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Decided to use some of my gym pants for practice today. How are yoga pants different from gym pants, anyhow? I had climbing pants before I had yoga pants, and they are interchangeable: I was introduced to Prana products as climbing gear, and then just transitioned them over for yoga use. So why don’t people use Everlast pants in the shala? Fashion, perhaps.

Home practice today. Though there were more people present than at the shala yesterday. The Cop was in the livingroom, doing his morning coffee and web ritual. Usually he is out of here before I begin, but his shift is changing at work. I was in the yoga foyer (geez, it’s going to be great to have a whole room for yoga!) feeling a teeny bit self-conscious. At least at first. There is something rather strange about practicing near someone who is sitting still. And complaining about the heat Yeah, I cranked it up good. Guess I need a space heater for the new house.

Practice was no frills: I decided to do the whole series but skip the extras and the transitions (samakonasana/hanumanasana and bakasana/eka pada bakasana). I was pretty tired: last night we went out to dinner for My Gift’s 18th birthday, so again there was lots of eating and drinking late into the evening.

My collarbones are still killing me, and I am pleased, for the most part. I don’t think I’ve had this intense a response to yoga ever. I have seriously tight shoulders–so I am hoping we are really getting somewhere with them. Vinyasas at first exacerbated the pain, then relieved it (as I heated up). Kurmasana stressed my shoulders again, and then it was another round of the pain during supta kurmasana. Enough that I am not even close to a hand bind. But that’s okay. It’s all working itself out.

The no frills practice zipped along at a really good pace. I think I finished up in about the same time as if I’d listened to Sharath’s CD. It just felt nice to move and breathe. At one point I wondered if I was “just exercising,” but there was a heavy bliss component and nice focus, so I think I’ll just figure I had a good practice and leave it at that.

This morning, on the drive to Volleyball Guy’s, I thought about home practice. Volleyball Guy is off teaching a teacher training session, so he hasn’t been around in the mornings. And he’ll be out of the country for the whole month of February. And we’ll be in the new house, which will have a devoted yoga space. Naturally, I started thinking about just practicing at home. Pretty quickly, I decided I’d like to at least see the others a couple of times a week. At this point, I am going to Volleyball Guy’s for Mysore three times a week, to his led class once a week, and practicing on my own twice a week. Perhaps just go to Mysore with the other Mysorites (as Sanskrit Scholar calls us) on Mondays and Fridays and practice at home on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday?

As I was thinking this over, I arrived at Volleyball Guy’s. Quiet morning. I went in, the heater and lights were on, but no one was there. I guess Volleyball Guy got up early, turned everything on, and went back to sleep. So I practiced on my own. Funny, huh? I was thinking about how I should be doing more practicing on my own, and the universe apparently agreed.

One discovery this morning is that the pain in my neck/collarbone area is not from setu bandhasana. The pain was rather pronounced at the beginning of practice, as I was warming up, but then it was fine. Until I got to kurmasana. As I was pressing down with my legs, it occurred to me that my shoulders were stressed in a way consistent with the pain I’ve been feeling. And when I flipped my arms over and went for the supta kurmasana hand bind…bingo! Yup, that’s what all the soreness has been about.

I am surprised and amused that I am having all of this sensation in my shoulders. I have always understood that my shoulders are tight, but I always thought I was loosening them from the back–that the issue was in the shoulderblade area. Now, though, I am finding that the front of my shoulders and into my collarbones is an area that is tight, too. And my traps. These muscles have always been entirely off my radar. The dhanurasanas have been tugging at the front of my shoulders, and throw in the supta kurmasanas–and you have a recipe for a new kind of pain…uh, I mean, “sensation.” It’s kind of good news (except for the hurting part) because I have been struggling to loosen up my shoulders, and maybe this is part of that process.

I continued on to upavishta konasana and then called it quits. Quiet closing. Savasana. I turned off the lights, shut the door, and left Volleyball Guy’s in the dark.

Last night, as we were watching a really cool documentary, I started noticing that I was really sore. I was a dedicated weight-lifter for almost 20 years, so I am accustomed to muscle pain, but I’ve never been sore in these muscles before. They’re the ones that run down your neck and under your collarbones. I didn’t think about it all that much, and went to bed.

In the middle of the night I woke up, sore as hell, and all the muscles up my spine were sore, too. And it dawned on me: setu bandhasana. I flashed on practice yesterday and remembered that when I did setu bandhasana, I noticed with surprise that my hips were really high and that more of my forehead was on the mat than usual.

