Waking up in Janu A

Lots of space at the shala this morning, presume lots of people forgot to add an hour to their clocks before going to bed last night, never had the pick of so many places to lay my mat.

I definitley have more energy now, the cough is going, in another few days I should be fully up and running again. The lack of students this morning meant seemingly lots more adjustments, it was nice to have space in UHP to actually be adjusted fully out to the side without my foot being in someones ear. I only nowadays seem to get a couple of adjustments in standing, Prasarita Padot C and UHP, maybe I am doing them more competently.

While I was doing my practice today, there wasn’t too much of the usual commentary going on in my head, but it wasn’t until I went forward in Janusirsasana A that I realised I hadn’t actually been very “present” in the preceeding postures, “sleep yoga” could be the new big thing, but I suddenly seemed to wake up and have an alertness that was not there before. I was totally with it when Anna took me more deeply into Marichyasana D. Having so few students meant a teacher was almost on you before doing one of “those” poses, I was only just enjoying a wriggle in Supta K when my feet were crosssed and hands were bound for me.

Having my energy back meant I could play around with backbends today, after Setu Bandhasana I did a load of bridges to warm my back, then 5 Urdva Dhanurasana’s, you just know when it feels right. I stood up and played around dropping back before assistance arrived and I got to do dropbacks and walking the hands in. Instead of trying to take one breath down and running out of air, I now seem to able to keep taking lots of little breaths, making the dropback feel much less stressed. Playing around on my own first before assistance arrives also seems to better for me at least. But I have at least lost the fear of dropback and now having a modicum of control of the breath I don’t feel like I am going to get dizzy or pass out, which gives me more confidence to experiment at home.

I still find it strange decamping to the “Finishing room” for the rest of closing, you have to reset your mind to a new environment. It ended up being quite a long practice, nearly 2 hours, generally feeling better, I had stayed  in a few postures longer to lengthen out and of course much more playtime with backbends. Savasana in the sun was nice, especially when the wonderful S. came along to give me the nice little present webcam.

I can now see people on Skype, tomorrow hopefully I will actually be able to talk to them as well.

More than I intended!

A good session with the Nutritionist this morning, I feel much better now. Though afterwards my stomach felt like it had done 50 Navasanas from the treatment, but the feelings of release and lightness is lovely while it lasts.

She said to take it easy for the rest of the day, but by 4pm I was aching to stretch, so just started doing the standing poses with no real aim of what I would end up doing. A few seated forward bends, then I decided to do a few backbends and ended up doing more than a few. Urdva Dhanurasana is changing, when I used to do them as part of practice, the 3 would wipe me out, but now I find that if I have the energy, the more I do the better they get, so I did 7 this afternoon, so much for taking it easy. Followed up with dropback practice, though it was really hard to engage the front of the body, but hopefully I will have a good practice tomorrow at the Shala.

Good news from Triyoga, they just rang to say someone dropped out of the Seane Corn workshop and I now have a place for Good Friday afternoon.

Don’t forget to change your clocks tonight, I wonder how many yogi’s and yoginis will end up being an hour late on their mats tomorrow morning

Backbending

I sort of observed yesterday’s Moon day, I just did standing and some backbends, it was nice to have time to explore backbends rather than just doing them as part of a Primary series. I also tried to concentrate more on the breath after reading a comment in V’s blog about how the breath seemed to lift her up to standing from a dropback, though I am seemingly light years  from doing that.

The end of another long week at the labour camp, home to my mat and and a good Primary series as far as Urdva Dhanurasana, plus some walking in attempts. Although I can walk in a couple of hand paces, I cannot work out what should engage to help me stand up, all the weight and energy is heading towards the floor, but I suppose walking in is progress of a kind. Hopefully my back will be more accepting on Sunday if I get dropped back.

My quest for a Skype headset was thwarted by Amazon, when I checked my shipment, they had changed the date from today to 16th April, grrrr, so I cancelled that one and ordered another. Tomorrow I am hoping to buy a cheap webcam. I havn’t had a new toy for over a year.

Primary & Skype!

Managed a full Primary last night, first since Sunday and the tooth extraction on Monday. My body is always tight after a couple of days off. Not a too bad practice, managed Mari D on the first side, Supta K and a couple of good UD’s, even managed to walk in a little on the last one, but how the hell do you go from walking in to standing up is beyond me just now.

I had planned just to check my e-mail and crash out, but thanks to encouragement from AC I then spent an hour downloading Skype and trying to chat to her, only problem is I have the speakers, but no Microphone. Need to buy a headset, but out here in the sticks we don’t have shops selling that kind of thing!

Its Moon day today, I do feel tired, I think my body is still only up for doing practice every other day, but its slowly coming back to yogic fitness. May just play around with some backbending tonight.

They’ve seen sense!

Newsflash from the train company, Sunday’s strike has been called off, I’ll get my precious practice after all, BIG sigh of relief.

