Astanga

I arrived a little bit earlier this morning because I knew my practice would be longer. The Shala 'officially' opens at 7:30, but people come earlier while Darby and Joanne are still doing their practice.

The Shala is beautiful. It's in an older building. The layout reminds me of Shala North - it's on the second story with stairs leading to the reception area and practice room (both have high ceilings, so it's very spacious). The change rooms (with showers) are located on the third floor. The space is comfortable and well decorated.

The walls are covered with photographs of the Darbys and Guruji. One series of photographs depict a very pregnant Joanne being adjusted by Guruji in various poses including Taraksvasana A, followed with a family photograph of Darby, Joanne and their baby son Shankara. On the stairwell, there's a photo of a smiling Guruji and Iyengar, embracing.

The practice room is painted one of my favorite colours, a greenish blue. There are lots of windows and the sunlight streams through in the morning. A brass Krishna, Patanjali and Ganesha sit on a window sill and there's a large, beautiful Hanuman in the the left hand corner. Guruji's photograph oversees the room from the front wall.

The room never seems very warm when I arrive but I sweat buckets while I'm there. There were usually 20+ people practising but the room could hold more; there's lots of space. As I arrived this morning, I noticed blocks and straps set aside for use and one practitioner was doing a few preparatory hip openers before practice.

I was feeling a bit nervous about my practice this morning. I had no idea how much Intermediate I would be given. Last night I reviewed the vinyasa up to Laghu Vajrasana, just to be safe.

As I moved through my Primary, Darby came over a few times to talk to me about the positioning of my head and neck. In almost every pose, I'm failing to integrate my neck with the whole of my spine.

For example, in Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog), I'm bringing my head too far back in an attempt to find a deeper back bend. Instead, Darby encouraged me to lengthen up the neck from the collarbone to the ears, draw the shoulders slightly forward and lift the upper chest forward/up to bring more bend into the thoracic spine. In every pose, he wanted me to integrate the neck.

He's a very, very patient teacher. I wasn't 'getting it' right away, so he kept offering the information in different ways (verbal cues, physical adjustment, even demo-ing) and pointing it out in different contexts. He talked to me about this alignment issue in three of the standing poses, spent a lot of time working with me in Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and also helped me apply the concept in Setu Bandhasana.

In Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, he sat next to me and asked me to do the pose my way, then he helped me find the correct alignment, then back to my way again, so I could feel the difference. In time, I could feel that my head felt 'floppy' if I was misaligned. I started noticing this sensation in other poses and correcting it myself.

Through all of this explanation, he never once raised his voice, expressed frustration or became impatient. And when I finally started to catch on, he was equally calm and accepting. I felt no pressure; I could feel my guard coming down. I felt free to explore these new directions in my practice and trust that they would become clear in time.

I found his adjustments to be strong and direct, but never forceful. If anything, these were some of the lightest and most subtle adjustments I've ever received in Mysore-style practice.

So I was feeling very supported and comfortable as I started into Intermediate series. It didn't feel like it was a 'big deal' at all (though maybe just a tad surreal).

I got the bind in Pasasana. The right is my easier side, so it was much deeper. Darby was helping me and when my heels plopped to the floor, he said "Even better!" and helped me keep them there, giving me cues and assistance with balance (root down through the heels!).

He sat next to me for the first side of Krounchasana, and demoed, cued me and lightly adjusted the pose. I was on my own for the second side but he came back for Shalabasana A & B and I repeated those poses several times. Darby showed me a way to work in the pose that protected my back.

I was pretty much on my own for Dhanurasana and Parsva Dhanaurasana. I received more detailed instruction for Ustrasana, then did Laghu Vajrasana on my own twice, waited for help.

Darby cued me verbally but didn't give a physical adjustment per se - he instructed me to come down until my head found his hand, then come up again. I did this over and over again and GEEZ!!!! It was hard!!

Darby didn't need to tell me this was my ending point. I knew! He said, "Stop there" and told me very firmly not to move beyond that pose without a teacher's help.

Joanne helped me with my backbends - just Urdhva Dhanurasana. I did it five times. I really enjoy her energy - she has a calm and gentle presence. After, Darby came over and gave me the most awesome squish in the history of squishes (and my first real squish in over two months).

I felt sad as I rolled up my mat after practice. I don't know when I'll be in a shala with teachers again. I really didn't feel like a guest in this shala - the teachers and students were so warm and welcoming, I felt very much at home. When I came over to say goodbye, Darby gave me big hug.

Montreal is quite a trek, but I would love to go back someday soon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Astanga

I have a confession: I’ve been to Montreal only once and it was for business. I travelled by train, stayed in a hotel and didn’t really get out much. I’ve never driven there.

As we hit the road yesterday, I didn’t have a route planned or any idea of how to get there, short of heading north-ish on the major highway. I figured I would just wing it.

This strategy mostly worked, but I *completely* underestimated how long the drive would take and the difficulty I would have in navigating a strange city late at night. I’m good at cities, but Montreal is confusing!

We encountered many, many detours driving into the downtown core. We were lost so many times I stopped counting. At one critical juncture, I pulled into a parking lot while my poor mother rolled her eyes in frustration.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yes! I’m going to ask these guys over here for directions!”

