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Yeah, I scrawled some notes after practice. The heading is “Miscone” or Misconc.”

Okay, I guess that sums it up.

Today’s practice was informed by my pre-practice reading of Grimmly’s blog. He talked about mula bandha, and I thought, “Hey, I need to actually pay attention to MB!” (This was mentioned yesterday in relation to LBH poses, too.)

So I paid attention. When I focus on one thing, of course, I usually lose another. Today it was the breath. I decided to take extra breaths and let that be okay. That way, I could really *feel* what I was doing, instead of keeping the metronome pacing of intermediate (or, as I like to practice it, the horrible gasping and breath-holding and fainty feeling).

At first, mula bandha just felt like a tangle of strong energy. But after a little while, it resolved into something more refined. I get images in my head of things I’m feeling, and what I saw was this:

Well, son of a gun. So that’s what’s going on in the cave of the sacrum.

Focus on mula bandha was a great idea. I felt very strong and extraordinarily cheerful. Practice was through pincha mayurasana. Then assisted dropbacks and assisted tics.

What a great practice today! Everything felt nice and strong and bendy. I’m losing my fear of the LBH poses, in part because of all of the discussion with you guys. Thanks!

Hey you guys, I hurt! Sore, sore, sore! In good places, though — all the inflexible spots: mid back, shoulders, that kind of thing.

I thought about skipping this morning, but then I wanted to try Vanessa’s suggestion about getting into eka pada sirsasana. Which I did try. To some success. Except, um, when I went to grab my outer thigh on the outstretched leg, I couldn’t find the strap — LOL! Yes, I now need not only longer legs, but legs with a handy strap on the outside thigh, so I can grab and pull myself more effectively into eka pada sirsasana.

And then I realized that Patrick is right and that it IS really good to have a teacher. Because tomorrow I will use my right hand to bring my right foot to my ear like a telephone, then I’ll bring my left arm up and over my head to grasp the foot and pull it back behind my head, and then, when I need to use my right hand to grab my left thigh, I’m gonna say “Hey, hold this, will you?” and MM will hold onto the leg behind my neck so it doesn’t press forward and snap my head off. Thank you in advance, Muscle Man!

Oh, did I forget to mention that I am kind of scared of putting my leg behind my head? Yeah. I’m nervous about my neck. Yes, I know, the foot goes down more onto the shoulder. Except it doesn’t quite yet. I’ll be happy when one day it does tuck down more and I can quit worrying about my neck.

Still, worrying about wrecking my neck means I don’t have time to worry about popping my hip out of its ball and socket joint. So that’s something to be grateful for.

And who knew? As I entertained my little worries about neck and hips, the only thing that was really affected was my back. Which is sore now. Sore muscles in two neat little rows that run down either side of my spine, about three inches out from the spine itself. The soreness makes me keep wanting to bend backwards for relief. Ah, a self-sustaining cycle of increasing flexibility. Genius.

P.S. Pincha mayurasana is easy unless you put it at the end of a strenuous practice. Then it’s pretty challenging. Just sayin’.

I feel like an ass going to Mysore practice in shorts. I want to wear a little button that says, “This is a purely utilitarian clothing selection.” I may try some of those loose slippery nylon capri things. I think Be Present makes them?

What I need is slipperiness for the eka and dwi pada sirsasanas. Oh, and NO slipperiness for bakasana B and tittibhasana A.

Speaking of tittibhasana, a little discussion about these new poses set The Cop off on a lewd yoga pose naming spree last night. It was hilarious, though not suitable for public documentation.

And yeah, the tittibhasanas. I mean, OW! Searing pain that grows ever more intense. What’s not to love?

This morning, Muscle Man goaded me into trying karandavasana. Hilarious trying to figure out how to lotus upside down. I got the first leg, but then was stymied about where my left leg was. What a funny feeling, to have no clue where your leg is in space. He touched my left foot to my right knee, and then I could understand where I was. Wriggled the foot in. Then he basically hauled me down and hauled me back up.

“Hey, that was EASY!” I announced. “You know, so long as you do all the work.”

Then a woman across the room fell over in garbha pindasana and couldn’t get out.

“Man down!” he said, and ran over to help.

I don’t know. Being a yoga teacher seems like being a kindergarten teacher in lots of ways…

Okay, strongest impression from practice this morning revolved around yesterday’s craving for salmon. I indulged the craving, had some yummy salmon and asparagus, and felt like crap in practice this morning. Oily food makes my joints feel great (and my skin!) but it also makes my stomach feel AWFUL in backbends. And I felt like I smelled of salmon and asparagus, which was kind of gross. Muscle Man eats meat, though, so I guess it probably wasn’t too awful from his perspective.

Note to self: please don’t make that mistake again.

I only forgot two things when I packed: mascara and deodorant. Two things I really would rather not do without. Still, better them than underwear or shoes.

