Stay

If I were to pick one word to describe yesterday's practice, it would be 'bendy'. Today's word: 'tired'. On Sundays, I start practice at 9:30 in the morning so I've had time to walk the dog, drink tea, and loll around a bit. Also, the shala was like an *oven* yesterday. It was awesome! This morning, I started at my usual time, 6 a.m., and it felt like every muscle in my body was aching a little bit. I didn't have a lot of stamina.

In my long-winded practice report on Saturday, I made a significant ommission. I forgot probably the most important part: Laghu Vajrasana. I've been Laghu Vajrasana-ing like crazy lately. Early last week, DT suggested that I come down and come up at least 5 times in a row. I've been doing that, then repeating until I can't do it anymore. So five 'chicken pecks' (As Owl likes to call them), then a short rest. And again. And again. I do about three sets of five. By that point, I'm so exhausted that I'm shaking a little bit, then I go on to do Kapotasana like a good little masochist.

Every practice is hard right now, but there's almost always an 'easter egg' hidden somewhere in that two-hour time frame. Yesterday, the egg was in Laghu. I had just finished going up and down and up and down for the kazillionth time (okay, the 9th), when DT stopped by said: "That's good! It's looking much better!" Somewhere in my fuzzed-out Laghu stupor, I acknowledged her, then continued chicken pecking.

It was a great moment, because DT almost never does that. If she observes that I'm getting the hang of something or a pose has reached a new level, she just gets busy making it harder for me.

Today's 'easter egg' was Bakasana B. I've been landing it fairly consistently on the third or fourth try. When I filmed it last Friday at home, I observed that when I jump into it, I always *have* it, but I don't *keep* it. Same thing happened today. I jumped into it, then popped my toes to the floor.

I've learned something important in hot yoga, from practising standing balances. In Bikrams, these balances are long holds and I realised that once I *have* the balance, I need to make a decision to *stay* for the duration.

In other words, I need to decide that I'm NOT going to fall out. No matter what, no matter how much I wobble or how silly I look.

So today I decided: no matter how ugly my Bakasana was, no matter how unstable I felt, I would jump into Bakasana and I would STAY. And I did. And I nailed it. Oh yeah, it was ugly, but I was there for five breaths and *that* part was beautiful!



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Astanga

During my 'purge' this weekend, I cleaned out a few storage areas, including my yoga gear. Apparently, I'm a woman of many props, with a special fondness for blocks. I have three sets! Foam, hollow wood and cork.

The foam blocks came with my very first mat, which ordered through the mail from an ad inYoga Journal in the early 90s. The hollow wood blocks were required for YTT. The cork are a recent addition - I love them and use them the most.

I also excavated a strap, two sets of toe seperators, 3 Yogitoes towels, 1 Manduka towel, 4 traditional Mysore rugs, 3 yoga mats, 3 mat bags, 2 eye pillows, 4 tennis balls (two of them encased in a sock), Miracle Balls, the Acuball, a deflated gym ball (for backbending), a resistance tube and an entire bag of malas.

And did I mention the 4 zafus, 2 buckwheat hull pillows, the bolster and the zabuton? Don't get me started on the cotton blankets!

I'm thinking I need to get rid of some of this stuff, especially the props I don't use anymore. All of these items were used at time or another, but I've 'outgrown' many of the props. I don't props very much anymore.

It's ironic. Never in my life have I had such a regular, daily yoga practice, yet it requires so little in the way of accessories. Astanga is minimalist. I like that.

Good practice this morning. It felt good to get back to my own space for after a weekend 'away'. No big changes to report.

I've returned to daily dropbacks, but for now I'm only dropping to the futon, taking great care to keep my feet correctly aligned, hip width apart. It's rough going. I no longer have The Dread, but the floor seems very far away right now. Need to get those hips to open up!

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This week, the 70s Yoga Ladies offer a new approach for coming up from Laghu Vajrasana: Pray!!!