Admittedly, I am usually kind of a setu bandhasana slacker. I’m usually thinking about backbends at that point in my practice. Plus, setu bandhasana seems a little dangerous to me, so I pretty much go at it with little ambition and figure it will eventually evolve on its own. All of this adds up to pretty low-key attempts at the pose. But somehow, yesterday, I seem to have really gotten into the pose more fully. Silly me

Today I’m taking the Moon Day off. We’ll spend the day with The Cop’s parents, who are leaving tomorrow at noon. I imagine we will eat a lot and drink. Sigh. Eating and drinking a lot are really rather challenging pursuits.

Oh, and the cool documentary we watched last night: The Story of the Weeping Camel. About a Mongolian family that tries to help a mother camel accept her baby. The two young brothers of the family take a journey through the Gobi to find a violinist to perform a ritual the elders say will cause the mother to accept the colt. It’s a fascinating movie, beautifully filmed, and the people are just lovely. Check it out.

As I was falling asleep last night, I had the sensation of energy running in a kind of loop down both of my legs and back up into my spine. It was quite cool. Simultaneously visceral and ethereal. A result of those few second series poses I’ve been muddling through in home practice, I wonder? Or perhaps nerve damage? I suppose we’ll find out eventually

This morning’s practice was quite good, despite staying up late last night visiting with The Cop’s parents. We ate late, we had alcohol, we didn’t go to bed on time. Recipe for a perfect practice? Probably not. But it was fine. Chanting Man and The Cat were there, as well as The Other Dave and Sanskrit Scholar. Still no Volleyball Guy. But Chanting Man and Sanskrit Scholar doled out a few adjustments for all of us, and that was great for morale.

I decided to go ahead and do full primary again today, since I had so much fun on Wednesday. In garbha pindasana, I got both arms through, to about my elbows. By that, I mean elbows at the top of my thigh, not through and at my hamstrings–wow, this is very hard to express clearly! I guess, more accurately, I got my forearms about halfway through. At any rate, pushing my arms through made my knees in padmasana feel great–but then I managed to push further, until both my calves cramped up. Okay, guess I found that edge…

I mucked up the sequence and did supta konasana before upavistha konasana, so I doubled back around and did supta again. A little extra practice for that pose, I guess. The lovely thing lately is that I am aware of how thinking isn’t always necessary. I messed up the sequence, realized it, went back, did supta konasana again, and went on my merry way. No time spent thinking about how I was a dope, no time spent trying to figure out what I should do–I just did something, and it was simple and as good an answer as any other. I caught myself starting to think and prepare too much when I got to marichyasana C (which I can do easily, unless I think about it)–so I made my mind blank and just did the pose. Much better.

I have great resistance to the idea that thinking isn’t always a good thing. I was brought up to think all the time, and I went to school for years and then to grad school twice, and I’ve always been rewarded for thinking. But quite honestly, it is vastly overrated, and I am enjoying (as Nike so profoundly promoted) just doing it.

And now I must just go back and do work.

Today I did the same practice as Tuesday. I was concerned I might feel burnt from doing even a little bit of nadi shodana, but I’ve felt great the past couple of days, despite major stress at work and lots of chaos in the new house/moving situation. In fact, I’ve been quite amazed at how stable my mind has been. There’s a stack of work on my desk, I have performance appraisals to conduct with my team next week, we’re moving, The Cop’s parents are visiting, I invited a faculty member/developer to visit from San Diego yesterday and spent every minute of the day in meetings with him and various members of upper management. And I didn’t feel overwhelmed for a moment. Go Ashtanga!

Tonight is a special ceremony and post-ceremony party for The Cop. So another busy day. And then a weekend with his folks, who keep saying they intend to help us move. Except I am not ready to move yet and just want to relax all weekend. We’ll have to divert them with restaurants and margaritas and maybe the Barrett Jackson car show. Apparently The Cop’s dad loves cars. I don’t, but I’d rather look at cars than pack and move boxes.

The Cop, quite amusingly, looked at the sky this morning and said, “You must have a Moon Day coming up.” I have to laugh, because I notice Moon Days when they appear on my calendar and mean a day off. He notices it because he is in sync with celestial bodies. Uh oh, The Cop is a better yogi than I. Go Cop!

