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Thursday Mysore with The Poetess. Intermediate to pincha. A soft kapotasana where I didn’t overtly chicken-wing my arms (I will try to find or make a picture to explain this, Fatou!) but I did
cant my elbows out a bit. Interestingly, that little change was evident to The Poetess, who said, “Oh, you’re more open today than yesterday!” I don’t want to crank into whatever rotation it is that makes the chicken wing possible — it’s not important (or safe!) to charge into it in order to “get” the pose. But I do want to explore it. Now’s the time to temper my glee.

About an hour in, Muscle Man showed up with his mat and set off into his personal practice. I was happy to see that — I worry about teachers spending so much time on everyone else that they lose touch with their own practice. I know he keeps his daily practice, but I’m sure it’s a lot more pleasant to practice at 7 AM instead of before you open the shala at 6.

Savasana was a magic carpet. I played some games with uddiyana and mula bandhas — got some deep memories of people and animals I’ve loved who’ve died. THIS is why I need to keep my heart shut! I thought, and kind of laughed at myself a little. Ruefully.

Okay, so here’s a question. Yes, uddiyana flies you up, so it makes sense in standing poses (I need to crank it down a bit there, ’cause I fly up on my own anyhow) and in seated poses and in backbends. And mulabandha grounds in standing and seated and… okay, what about backbends? Yeah, I get it in the up-facing backbends (urdhva dhanurasana, kapotasana), but what about the down-facing backbends: dhanurasana, for example. What’s the MB deal in dhanurasana? I’m trying to go up, not down. God, I kind of hate dhanurasana (and don’t get me started on parsva dhanurasana) — they make me feel all wonky. Maybe because of this backwards energy stuff…