I'm going to try this! It has to be better than my current approach, which involves collapsing into a sloppy Virasana and laughing at myself.

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Astanga

Have you noticed how the Internet has taken the mystery out of just about everything? I can still remember hunting down song lyrics as a teenager. In the early 90s, I recall spending hours at the library trying to track down the origin of a quote. In the pre-web-olden-days, if you needed to know something about moon phases, you had to track down a farmer's almanac.

Now, I just Google everything I want to know and the answers magically appear. As for moon phases...well, there's an app for that!

So for those of you who were wondering if the Moon Day is *really* on Saturday, even though most shalas have it scheduled for Friday: The app says that it's a New Moon as of 12:52 a.m. Saturday morning. But given that the change back to Standard Time happens on Saturday night, I think it's fair to say that this one is definitely 'on the cusp.'

I'll probably practice on Friday. If for no other reason, my LH is upcoming and I know I'll miss my practice during those days off.

Thanks for all the feedback on the Vegan Protein Debacle. Here's an update: Health Food Store #1 is ordering Seitan for me. If I like it, I may try preparing some homemade. Everyone keeps telling me how easy peasy it is.

I found Vega on sale (but shit, it's expensive!!!), bought the Vanilla Chai flavour. I don't have a good history with concentrated protein so this is an experiment.

My first Vega smoothie was just 'okay' but the second was mind-blowingly fabulous and found myself craving it. Nothing changed. I think it was just a case of my body recognising holy-smokes-there's-protein-in-this-stuff. I've been getting bizarre cravings for chocolatey 'energy bars' too. Again, I think my body is just craving the protein.

In addition, I did a thorough analysis of my overall diet and filled in a few gaps so I know I'm getting all the nutrition I need.

Practice this morning was good. The jump into Bhuja P was not happening today for some reason. I tried it twice and moved on.

I've changed my approach to Laghu Vajrasana after realising that I had reached a point where I can 'pigeon peck' endlessly. I've reintroduced the block and I'm now lowering to the block and holding for five breath cycles before coming up.

Sirsasana was dodgy the first two days of this week. My hands were slipping and I felt unstable. The past few days have been very good in the pose (hands are less sweaty maybe?).

It's been a Bad Transit Karma week with many delays and long waits. On Monday, I was 10 minutes late to a class. This almost never happens because I build time into my commute to account for possible delays.




This is what the platform looked like. Almost too crowded to move. People were not happy.

MOO!

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Astanga

I had an early appointment this morning. I was bull-headed determined to get my practice in though, so I woke up at 5 a.m. That's not too dire, but in order to squeeze in a practice tomorrow, I'll need to be up by 4:00 a.m.

I don't know if this makes me stubborn or crazy. Probably a little bit of both! Sleep is becoming optional.

So I would like to file an Official Complaint: There are not enough hours in the day. I need more. Today was a 17 hour day with two hours of downtime. That's just enough to eat lunch, walk the dog and answer urgent emails.

How did this happen? How did my life get so busy?

Thank God I'm not practising at a shala right now. I would need to forgo sleep all together!

Despite the whirlwind, there was a Big Awesome in my practice this morning. Laghu Vajrasana. I lowered to the floor for five breaths, came back up. Three times! I'm finally getting the hang of it.

Also: Goconut. I start eating this stuff and I. Can't. Stop.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Astanga

I’m SO ready for the Moon Day. Due to a scheduling hiccup, it looks like I’m going to have nearly an entire day off tomorrow (only one class to teach!). I can sleep in and have The Lazy all day If I want to!

But I don’t know if I really want to. To be perfectly honest, I’m ready to be busy again. Late summer is a notoriously slow time for yoga teachers. Sometimes I wish I could just bottle up all this free time for use in the winter months, when I’m endlessly busy and trudging from class to class through enormous piles of grey slush (and I would also like to bottle up some of the money I make during the winter months so I could go shopping NOW!).

