Monday, January 30, 2012

It's Definitely Not Butter!

I'm currently going through the 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!' phase of my practice of Pincha Mayurasana.

About 95% of the time, I feel very solid in the pose and come into it easily. My body has figured it out (on Saturday, I held the pose for a couple minutes while simultaneously carrying on a conversation with the shalamate on the mat next to me).

But my brain hasn't caught on to what my body knows, so every time I'm setting up for Pincha, I worry a little bit. I wonder if I'll really be able to do it. Will I stick the balance? Will I fall out? What if it's scary?

Then I come into the pose, I balance, I hold it. It's a lot of fun, not scary at all. And my brain is all confused.

I *know* my brain is the problem here because as soon as I start lotusing my legs for Karanda, Pincha becomes a moot point - my body just does its thing and balances there while my brain is busy lotusing my legs.

This morning was one of the 5% of days when I couldn't seem to find the sweet spot in Pincha. I'd go up, come down. Go up, come down. Then I'd sit back on my heels, brow furrowed, trying to puzzle it through. When I finally figured it out, I came up easily and stayed there!

The issue? I forgot my bandhas. I needed to turn them on.

You know those people who, when confronted with a black computer monitor, carefully wiggle all the cables, shake the keyboards, power the monitor up and down a few times and do the hokey pokey for good measure - before it finally occurs to them that it might be a good idea to turn on the computer?

I'm the yoga version of that person. Gotta power up before you go up!

Now, if I can just Believe It's Not Butter, I'll be set!



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1 comment:

sereneflavor said...

Excellent blog lesson. thank you.