Astanga

Newsflash: Summer is here!

Sunny days are here, and hot, summer-y, HUMID, weather is here! It's awesome! We had a few gray days last week, but so far, August looks like it will be hot, humid and sunny. And I'm so grateful - the winters here are so cold, my happiest days are in the summer. It's been so dark and cool this summer, it didn't seem fair.

But better late than never, right? Today was a beach day, my first this year! I slept in a bit, taught a morning class, then headed off to the ferries.

I *love* riding the ferries. I always feel like I'm really going someplace when I cross water. The trip isn't long, no more than 15 minutes but the view of the city from the water is fantastic and it really feels like a daytrip. I packed a picnic and everything!

At my favourite beach, I rediscovered my favourite spot, and unrolled my travel mat. I started sun salutations before noon, but it was already HOT out! I'm glad I brought my old Mysore rug because it was too hot to practice on my black travel mat without it.

I found the heat and the sun really distracting and struggled a lot to maintain focus. No bugs today, but lots of sweat rolling off my brow and glinting sunlight off of the water. There was some cloud cover in the afternoon and I have to admit, I could have used some of that in the morning because (and I can't believe I'm saying this), it was just too much sun.

I ended up doing half-primary instead of full, which made sense, given I was surrounded by hot sand (Kurmasana would have been unpleasant). I did do the closing sequence, though and headstand was fun (and elicited some stares - by this time the beach was filling up). Savasana wasn't fun. I just felt hot and miserable, so I got up, changed into my bikini and went for a swim. Floating Savasana!

Yes, you read that correctly: I actually *swam* in the lake, the yucky, icky lake. For the record: I'm a water-snob: I hate lakes for swimming, especially this lake. But it was SO hot out. The water felt amazing - I even went in for a second dip. The sun felt good after the water. There's nothing like a swim in cool water, then drying out in the sun (I really miss having a swimming pool at my apartment building).

After the swim, I did a lot of reading, flew my kite and listened to music. I ate fresh fruit for lunch and dozed off. I stayed until about 5, which was the perfect amount of time. It was nice being there solo, didn't have to follow anyone's schedule except my own.

The fun continues tonight - I'm going out for Thai food and *may* even go out dancing afterward.

Astanga

Today was a public transit marathon! It all started in the morning with a streetcar to an east end yoga studio to take care of some business related to a local yoga conference I'll be working on. Then, back on the streetcar headed west to meet a client. After I finished, I took a train west to the Very Big Park to play! (I did all of this with the dog, by the way. She's an experienced 'city dog' and comfortable on public transit).

The park was magical. We wandered through the 'nature trails' (as natural as it gets when you're surrounded with woods but can still hear the buzz of highway traffic). Unexepectedly, we wandered into a clearing and found this:


A secret swing! I swung for awhile and we continued until we found this pretty glade, where I unrolled my yoga mat to practice:

(No, that's not my Manduka - it's a light travel mat)

I'm pretty sure this is the same little glade where I used to come and meditate and play my Djembe (African Drum) years ago. I thought it would be the perfect spot. I was SO wrong. I don't remember a 'bug problem' before, but perhaps the damp weather triggered an boom in the insect population. I was practically eaten alive by mosquitoes, HUGE mosquitoes.

I managed to slap and curse my way through the sun salutations and standing, then fled to a nearby parkspace, where I got eaten alive by red ants. Needless to say, I cut it short to half-primary. At least I got plenty of fresh air!

I noticed some soreness today in my left quadracep and left calf muscle. I'm not sure what that's all about - maybe the vinyasa-style practice I did yesterday? I'm still replacing Janu Sirsasana C with a reclining Tiriangmukhaikapada Pachimottansana and I really felt it today (in a good way).

I'm thinking about mixing up my practice more, maybe alternating between Astanga Primary Series and some of the Yogadownload classes (since I have the free membership, I should use it!). I love my Primary Series, but I find the vinyasa-style classes (they seem to be Baron Baptiste-esque on Yogadownload) a lot of fun. I have a feeling my practice will improve if I introduce some variety.