Also: I seem to manage my time much better when I don’t have a lot of it. Anyone else have this problem?

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I had a good practice this morning, once I got around to it. I woke up reasonably early but there was no hot water in my building (AGAIN! This is a recurring problem. Argh). I was out of Epsom salts anyway, but I really wanted that hot bath before I hit the mat. I waited around hopefully, thinking perhaps the problem would resolve itself, but it never did (Read: cold bath after practice. Brrr!)

I finally unrolled my mat at 8:30 and got started. I was feeling a bit off-kilter today, like my body was out of balance. This feeling didn’t ease until I started Intermediate postures (though Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana was strong and stable - go figure).

Something is going on in Supta Kurmasana. The wrist binds are solid in my Marichyasanas, but lately I’ve had to really squiggle around to bind fingers in Supta K. And my ankles are not crossing easily either. This is a big mystery to me. Am I getting too plump? Are my hips tightening up?

Lately, I’ve been doing some hip openers in the evening - Yin Yoga - to counter some of the stiffness that’s probably being caused by Laghu Vajrasana. I was hoping this would help. Nope!

I had a re-epiphany of sorts during backbending today. I did my three Urdhva Dhanurasana, dropped back three times and then dropped back to the futon and tried to stand up.

*sigh* I was really struggling. After a particularly comedic crash-landing back to the futon, I sat down and thought it though.

I was pretty sure part of the problem was my breathing. When I’m struggling with something, I go into a panic state and I start breathing very shallowly , especially my inhalations.

Solution: Take some time after the dropback to find a deep and steady breath - especially the inhalation - and co-ordinate the breath with my rocks before trying to stand up.

I also observed that I seemed to have lost my connection to the ‘mechanics’ of rocking. I was just throwing myself forward randomly and not specifically moving *my hips* forward. As a result, I was kind of ‘flailing’ as I stood up and often twisting around and falling backwards. I needed to focus more on leading with my hips and engaging that same connection with my legs that I make when coming up from Laghu Vajrasana.

I put it all together and dropped back, took five slow, deep breaths and started rocking my hips forward, engaging my legs strongly on every inhalation. The really beautiful thing is, it actually WORKED! I stood up with grace and control. Hooray!

This is definitely one of those times when I had to take a step back from my practice and become my own teacher. I needed to analyze what wasn’t working then find a solution, with the right cues to talk myself through it. This is hard to do when I’m feeling panicked and miserable, worried that I’ve lost something that was easy just days before.

I literally had to ‘shut off’ the irrational, whiny part of my brain, then ask myself “If one of your students was having this same problem, what would you look for? How would you troubleshoot the action? What would you tell her?” This stuff is really hard to do in the moment, but I think it makes me a better teacher as well as a stronger practitioner.

This is one of the reasons new yoga teachers are always told that it’s essential to maintain your own practice if you plan to teach others. I fully agree. I’m a better teacher because I’m on the mat every day. My practice is part of my teaching and my teaching is part of my practice.

Astanga

I was back at home for my practice today, but I’m starting to feel much better about it. In a few days, it will have been a month since I left the Shala (already!). Perhaps the passage of time is easing the transition, but I also think my practice is deepening as I adjust to the new postures. The longer practice is starting to feel like ‘my practice’.

I meditated for 5 minutes, then started. It took me two hours to move through it. No big surprises today.

The capris-length yoga pants have solved my slippery legs problem, but now I’m having a ‘slippery arms’ problem in Marichyasana D. Lately I’ve been wrapping my wipe rag around the non-grabbing arm so the wrist won’t slip out of my grip during the bind. It makes it harder to bind initially, though. I have a feeling this issue will ease as it gets colder and my practices become less sweaty (both a good and a bad thing, I guess).

Laghu was amazing today. I did my many, many repetitions of lowering and coming up (Owl calls them ‘Pigeon Pecks’) to a vertical block, then a horizontal block. On my last go, I decided to hold for a few breaths, implementing Helen’s advice. The other day in the comments, she advised me to ‘hold the lift’.

