Mysore revolution in the sticks – week 2

With AYL closed for building work at least I’ve been able to get in another 3 consecutive mornings at the local Shala, as it continues to trial the early morning Mysore experiment. Over the 3 days we had nearly the same total of students come along this week, but the spread each day was more even, week 1 was 14, 5 & 1, week 2 has been 9, 5 & 5. Two of us did all 3 days this week.

The 9 body’s on Wednesday (moon days don’t count in the sticks!) warmed the space up nicely, and great to not be the last in there, with a couple of others doing a chunk of intermediate.

Thursday morning was cold and I never really seemed to get warm, 5 people isn’t enough to steam the windows up on such a cold morning. My left knee was annoyed and didn’t want to play either, though the real surprise was the best ever attempt at (my illegal) Kapotasana, I landed a lot nearer my feet, but can’t work out how to then move the hands towards the feet, but it’s fun trying and really helps loosen my back up for Urdva Dhanurasana and dropbacks.

Friday 5 of us again, which pretty soon became two, me and L, as the others finished at half primary or ran off to work after 75 minutes. At least Friday morning was much warmer and L is another who adds the chunk of 2nd to Kapo, she started after me and was around 6 postures behind, this worked well as we both got assistance in Pasasana , Bhekasana , Dhanurasana and dropbacks.

Growing an early morning Mysore program from scratch is hard enough in a city, but out in the countryside where the potential pool of ashtangi’s is a lot smaller, it’s really difficult and is probably going to take a long time to bear fruit. There is still a culture of yoga being something people attend once a week, even if they practice at home. And the cost to family budgets is another big consideration for many.

The 6:30am start is convenient for the majority who do half primary or a little more, they can practice and still be at work by 8:30-9:00am, but for the (very) few of us with longer practices going in to intermediate, it could do with starting earlier, when we don’t even finish until 8:30am, joining the rat race in time is impossible.

This is going to be the case for me for the next few months. After nearly two years of injury, surgery, recovery and unemployment I’m finally rejoining the rat race next week after seeing a random job advert last week on Facebook of all places. It’s only temporary and part time, but it’s a start on the road back to normality.