Vinyasa

Feeling better today! Today was the last day of my 'morning job'. I've been working there since late June and though it feels like a long time, it was only a little more than a month. I'm glad to be moving on, but I will miss the perpetual half-days that allowed me to do fun stuff in the afternoon. That is, unless I can't *find* another temp job, then I'll be a lady of leisure for the entire month of August - let's keep our fingers cross this doesn't happen, okay?

I was surprised when I became a bit teary-eyed saying my good-byes. I don't always feel this way when I'm leaving a job (in fact, most of the time, I turn cartwheels on the way out the door). To be honest, I had very little in common with most of these people (aside from the donuts). But, they are fine, fine people - something I don't always say that about people I meet in my temp jobs. I was sad to say goodbye because I know that it's unlikely our paths will ever cross again. There is one person I'll keep in touch with, but only because we're both on Twitter...lol.

Onward!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind week because I've had a subway pass for most of it. A friend left town and offered to give me her pass. I usually only buy these in the winter, so it was a treat to have the run of the city, by subway.

I've been keeping busy running errands and going to The Very Big Park. The VBP is in the other end of the city, reasonable biking distance but I can't take the dog with me on the bike and that's the whole reason for going: off-leash dog trails. We went on Tuesday and the dog was so exhausted afterward that she slept the entire way home.

Since I was teaching an evening class in the area, I decided to pack my mat and a snack to spend the afternoon there. I had a great time. Did lots of walking and unrolled my mat on a stretch of grass next to the goose pond. Only got one mosquito bite, which is pretty good considering I was next to a body of standing water.

Pretty spot:


For my practice, I did the 45-minute Detox Yoga #1 with Lisa from Yogadownload.com. I chose the 45-minute sequence (to avoid inversions) and I added some restorative and a long Savasana to the end. I really enjoyed this class. It's a warrior-based vinyasa flow with some fun variations and lots of advanced options (which I mainly ignored, since I was trying to take it easy). I have to admit, I'm really starting to enjoy these Yogadownload classes. It's nice to do something different.

My only complaint is that it's sometimes difficult to figure out which pose is coming up. All of the poses are in English and to be honest, I'm more familiar with the Sanskrit. Yogadownload seems to have their own unique terminology too (Oh hai Crescent Lunge). There are cheat-sheets, but that doesn't help much when I'm in them middle of a park plugged into my iPod Shuffle (which, by the way, ROCKS - this is the first time I've used it in more than a year, but it's perfect for outdoor yoga!).

Restorative

My Lady's hit me this morning like a tonne of bricks and I've been absolutely miserable all day. This time, it's been a double-whammy: I'm in emotional lockdown, as well as being doubled over with pain. Fortunately, I was able to rest in the afternoon, read a book and drink hot tea. Some chocolate therapy was involved ;-)

I really didn't around to practising until the evening. I wasn't very inspired (and completely unmotivated to dig out my Yin Yoga DVD) so I did some restorative: Supta Baddha Konasana, supine backbend laying over blocks, a (bolster) supported Yin Frog Pose and finally, some massage on the Acuball. Yummy!

The supported Yin Frog is fast becoming my favourite 'comfort pose'. There's something about it that is deeply nurturing and gentle, but I couldn't put my finger on it until tonight.

The pose looks like this:

The pose FEELS like this:


I could almost imagine the giant,warm adult hand that was going to descend at any moment and start rubbing my little back. Ahhhhh!

Astanga

It was pleasant out in the early afternoon, so I was able to take my practice outside. This has a number of advantages: sunlight, air, a tree branch hovering just overhead that brushed my fingertips as I reached up in sun salutations (and the fact that I'm unlikely to burst into tears in a public place).

I went to the Little Park and set up near enough to the pine trees to enjoy the piney scent, but far enough away to avoid the pine cones on the ground. As I moved through the Primary Series and felt the breeze on my skin, I knew that I was in exactly the right place this time. I felt a sense of peace.

(No tears today. By the way, that was definitely my Lady's knocking on my emotional door. I feel better today, still funk-y, but better.)