In other words, I need to do an Oscar winning performance in a role as ‘The Ashtangi who is resting her head on a cork block’ when in reality, I’m *hovering* my head barely in contact with that cork block while engaging my legs like mad.

It worked! (Thank you, Helen!) I managed four breaths and came back up.

No wonder everyone looks so anguished and uncomfortable while they’re holding this pose!! Another big Astanga Mystery solved!

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Today, I felt The Shift.

All summer, I’ve been inwardly focused, very much ‘a student’, and very caught up in my own projects. I’ve had the luxury of sitting around in the afternoons stewing in my own juices, wrapping my brain around big questions and trying on different answers (mostly by writing about them in my private pages).

If something pissed me off, I hopped on a ferry to the beach and threw rocks in the lake until the feeling eased. I went for long walks. I read. I devoted hours to researching minute aspects of my practice. It was really an incredible summer - I had the luxury of time.

That ended this week. This afternoon, I had a machine full of voicemails, piles of emails and the knowledge that in a few hours, I would be headed back out to teach back-to-back evening classes. I was still teaching over the summer, but on a very light schedule with small classes.

Now, it’s starting: The Big Busy.

And it feels like I’ve made this overnight transformation from ‘student’ back to ‘teacher’. Instead of being the person with all the questions, I need to be the one with all the answers. Putting on the mantle of authority feels like trying on a jacket that had been packed away in moth balls for the season - slightly awkward but at the same time, familiar. I’ll adjust - to both the role and the time crunch. But for now, I’m squirming uncomfortably.

My experiences over the summer have honed my awareness of my power as a teacher and the different layers of meaning in the student-teacher relationship. I’ve never been so keenly sensitive to the trust that my students offer me when I walk into a room and share this practice with them. Once again, my perception of this role is deepening. The months ahead will be interesting.

Astanga

Ow. My. Quads.

Yesterday’s fun in Laghu translated into *very* sore legs today during practice. I also have a sore elbow, an injury mostly unrelated to yoga (I banged it on a wall while I was putting on my knapsack, in a hurry, because I was late to teach a class. DUMB!).

I had a bit of the The Lazy getting to the mat this morning too. I loafed around in bed for a while, dozing, then laid around in my salt bath for a while, surfing the ‘net. Finally started my practice around 7 a.m.

At least I got up!

I’m getting back to my meditation practice this week, after a long, long hiatus. I stopped meditating in late March, right around the time my relationship ended (and I started going to the Shala regularly). I think I lost the thread of my routine and just never regained it. I’ve had the idea of meditation rolling around my head for a while now, but I wasn’t ready to do anything about it. Today, I felt ready.

I sat for five minutes. I’m keeping it simple and easy for now. I’ll increase the time as I feel comfortable. I’m integrating my meditation with my existing morning ritual of candle-lighting, incense, chanting and offering.

I still occasionally make a food offering to my Spiritual Posse. It’s not a big deal - I don’t do any kind of formal Puja. It’s more like “Here ya go, guys. Chow down!” and I toss something yummy into the bowl. This morning it was an apple slice. Yesterday, they got some really awesome trail mix. Sometimes they get cookies! Or a muffin! Or chocolate!

As I completed my meditation today, I took a moment to think about all my friends who are out there in Shalas and rooms around the world, doing their practice. I sent good wishes and love to all of them. I can’t do much about the ‘long’ and the ‘difficult’ parts of my practice, but I’m hoping this little morning ritual will help me feel more connected to the greater Astanga community and less lonely as I step on my mat each morning.

I don’t know if it was the meditation, but I had a strong, focused practice this morning. All together, it spanned two hours and it was good!