Practice was intermediate to dwi pada sirsasana. Another note to self: put some body lotion on the backs of your shoulders before practice. I’m sweating like I’ve never sweated before, which is kind of cool, but I don’t seem to sweat much on the backs of my shoulders. If they’re slippery, eka and dwi pada are MUCH easier.

After dropbacks, Muscle Man said, “Tic tocs.” My eyes bugged out of my head. “Just one way,” he reassured me. So up into a handstand and over into a backbend. Woohoo! What fun. Of course, it’s only fun because he has to catch me.

Yeah, so I muddled through an intermediate practice. At the end, I figured I’d chat with him to verify that he felt it was the right practice for me to be doing. I guess I was overcome with insecurity — what if he was regretting his suggestion (after witnessing my muddling)?

I packed up and went over to thank him and to ask my question.

“Are you running out of time for your practice? Do you need to get to work?” he asked.

“Uh, no. I’m good for time,” I said, confused about what he was asking.

“You should go through to pincha mayurasana,” he said.

“Okay.”

Haha! How easy it is to say okay, right? Now I’m actually gonna have to DO it.

I know plenty of folks out there are well into the end of intermediate and on into advanced, but I do want to note that intermediate is hard. It looks like it’s not going to be that big of a deal, because you lose the bazillion vinyasas — but it’s a pretty strenuous string o’poses. I’m still kind of sketching it out in my body — still experiencing the design of the sequence. I really like it, but it’s daunting to think of doing it 5 days a week. Kind of like how primary seemed at first, now that I think of it.

Class is a combo of puppies and older dogs. At the end of the session today, the teacher asked that puppies stay after to play/socialize. There were three pups, including Waylon. Waylon manhandled the male (German Shepherd) by mounting him repeatedly, then cornered and slobbered all over the female (Poodle).

“God, he’s like a drunk obnoxious guy,” I said. Everyone solemnly nodded.

The Cop is proud.

At least he’s adorable when he sleeps:

Went to led primary this morning. Nice. Crowded. Sanskrit Scholar was in the building, doing a teacher training. Managed to get a hug and “congratulations” in — she and Volleyball Guy are getting married at the end of this month. The British Director was also in attendance, as was the daughter of one of the A2 co-op shala members.

Muscle Man led. A regular primary, a few poses from intermediate and — oddly & whimsically (but rather fun), a few minutes spent on natarajasana.

One of the women brought along a male friend. He soldiered through diligently. As we were leaving the room, she asked him, “Do you want to go get something to eat?”

“I think I’m going to go home and lie on my couch,” he replied. “For the rest of the day. And maybe tomorrow.”

Another Ashtangi is born.

First down dog of the morning: Whoa, there’s a new fold there somewhere around… uh, T9? A little hurty, but in the good “you have a little opportunity here, don’t blow it by getting greedy or thoughtless!” kind of way.

Hey wait, the new fold goes all the way around, matching the contour of my diaphragm. The image in my head sees my rib cage being loosened up and twisted off like a bottle cap.

Nice.

For someone like me, who loves props, it’s the stuff of nightmares dreams:

Waist-high orange steel cube with cut-outs along the edges and a not-precisely flat surface. Directions: Place hands on top of cube and bunny-hop into a handstand. “Are you kidding?!” looks are met with an even gaze and a nod.

Corner of wall and floor. Directions: Plug tips of middle fingers into corner and go up into a handstand (scissor-kick is acceptable, but the fact that you asked if scissor-kicking is okay probably just bought you some time on the orange steel cube). Note that the back of your head kinda hits against the wall when you kick up this close. Think a little bit about how practicing alone makes you much more self-conscious in a shala setting. It may be healthy to spend more time with other humans.

Ramp. Directions: Stand at the top of the ramp facing downwards. Walk legs up the wall and over into a handstand. Note that you thought you washed the body lotion off of your hands before you came to class, but now, as you sweat with fear in this weird downhill handstand, you are actually kind of sliding down the ramp on your slippery palms. Instruction from teacher: “Don’t freak out.” Laugh inside, because really, why waste your breath on laughing out loud? The mindreader can hear you either way.

Teacher. Yes, teacher as prop. Who knew? Acro yoga. SUPER FUN! I want one for my yoga room! Various instructions included: “Grab your feet,” “Relax your shoulders,” and another reasonable but hilariously funny: “Don’t freak out,” to which you reply, “Okay.” Because, really, what else can you say?

A quick post from conference. Seattle rocks. Great bookstores. Great yoga.

I met Laksmi and Armani and practiced with The Diver. A terrific experience. I’ll write more when I get home, but suffice it to say: my love of experiments was satisfied and he has some REALLY cool (and kinda scary) props.

And we discussed proprioception. You know that gets big points in my book.