Wondered for a moment this morning if I should go to Mysore practice. I was coughing a bit and we stayed out late last night for a cop function (they really do banquet on rubbery chicken, BTW).

So off I go to Volleyball Guy’s, because I don’t want to decide not to go. Volleyball Guy, still ensconced in teacher training, was not there. Just Chanting Man, his daughter The Cat, and me.

A nice, quiet, focused practice. Chanting Man was kind enough to offer a few adjustments, most notably in the forward bending portion of samakonasana and in prasarita C. When you are at Volleyball Guy’s, you almost invariably get adjustments in those two poses. So Chanting Man kept up the tradition today. He adjusted differently than Volleyball Guy, though. Volleyball Guy tends to have more energy pressing downward in samakonasana, whereas Chanting Man was primarily pushing me forward. I understand that you want both energies (downward and forward) in that adjustment, but they emphasize it differently. I found myself simultaneously terrified and curious during the adjustment. Everything turned out just fine, but once again I am reminded how much I rely on Volleyball Guy’s familiar adjustments, and how I trust them.

Handstands between navasana rocked today. I am just kicking up, sticking the pose, and then I’m able to curl my knees in and get about halfway down before gravity takes over again. This is a perfect example of just practicing until suddenly you can do it. I love doing handstands, but never thought about them with any particular ambition. So it’s been a very mellow learning curve.

Chanting Man spotted me thrashing around in supta kurmasana–I could feel my spine with my fingertips and was curious about how far apart they were. He came over and pushed my hands just a teeny bit closer, and I had the bind. So I’ll go with the hand bind (versus the foot crossing) for a while and see where that goes.

Usually I knock off at supta kurmasana, but it’s been two weeks since I went to led primary, and I was really missing the whole series. So I carried on. I managed to get one arm through on garbha pindasana. This has never happened before and I was quite surprised. Am I supposed to keep one arm all the way through and then work on trying to get the other, or back off and try to get both halfway through, I wonder? Calling Volleyball Guy. Time to quit teaching those other people and get back to Mysore practice. Alternatively, I suppose I could try to learn to do a one-armed kukkutasana and just pretend it’s my special trick. As if.

Backbends were the ustrasana/dhanurasana combo. And finishing poses were truncated because I have early meetings at work. Which means I ought to quit writing now.

Crim begets crim. What can I say? This morning, for home practice, I decided to check out Richard Freeman’s Second Series DVD. I started off figuring I’d just do the standing poses with him.

I love the way RF describes things. I listen to his Primary DVD every so often, just to see if I’m remembering some of the stuff he mentions. I was thrilled to get this new DVD, to hear what sorts of images he comes up with. He’s my nomination for Poet Laureate of Yoga.

One thing I was quite conscious of, listening to this new DVD, is how tense my mouth is. He kept mentioning how the palate should be relaxed and empty, and sure enough, I’d notice how tightly I had my tongue pressed up against the top of my mouth. It seems to be the locus of my tension during practice. Chased it out of my shoulders, but didn’t lose it.

It was a pleasure working with the DVD (lots of reminders about the “cave of the sacrum,” which was a nice reference point to keep in mind), and when we got to pasasana, I decided to give it a go. I haven’t done any second series poses for a few months, and it felt good. I just went to laghuvajrasana, and knocked off there. RF keeps a good pace in this DVD, so I couldn’t belabor things. Just a nice little practice, then finishing poses, and voila–I’m done.

I will be curious to see how I feel today. For a little while there, Volleyball Guy was doing second series on Tuesday evenings and I was going to that. I found, quickly, that the energy generated by the practice was totally frying me. I was instantly rendered sleepless and restless and frazzled. Of course, we went through the whole series, so that might have had something to do with it. Perhaps my little taste of it this morning will be invigorating, rather than exhausting. We’ll see.

In other news, The Cop’s parents are coming for a visit for the weekend. They arrive tomorrow night. The house we are in and the new house are both in a state of uproar, so I have to just give up wanting them to look pristine. We’re in the midst of moving, so basically we have two disaster areas at the moment.

And My Gift From The Universe left me a note in the middle of the night. Apparently she is ill and will not be going to school. I hate when she feels sick. It always scares both of us, as we are concerned it might be a flare. Hopefully she’ll just sleep it off, and wake feeling well.