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana is one of the poses I really worried about when I left the Shala. I *always* had assistance for that one. As a result, I’d totally lost the knack for balancing by myself. For the first few weeks at home, I supported myself against a wall. This week, I’ve been holding the pose on my own and it feels stable.

It’s a mystery to me how I’m managing to bind the Marichyasanas these days. I’m so chubby! I haven’t yet lost the ‘pasta weight’ I gained while on holiday in Montreal. I’ve been eating like a horse since I started practising Intermediate, so the pounds are not going away anytime soon. I can still bind to wrist in Mari D! Amazing. But I’ve been struggling for the bind in Supta K.

Pasasana surprises me every day! The bind is getting easier and easier! I don’t think I’m any more flexible - there’s definitely a knack to this one. The positioning of the arms is important. The towel beneath my heels is also getting ‘thinner’ by the day. I’m hoping very soon to have my heels on the floor.

I suspected I would probably ‘backslide’ in Laghu today because my legs are so tired and sore. And I was right - I couldn’t come to the floor and back up, so I used the block. I came down to a horizontal block three times, then moved the block to vertical and came up and down until I was tuckered (about six times). I always know I’m done when I get stuck and can’t come up again!

I’m ‘raising the bar’ a bit for Sirsasana. This pose is easy for me, but I haven’t been doing any long holds lately. It bothers me that I struggled with a relatively short duration hold at DG’s led Primary last week. Today, I set a timer for 3 minutes. It was challenging, but not overly difficult. I’m going to stick with this duration for a while, then bump it up a minute at a time. It’s a good way to build strength for inversions.

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I really enjoyed this post from Astanga Yoga Brighton, offering some thoughts on ‘becoming proficient at asana practice’. When Kino asked Guruji how long it takes to become proficient at a posture, he answered ‘you take it 1000 times!’ (and later added ‘1000 time, correctly!’).

For me, this is a good reminder that new postures and new skills are developed through dedicated practice and repetition. It’s okay to move slowly and allow things to unfold gradually. There’s no rush.

After my success dropping back and standing up from the futon yesterday, I was *so* tempted to try it from a point closer to the floor right away. But if I move too fast, I know I’ll just get frustrated.

For now, I’m dropping back to the floor three times, then dropping back and standing up from my futon. I’ll practice this every day and when the action feels easy and stable, I’ll know I’m ready to try it from the floor (or maybe a point slightly closer to the floor).

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Tomorrow, I’m taking a mini-vacation from longdifficultlonely and heading up to the Mysore room at Shala North. I’m going to hang out with the lovely Inside Owl, who is visiting the city for a couple days. We’ll practise, then find some lunch.

I’m really looking forward to this! It’s perfect timing because I really need a break from my home practice. It will be really great to see everyone at North (sadly, I won’t see DR and S, who are in Europe). And I’ll be practising in a hot, crowded room again.

Yoga! With people! I can’t wait!

Vinyasa

Today is the new moon, so I didn’t practice Astanga in the morning. When the alarm went off at 5:30, I turned it off, rolled over and went back to sleep.

I was having a fantastic dream that I was driving a luxury RV through a dessert. Don’t ask. It had nifty cup holders and a good sound system. There were tumbleweeds rolling past! And I was eating Smart Food, which technically I’m not supposed to eat because I’m a vegan.

At least, I’m trying very hard to be a vegan. The slippery slope just became a lot steeper.

It’s much easier to be a vegan if you can eat soy products. There are so many good vegan things to eat that are soy based, many of them excellent replacements for things that vegans can no longer eat (like milk and cheese).

Alas, I’m rediscovering that I can’t eat soy in some forms. I have bad reactions to it. It all came to a stunning conclusion this past weekend when I recognised the same symptoms from the last time I went through this. My bad reaction to soy isn’t a new thing; I knew it was a problem. I was in denial. I faced these same issues when I first became vegan years ago (and it was one of the reasons I gave up and went back to being a garden-variety vegetarian).