“Who?!”

I had serendipitously parked right next to a couple Montreal police officers enjoying their late night coffee break!

As I meandered through the empty downtown streets, I think my mother was ready to strangle me. When I was younger, this scene might have deteriorated into a screaming match. But 15 years of yoga practice mellowed me out. I just smiled a lot and carried on, remained cheerful and positive, and reassured her that I did, in fact, know where I was going (I didn’t!).

Through some miracle (Thank you, Ganesha!) I found my way to the hotel. And I even managed to get five hours of sleep - an achievement, given that I wasn’t sure we would even make it into Montreal at all.

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At 7:30 this morning, I was salt-bathed, dressed and walking down the street to Sattva Shala for practice with Darby and Joanne.

There are two categories of professional recognition for Astanga teachers (granted by KPJAYI, the yoga institute founded by Guruji in Mysore): Authorization is the first level. The highest level is Certification and fewer than 40 people carry it world-wide. The Darbys are the only certified teachers in Canada. I was pretty excited to have an opportunity to practice at their Shala and have new eyes on my practice. I’ve long wanted to visit here.

I first met Darby at a yoga conference a couple years ago. I really enjoyed his energy. He’s warm, humble and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the practice. I was fairly new to Astanga at the time (and a bit intimidated to be talking to the guy who was on my favourite DVD). His approach to teaching Astanga and obvious reverence for it was one of the things that started to ‘win me over’ to Astanga. My attitude towards the practice started to ‘shift’ after that. I left the conference thinking that someday, I would like to visit their Shala.

When I arrived this morning, both teachers were finishing their practice. I stood quietly on the threshold of the room for a moment, then unrolled my mat in an empty spot near the windows. It felt a bit weird to just walk into a new room and GO, but that’s exactly what I did.

I was through the first few standing poses when Darby arrived at my mat. He asked me where I was from and where I practised. I told him I practised at Shala Central, but also home practice.

He gave me a very focused adjustment in Parsvakonasana. He modified the position of my head/neck and encouraged me to push and lengthen through the extended arm (he asked me to push my hand against him and push through the back foot).

This theme carried over into other poses but especially Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Instead of arching my head back, he asked me to lengthen the neck from the shoulders to the ears then lift the upper-chest forward and up.

Because I was already into my practice the first time he came around, I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for announcing injuries. He walked over as I was starting seated, so I paused to I let him know that I had a two-month-old hamstring injury. He tutted me a bit and said I should have mentioned it sooner. I realised he noticed my modification in Parvottanasana, because he asked me to stand up and repeat that pose. He worked with me on a strategy to get the leg straight with full extension of the torso over the leg without triggering cramping around the site of the injury. It worked!

Darby’s adjustments are light and subtle, but they pack a punch! I had more than one ‘light bulb’ moment as he worked with me. I found myself cross-applying concepts from one set of poses to another and feeling my body respond to the small changes I was making in alignment and direction of muscular energy. I was working so deeply, with intense concentration, that my practice slowed down quite a bit, and I was sweating more than usual.

Darby mostly observed. I didn’t get many of the ‘typical’ adjustments. He brought my hands to the floor in Prasarita C (and corrected my shoulder alignment - the same thing DR is always on me about, but I’ve fallen into bad habits). I was on my own for most of Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana, but Darby swung by near the end and gave some very specific cues for the alignment and action of the extended leg. It made the the pose MUCH harder because I was working harder! He crossed my legs over my back in Supta Kurmasana. I haven’t had this particular adjustment since my last visit to Shala North. I *love* it. I savoured every breath of that hold!

Joanne helped me with Setu Bandhasana, encouraging me to come into the pose with straighter legs. I followed her cues as I repeated the pose and it was deepest I’ve ever managed on my own.

When it was time for backbending, I felt stumped. I didn’t know what to do, so I just reverted back to my old Shala routine: six Urdhva Dhanurasana and three rounds of rocking. Joanne came over to work with me in Urdhva Dhanurasana, encouraging me to push up through the hips. Very light adjustment, but it helped me direct the energy of the movement upward and felt amazing. Darby observed my backbending for a few minutes and then asked me to do something very simple in Urdhva Dhanurasana: lift the balls of the feet up while pressing down into the heels. It felt impossible, but when I did it, I felt the legs engage very evenly. So simple!

I did a few rounds of rocking, but didn’t drop back. Darby had told me very matter-of-factly that he doesn’t allow his students to drop back or stand up until they’ve mastered Kapotasana (he asked me earlier if I was being held back from Second Series because I wasn’t standing up. I confirmed this but admitted I sometimes do some Intermediate in my home practice). I think the Darbys use Supta K, along with mastery of the Primary Series, as the ‘gatekeeper’ for Second Series. I understand this is common practice with some of the certified teachers who studied with Guruji in the early years.

I don’t want to get into the politics of this - I’m just providing some context for what happened next.

I did my finishing, took rest. I thanked Darby as I was leaving the room, and let him know that I would be at his Shala for one more day. He closed the door as I left, but opened it up again and said: “Tomorrow, add on the Intermediate poses and I'll tell you when to stop."

I nodded, but the import of this didn’t fully sink in until I was halfway up the stairs to the change room.

Am I being given Intermediate?

I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.