Saturday, November 13, 2010

Hatha

I did a Hatha Yoga practice this morning for an hour. I followed the Gentle Hatha Yoga #3 sequence with Jackie, from YogaDownload.

I did not like this sequence at all. I'm not a fan of sequencing that focuses exclusively on one side for several postures, then switches to the other side. It leaves me feeling unbalanced. There was definitely not enough pose/counterpose in this class and more than once, I felt like I needed to add counterposes of my own, or just come into Downward Facing Dog for a spell.

Interestingly, I looked back on the 20 minute and 30 minute versions of this sequence, which I tried last year, and I didn't like those either. For the same reason!

The rest of the day was full of fun. A much beloved and excellent vegan restaurant is shutting its doors after this weekend. My vegan buddy G messaged me and we made last minute plans for a late lunch.

Nothing is funnier than two vegans despairing over a menu that has too many options. We're not used to options! I finally decided on a yam/eggplant sandwich with sage hummus. It was awesome. G got the scrambled Tempeh. We shared a pumpkin spice waffle with banana-coconut compote for dessert.

Then I headed off to a party for a friend visiting from Vancouver. It was the best possible Ashtangi social schedule: I was home by 7:30 at night. Ha, ha!

I took my weekly State-of-the-Backbend photo on Wednesday. My middle is pouffy from LH, but the backbend isn't bad. I'm still focusing on breathing. I walk my hands, but never past the 'edge' where I'm not able to breath deeply and freely.

One thing I struggle with in backbends is keeping my breath duration long. Once I get into a pattern of quick and shallow breathing, I'm almost never able to get back to a better quality breath. So I've been using a metronome to give myself a point of reference. 4 beats inhale, 4 beats exhale. I know right away if my in-breath become shallow and too fast. It's not a new idea, but it's been really valuable to me for keeping my breath even in Urdhva Dhanurasana.

I was looking at past backbend photos and, though the changes are subtle, it's coming along slowly and slowly is just fine with me.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

5 comments:

m said...

OHNO! What restaurant is closing?

Kaivalya said...

@M
Calico in the west end. Such a sweet place and Jared is so nice. I'm sad to see it go.

daydreamingmel said...

Good idea using the metronome for UD...did you ever try using it to practice to? You might have heard me talking before about a fabulous work shop I took last year - suryas & standing sequence to the metronome, establishing an equal 4-count in & out breath (how hard do you think UHP was?!) followed by seated up to navasana blindfolded (sans metronome, but the breath was established by this point). One of those great practices that stays with you for a good few weeks afterwards, it's worth a try!

Unknown said...

Practicing with a metronome, eh? Sounds like an interesting experiment. Where can I get a metronome for free?

Kaivalya said...

If you have an iPhone/iPod/iPad you can get one in the app store.