This morning, I biked to the store and returned the yummy vanilla soy milk, the soy yoghurt that I love so much and the soy creamer I was using in my chai.

And I replaced the soy milk with rice milk. I was curious to see if any significant improvements has been made in rice milk technology over the past ten years. Nope. It still tastes like sugary chalk-water. Next time I’ll get the almond milk (which is actually pretty good).

I also bought...*sigh*...organic dairy creamer.

I know, I know! But chai is one of the great joys of my life. I’m NOT going to give it up. And there doesn’t seem to be an easy alternative. So I’m a very bad vegan, but this time I’m not going to give up because of the slippery slope. I’ll do the best I can. For now, this is it. I’m going to do some cream research. If I have to buy it, maybe there’s a cruelty-free-super-organic alternative.

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I did a 45 minute practice today at the gym before teaching a class. I really love doing this! Today, I had the entire room to myself. I shut the doors and put some fun music on the stereo. I did the Suryas, the fundamental poses, then moved into some hip openers and light backbends.

I worked on Laghu for awhile, my new favourite pose. I love going up and down! :-) I’m still struggling a bit to find my ‘edge’, to keep it challenging without being impossible. If I cross that line into ‘impossible’ I just fall back into Supta Virasana and then I need to haul myself up with my arms. Laghu FAIL.

It bugs me a bit that I’m never sore in my quads after these marathon Laghu sessions. I feel like I should be *feeling* something, maybe I’m not working hard enough. The pose is gradually getting easier though, so I guess that’s progress.

I’ve switched up my strategy for working on ‘standing up’. I’m dropping back against a wall, as far down the wall as I can. Then, pushing against the wall with my hands, I push my hips forward so they’re over my feet and I stand up. Well, sometimes I stand up. Often, I fall back again and need to walk my hands up the wall a bit further. I’m trying to develop some muscle memory around the body mechanics and the positioning of the hips.

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Monday was my iPad-iversary. On Tuesday, I called Bell and cancelled my DSL Internet service. I’ve successfully transitioned to my iPad for email, scheduling, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds and blogging. I rarely use my laptop anymore. I take my iPad with me everywhere.

I love it! It’s been useful in ways I never imagined. For example, I used the GPS and maps function as a roadmap to get to Quebec and then to find my way around Montreal and Quebec City. The iPad trumps the ‘TomTom’ because it pinpoints your position on the map, a bit like Harry Potter and the ‘Marauder’s Map’. It’s a boon for insomnia: I can’t read in the dark with my Kindle, but the Kindle app on my iPad gives me that option. I also have a large collection of photos on my iPad. I’ve enjoyed showing these to friends. It’s reawakened my interest in iPhoto and my photo collections.

And one day, when I was sick to death of being stuck indoors on a beautiful afternoon, I took my iPad to the beach and for an entire afternoon, I used the beach as my office!

I’m totally sold on this idea :-D

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Astanga

Well, that was a relief! I was really worried that this week would be a repeat of last, with sluggish, difficult practices that dragged on interminably. But apparently, afternoon naps make everything better! Hooray for adequate sleep!

I was up at 6:30, bright-eyed and energetic and my practice was great!

I’m having some fabulous Hamstring Moments these days. Near the end of last week, I stepped things up a bit, but I was initially worried when I noticed some soreness in my left hamstring. It wasn’t anywhere near the site of the injury, but rather in the body of the muscle which is TERRIFIC news! This means that when I ‘push the edge’ in my forward bends, I’m maintaining the stretch throughout the muscle (rather the attachments which could stress the injury site).

Poses are continuing to ‘come back.’ My knees are now only a tiny bit bent in Kurmasana. I’m able to do the Supta Konasana exit with straight legs all the way to the floor (instead of the bent-knee landing on my heels).