Hey, I’m on my lunch break–cut me some slack. Early meetings today, so my usual morning routine of practicing, then coming home and making tea and blogging was disrupted. For a long time, I’ve thought yoga is more important than work, and now I know that yoga and blogging are more important than work. Hmmm. Maybe this is exactly what not to post from work…

This morning was another non-Volleyball Guy morning. He’s doing a teacher training, one of the advanced, accelerated programs. So he’s not feeling the 5:30 AM Mysore practice. This morning I managed to get there right at 5:30, just as The Other Dave was opening the door. Sanskrit Scholar showed up shortly afterwards. It was just us, all morning.

It was great to practice with them. Both of them are strong practitioners–even-keeled and methodical. The Other Dave has offered me maybe three suggestions in the 6 months I’ve been practicing in his company, and each one has been something that really affected my practice. Today he said “It’s coming along,” and I kind of, uh, semi-executed eka pada bakasana to chaturanga. Maybe next time he’ll have a more concrete suggestion…

Here’s the question of the day, though: supta kurmasana–master the hands first or the legs? Today I went with hands, and am getting pretty close. But that means my legs aren’t crossed. Oh, I flop around like a fish until I get the soles of my feet touching, but that’s about it. Alternatively, I can come out of kurmasana, cross my ankles, and then try to get my shoulders jammed back under my legs. Never works out that well. I wish Volleyball Guy had been there to ask.

He is MIA for I don’t know how long. Nice of me, huh, to be more concerned with my needs than his? Oh, I don’t begrudge him–he should catch up on his sleep and I should figure some of this out on my own. I wonder if sometimes he doesn’t just want to maintain a zen silence when we ask him all of our questions–surely many of them are silly, or ego-driven, or things we aren’t meant to know yet. He has an adventure to the Philippines slated for the whole month of February, so I guess that’ll give me plenty of time to hatch incorrect theories, gather all sorts of misinformation, and try all kinds of mistaken experiments. A little something to look forward to

Today marks 6 months since I started practicing Ashtanga. And I celebrate it a little sadly, because I am not at Volleyball Guy’s led primary. I have too much house stuff to do, and it wouldn’t be fair to let The Cop work while I practice. C’est la vie. A hard decision, but perhaps one my practice has made a little easier. Maybe I am getting my priorities a bit more in order. Ash mentioned this today in relation to his car, and it got me thinking.

Six months of practice is nothing, but it’s also really something. My body feels very different–the freedom in my hips and shoulders and spine is astounding. Oh yeah, there’s waaaaay more to go, but what a terrific start. I also have the community of the shala, which I am quite grateful for. And I have practice, which helps put things into perspective. I really believe Ashtanga practice gives zazen practice a run for the money.

So far, so good. Thanks to Ashtangis, physical and virtual, who’ve helped me learn so much so quickly. Special thanks to Volleyball Guy, Sanskrit Scholar, The British Director and Returning Guy. You guys rock.

Namaste.

Mysore this morning, but without Volleyball Guy. He’s doing some kind of training thing, so didn’t make an appearance. The diehards, though, were all there: Sanskrit Scholar, British Director, Chanting Man and Returning Guy. We all traded down dog adjustments at the beginning, and then Sanskrit Scholar and Chanting Man offered a few adjustments to the rest of us as we went along.

It was an interesting hybrid of self-practice and Mysore. Less rigorous than when Volleyball Guy is there, nice and warm because of the group, and yet more of the internal quality of self-practice. Humans really are social creatures–I almost said “herd animals”–we sure do like to do things together. So this morning was fun, we laughed a good bit–a few times it reminded me of when the adults would be off somewhere else and the kids would play.

When I started off, I decided that when I got to Marichy D I’d use a strap for the bind, like I did yesterday at home. But once I got there, I decided to save the strap trick for home practice–it can be a little treat I save just for when I’m practicing on my own.

As reported yesterday, the bakasana-to-chaturanga transition after utkatasana is coming along well. It was actually fun to do today. I also had much better balance in eka pada bakasana after virabhadrasana B. It’s taken me quite a while to realize that the arms are at more of an angle when you set up for EKB than when you set up for plain old bakasana. I kept trying to hold my arms straight and just tuck my right knee into my armpit and balance from there–but apparently physical reality just doesn’t work that way. Happy I paid a bit of attention to how Sanskrit Scholar did that pose last week. Funny how poses can just seem impossible when you do them the wrong way