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Generally I go about my business, constructing weird props and trying to live by my own paraphrase of Krishna’s words to Arjuna:

Let not the fruit of action be thy motive. Perform action, being steadfast in abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure.

(As an aside, I think I’m going to try to include this in a presentation to my team; I like to do a little kick-off to the new year, with a few principles for the team to focus on for the year, etc. This year, concepts from the Bhagavad Gita (Just do it!) meet Clay Shirky’s concept of cognitive surplus (Cultivate & use your surplus wisely!). I wonder how this is going to fly…)

Okay, so anyhow, I’ve been going about my business learning as much as I can about backbends. And I’ve been studiously avoiding kapotasana-desire. I know I made a “kapotasana machine” out of Iyengar ropes and bungee cords (God, what a funny thing to write!), but the motivation was about finding a way to open up my armpits — and that was the only way I could think of.

Anyhow…

This morning, at Mysore practice, Muscle Man came by as I was setting up for urdhva dhanurasana.

“Where did you stop? Ustrasana?”

“Yes.”

“I’d suggest you go to laghu vajrasana or kapotasana.”

I just stared at him (I’m not very quick at 7 AM).

“Kapotasana,” he decided. “You should go to kapotasana.”

So I did laghu vajrasana and set up for kapotasana.

And the cool thing, after scaring the crap out of myself with my homemade kapo machine, was that I didn’t feel even slightly cowed by the pose. If nothing else, the kapo machine is excellent for desensitization. I went back for kapo, and while my head was still off the ground, Muscle Man grabbed my left wrist and guided my hand to my foot, then he grabbed my right wrist and brought that hand to my foot. Easily.

No pain, no panic, no problem.

“You should do the pose when I’m around,” he said. “Take the opportunity for the adjustment.”

Yeah. I think I will!