Saturday, September 11, 2010

Astanga

I practised today. With the Moon Day and my Lady’s, I had enjoyed quite enough time off, thankyouverymuch. I really missed doing a led Primary yesterday so I did it today instead, with Sharath’s CD.

It was great! Fun and fast and easy-peasy. I love how ‘just the Primary Series’ has suddenly become comfortable and simple (in contrast to ‘the Primary Series and all those backbends, and some more backbends and dropping back and trying to stand up from those backbends’. By the time I get through it all, I’m usually too tired to properly enjoy the finishing poses.

Doing a led Primary after a week of long practices is sort of like running a 5K after you’ve been training for a Marathon.

But I can still remember (clearly!) when the Primary Series seemed very long, tedious and difficult. Now it’s just fun! It gives me hope...

I’m looking forward to a time when I can feel that way about *backbending*.

It’s been four days since I’ve done any serious work on my backbends. That’s quite the vacation! Tomorrow will be interesting. Back to my Marathon practice and trying, trying, trying to stand up. I’m glad it’s on a Sunday so I have lots of time to work. And maybe take a nap afterward!

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I shot the State-of-the-Backbend photo on Tuesday. I think this was the fourth take. It took me that long to figure out that I could walk my hands in a wee bit further and still straighten my legs a bit more and still press down through my heels to bring the weight into my feet.

I got a bit carried away, in other words.

Didn’t make a lick of difference though.

This is the *exact* same backbend as last week (I did a side by side comparison).

Drat. Looks like I’m stuck in a holding pattern. *boredomwhistle*

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope I will be repeating some of those comments about primary someday in the future. You give me hope. Let me say that your head is way more in there and there is a definite pointy pyramid shape where your waist meets your hips (is that a good thing??). I don't have a side by side comparison but that's how I see it.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kai, long time reader here de-lurking to say:
you are such an inspiration!
For someone who has been struggling to get a daily practice started, and who is still working on the standing and seated asanas in the primary series, your blog and your story as a whole helps me a lot. Not only does it help me remember that I am not alone in this, but it also helps me re-focus, and to keep seeing that a lot of the work of this practice is inwardly directed.
Thank you for sharing yourself and your practice. :)
PS. Re state of the backbend, it seems to me that your shoulders are so much more open here than they were a mere month ago.

Kaivalya said...

@fivefootwo
The backbend has definitely improved from a few months ago, that's for sure. To be honest, until grabbing my ankles, this is probably 'as good as it gets'. I'm posting photos to keep myself honest more than anything else.

Kaivalya said...

@bloodsugarpractices
Thanks for commenting! The more I do this practice, the more I realize we're all really in the same boat, just doing different things. A difficult pose is a difficult pose whether it's Trikonasana, Garba Pindasana or Dwi Pada.

I think the most heroic thing for all of us is just getting on the mat every day!! I'm looking forward to looking at your blog :-)