Unfortunately, grey clouds moved across the sky as I practised and by the time I was in Savasana, tiny rain drops were falling. I was perfectly fine with this, but the dog was not; she equates any type of precipitation with thunder storms. As I tried to enjoy my rest, she shook like a leaf under my arm. Distracting.

So I came inside. I had intended to meditate right after my practice, but that will need to wait until later. For now, I'm drinking hot tea and putting off running errands for as long as possible!

This is Day 2 of my Back to Healthy Eating Campaign, made easier by the fact that my partner is out of town for a week. My greatest challenge will be avoiding goodies in the morning, since there's nothing unhealthy to be found in the apartment (but many, many donuts to be discovered in my morning hours; so far, I've resisted).

I'm mostly eating raw foods. The cooked items include egg white omeletes, seasoned tuna and those lavash crackers I'm so crazy about. The lavash crackers are the only wheat. No dairy and I'm trying my best to avoid sugar. I was breaking out in hives over the weekend, so I figure a little detox is in order.

Lots of water, fruit for snacks. And yes, logging my foods, a la CRON.

And avoiding the fridge.

Astanga

I don't what's going on with me, but I'm not starting the week on a positive note. I was grumpy all morning, felt tired and run down by the time I got home. I couldn't motivate myself, so I curled up on the futon instead and finished Braincandy Novel #2. Then I unrolled my mat to practice.

My plan was the full Primary Series and I started enthusiastically enough. But about half-way through the standing poses, I started sobbing and I couldn't stop. I cried through the first few seated poses, then calmed down a bit.

After I knocked over a glass of water coming into the second side of Marichyasana B, I burst into tears again. I cried right up until the very last pose.

It was instructive. Among other things, I discovered, that it's difficult to maintain Ujjayi breathing while crying. It's actually hard to cry in Supta Konasana and Halasana (probably something about the diaphragm being constricted). Something about forward bends made me cry harder.

I calmed down during the closing sequence and felt rather peaceful in Savasana. I guess I needed a good cry. About 90% of this can probably be explained by massive PMS (Lady's was supposed to be here days ago), the other 10% is just Stuff that's come up in the past week (look for an update in KD soonish).

I took a long bath and headed to my guitar lesson, which cheered me up a lot. I haven't been practising regularly, but the lesson was fun. I need to get back on that wagon, because I really enjoy the guitar, find it very meditative.

And speaking of meditation, I've fallen off that wagon too. Already. But there's hope! I discovered a new Meditation iPod application. I know, I know. You're thinking: another geek toy...but this is COOL! It not only *times* the sessions, but it keeps *statistics*. I'll be held accountable!

Now I just need to meditate!

Vinyasa

I have to give tremendous props to my partner. Mid-afternoon, she took off to give me time to practice. Isn't that nice of her?

Okay, actually, she wasn't entirely without ulterior motive. A couple weeks ago, I bought two Braincandy Novels at my favourite sidewalk book sale. I had intended to read them on the camping trip, but didn't get around to it (last year's Braincandy Book was 'The Brain That Heals Itself' The year before that, 'Eat, Pray, Love').

I finished one Braincandy Novel yesterday and passed it off to my partner. Into the first few chapters, she looked up from the book and exclaimed: “I CAN'T stop reading. I can't stop!” She went home, curled up in bed and read for most of the afternoon.

Meanwhile, I had three hours to myself, a vast expanse of free time. What did I do? I promptly plomped on the futon and started reading the *second* Brandcandy Novel. And I read, and read and read. I ended up with 45 minutes to practice, after the Guilt finally got to me. But it was a nice afternoon.

For the curious, here are the two braincandy novels. Procure at your own risk; they're literary crack. Make sure you have nothing important you need to do for a few days:
Year of Fog by Michelle Redmond
(and, wait for it...)
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult (I *love* her books)

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that this is great literature or anything, but these books are good fun. Beach reading.

I did a really intuitive vinyasa practice, 45 minutes, basically went into a flow and followed it wherever it wanted to take me. I ended up doing some standing poses, a few seated, a twist or two. Nothing too strenuous, but I made a point to follow my breath like a line of stepping stones. Very relaxing.

Then I went back to my book. Baaaaaaad! :-D