. It has definitely been humbling but it has also given me the confidence that I *can* go on with my practice and find deep joy and inspiration from it, even if it's limited in some way.

I didn't do a Second Practice today. I planned it for the evening, but was teaching instead. And my Lady's Holiday is looming. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Friday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding your twitter comment about getting to shala north for led primary, you might not need to take the night bus. I can usually hop on one of the first subways heading north and make it with a couple of minutes to spare. One big part of going up there for practice for me is trying to figure out the transit route and optimizing connection times on the ttc website. I've been practicing at home for a few months but will be back in Sept and will keep an eye out for you to say hello. Cara

Ragdoll said...

Glad your healing is going well, despite it not being as 'all better' as you might have hoped. The way you write about it expresses exactly how I began to feel about my injured ribs. I'm clearly much newer to Ashtanga than you are (never mind all the other yoga you've done!) and it was a good silver lining to the injury that I discovered pretty early on in my Ashtanga career that I did return to the practice as soon as possible, I didn't lose momentum or my love of it. And the humbling is a good point, and the discovery that a heavily modified practice is still a very beneficial one.

Kaivalya said...

@Cara
I didn't end up going, but I might head up there the last week of August if DR is teaching the led. Thanks for the info! All of the Shala North peeps totally come out of hiding when I need directional assistance! I received two helpful emails in addition to your helpful comment. I'll need to bring muffins next time I visit :-)

@Ragdoll
Yes!!! In a way, I'm glad I got this injury because it answered the question "What would happen to my practice if I had an injury". The answer is: "Modify and keeping doing my practice."