I can once again roll up to Ubhaya Padangusthasana with straight legs. Ditto for Urdhva Mukha Paschimottanasana (and I can even come up holding the edges of my feet). Now that UMP is more-or-less back, I’m revisiting the old struggle to balance on my bum. Darby gave me some good advice while I was in Montreal. He told me to pull my arms in and elbows down as I fold. This is such a fun, but frustrating pose. I always get SO close to the full expression, only to roll onto my back!

Yesterday, I braved the Saturday crowds at our downtown mall and went to Lu. I wanted to pick up some capris (they’re now called ‘crops’...whatever). I quickly found what I was looking for and requested a second pair in my size. While Chirpy Sales Associate #1 checked the back, I chatted up Chirpy Sales Associate #2. Before I knew it, I was getting a substantial discount for being a full-time yoga teacher. I verified my ‘status’ by displaying my website and schedule on my iPad. Technology!!!

I was kind of hoping the capris would solve my ‘slippery arms’ problem in Bhujapidasana by making my legs less of a slip-n-slide. Wouldn’t it be nice if new yoga clothes could fix all the trouble spots in the practice? I figured if *this* worked, I would go back and buy the ‘Stand Up From Urdhva Dhanurasana’ yoga top.

Alas, the capris were definitely not the magic bullet I hoped, but it was easier. There was no slipping today - in fact, I was surprised by the side effects of my newly ‘sticky’ legs. I kept catching my legs on my arms in jumpthroughs!

I was worried about Garba Pindasana, but it was fine. I needed a bit of water on my arms to get them all the way through (I didn’t roll my pants up as I’ve seen shalamates do). Kukutasana was full of awesome!! My legs stayed above my elbows instead of sliding down. I felt VERY tall in that pose! :-D

I spent a lot of time on backbending today. I did three Urdhva Dhanurasana from the floor, walking my hands in each time until it was slightly uncomfortable. Five hangbacks to the wall, coming back up and focusing on using my legs to initiate the movement. Then: more Urdhva Dhanurasana with some rocking.

Globie posted his notes from Kino’s recent workshop in London and this bit of advice jumped out at me: When rocking, Kino told him “not think about trying to come up and being disappointed because it never happens, but instead to try and rock and bounce the hands. She said eventually it will come.”

I did three dropbacks and though they were not fabulous, MY FEET WERE ALL THE WAY ON THE MAT! I’m finally losing that cheaty wide stance. I’m sure dropbacks will feel a bit weird for a while, but at least I’m making progress towards better alignment. I think the hip opening work I’ve been doing is helping!

Ending on an even happier note: The best part of my practice today was Laghu Vajrasana! Yeah, really! Surprise :-)

I feel like I’m finally understanding the pose and I’m enjoying it. Yes, it’s difficult, but now that I get the action of coming up (using the legs, leading with the chest, coming up on a strong inhalation and the head comes up last), it’s kind of awesome! Going down is even better. I can’t really explain why - it just feels good.

I set my block to the horizontal position today because it was becoming far to easy for me to come back up. The floor is now less than 10 centimetres away! Soon, I’ll be lowering all the way down. What seemed inconceivable just a week ago is now easier. I love how this practice changes my notions of what’s possible!

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More than once on our holiday, my mother implied that maybe I had chosen to be a vegan ‘just to be difficult.’ I assured her that no, my food choices had nothing to do with a hidden, malicious desire to make life impossible for people around me (read: my mother).

But then again, she might have a point.

Exhibit A: Bag containing a veganized burrito from my favourite little neighbourhood hole-in-the-wall.

No! No! No! No! No!

But extra guacamole? HELL,YEAH!!! ;-)

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Nancy Gilgoff recently visited Halifax, Nova Scotia and offered a series of amazing workshops. Even a hurricane couldn't stop Nancy - she taught through Earl! :-D

A cybershalamate carefully transcribed her notes from the workshops and I'm linking to them here. They are incredibly detailed and informative (and have further fueled my desire to someday study with Nancy - what amazing wisdom about the practice!).

Workshop Day 1

Workshop Days 2 & 3