I have been busy booking or attempting to book some workshops. I started off getting an e-mail offering me my preferred Mysore start time for Kino, so that’s good. I then booked a weekend workshop for June with Dena, the only thing I was too late for was Seane Corn’s afternoon workshop on Good Friday afternoon, I had been waiting to see if we are having trains that day, we are alledgedly getting a Saturday service, so tried to book, but its full, oh well. I’m on the waiting list, hopefully someone will drop out.

RMT Scum at it again

Not only can I not get to YP on Sunday’s because of TFL, it looks like I wont even be able to get to AYL this week as those scumbags who run the RMT have called a strike for Sunday on London Midland services into London. I am getting well and truly pissed off with this, especially in the current economic climate, these union dinosaurs seem to be able to get away with holding the country to ransom while the likes of Fred the Shred walk away with millions for fucking up the banking system. Those of us just trying to get through life and take what litle pleasures we can are screwed at every corner. Those joyful hours of practice at AYL or YP on Sundays are the sole reason I bother going through the motions of the rest of the week. At this rate there wont actually be any reason to open my eyes on any of the 7 days of the week.

1 step forward then 2 back

The tooth is out, but the chesty cough has come back. After a long day sitting I wanted to do some practice tonight, but the last couple of days have taken more out of me than I realised. Standing were not great, my hamstrings seem to lose inches with an enforced day off, I got as far as Marichyasana A, then thought better of it, did some rubbish backbends and stopped, well actually I came down from a 2 breath UD straight into Savasana.

How can I go from a good shala practice on Sunday to a virtual wipe out practice on Tuesday, I only had a tooth extracted, maybe there are untold stresses on the body, maybe adrenaline took me through Sunday or perhaps my body is still trying to catch up from nearly 3 weeks of sleep deprivation.

Bring on the tooth Fairy!

It’s out and not a day too soon as far as I am concerned, even if it did cost me a fortune to go private. My upper left 7 is now in a dinky little bag ready for the tooth Fairy to swap for cash or a couple of Yorkie bars while I am asleep!

Though now the injections have worn off my face is aching and it’s still bleeding. The dentist gave me a list of do’s and dont’s, no alcohol (I dont drink anyway), no aspirin based painkillers and NO heavy physical exercise for 24 hours, not that I feel like it at the minute, but no practice tonight.

Sunnier Sunday practice

This cartoon is on the noticeboard at the shala, it makes me laugh on the way home, even if it does seem to be true, every time my practice is enjoyable and moving in a good direction, something comes along to screw it up, whether it be stress fracturing my foot, the crap transport system in this country, the lurgy or toothache, life takes its revenge.

Practice was oh so much better this morning, even if I did end up in the corner again. The Shala was warm, the sun was streaming through the windows and I had the energy to make practice feel more like how it should, rather than a slog like last week. My mind was in the practice, even my aching tooth settled down so that it wasn’t a distraction (It’s still coming out tomorrow). You know when you feel better, postures have more length and I was able to extend into them and enjoy the sensations of the muscles and ligaments escaping from last weeks restrictions. Even being adjusted in UHP wasn’t a trauma, though I wish there was more space for the leg out to the side part. I knew I was going well when I had managed to cross my own feet in Supta K before Louise arrived to help bind my hands, she helped my hands then tapped me on my back to let me know I was there, I even lifted up, but as usual it did seem to take a lot of my effort and I sat puffing at the front of mat, Louise came back to see if I was ok.

The backbend programme was back today, I did some bridges then 2 Urdva Dhanurasanas, but I can’t have got the hand positioning right as they kept sliding away forcing me to come down, Louise arrived and had me do one using her ankles, then had me do 3 dropbacks. UD takes a lot out of me, its almost like I can’t catch my breath and I suspect that may be part of the reason for my dizzyness episodes when doing dropbacks with Anna a few weeks ago. If I can get a minute or so playing around with dropbacks on my own and re-catching my breath, when a teacher then comes to help I am in a much better breath position to get something out of the dropback, as with today when I managed to walk my hands in before coming back up.

By the time I had done Savasana practice had taken 10 minutes short of 2 hours, back to its normal timescale at last, but unlike last week when I crawled home drained, this week I left the shala with energy and a buzzing mind as I walked along in the sunshine. The train home was actually on time as well.

It’s going to be a long week until next Sunday’s practice, the dentist to survive tomorrow and the Nutritionist next Saturday.

Primary in the sun

Yes I know it’s Saturday, the day of rest, but after yesterday’s curtailed practice my body felt like it had unfinished business and a yearning to stretch. So after mowing the grass in my garden for the first time this year, I went upstairs and did a full primary with the spring sunshine heating the room. Feeling warm makes all the difference, not shala warm, that’s something else, but feeling safe and warm enough to stretch out those hamstrings in poses like UHP and Supta Padangusthasana brings a different feeling to practice. Practice felt nice, I even added in the 2nd series backbends and had the energy to resume the dropback experiments, plus some handstands. Hopefully this all bodes well for a good practice in the nurturing heat of AYL in the morning.

The lurgy is finally going I think, the odd cough still escapes, but I feel much better, more energy is there. The toothache has abated overnight too, back to niggling, but even if it goes by Monday I’m still having that tooth removed.