Breath, Long haul, Teef

Posted in ashtanga yoga, dogs!, things i like on 07/26/2010 12:40 pm by karen

Practice has been super delightful lately ’cause of the breath. My flotation experiences (and yes, I wish they’d just go back to calling it what it is: sensory deprivation) reminded me how much I enjoy breathing when I’m wearing earplugs. So practice these days includes props: the two sticky orange earplugs I bring home from the flotation spa sensory deprivation tank.

Lately I experience my breath as a sphere. Each inhale/exhale is one sphere and a single moment. I don’t think of anything that happens outside the sphere: nothing from the past, nothing from the present. If it isn’t part of the sphere, which is just the inhalation and the exhalation and the sensations of the particular posture or vinyasa, then I put it down. Sweet. It gets progressively harder to do as the week wears on; I find myself thinking about work stuff and playing scenarios in my head. No! No! No! Get out of my breath sphere! I’m entitled to at least 90 minutes per day of being beyond thought constructions, right?

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Speaking of 90 minutes: at this point I am trekking through primary to yoga nidrasana five days a week. At almost every practice there is an interruption, usually towards the end, where my mind yells, “THIS IS A LONG HAUL!” Then I start the next breath sphere and go on.

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Waylon, after spending close to two months going around with cuts all over his jowls from Daisy’s violent affections, finally corrected her this weekend. Apparently he nipped her. Neither The Cop nor I saw it; we just heard her yelp, then saw him immediately comfort her. Talk about not holding a grudge. He did it three times over the course of the weekend, and she is now approaching him a little more gently.

Interestingly, The Cop and I had recently started reprimanding her when she was trying to rip his face off, because it didn’t seem like he ever would and it was getting too crazy. I wonder if he finally felt like it was okay, once he saw that The Cop and I didn’t like what was going on.

Still, no matter how rough and tumble she is, how can you not love a face like this?

 

4 Comments

  1. Hey Karen, love your description of the breath sphere. I am practicing up to dwi pada, so just one less. It is a long practice, I have found focusing on each breath really helps, how many times do I need to learn this! I realised that my breath was less deep as the week progressed and once I changed that, the practice was less exhausting and more nourishing. Nice to hear about someone else’s experience of a similar stage.

  2. Dear Karen
    I should keep your suggestion of using ear plugs for when I need to practice at home. When practicing with our group the breaths are intense and contribute to the thought depravation and meditative state you describe.
    hugs
    Arturo

  3. I liked this breath sphere idea, so I tried it this morning when I found myself getting distracted. It helped, I think, although my breath sphere turned into a breath bubble that, in my imagination, deformed itself appropriately for the pose.

  4. Oh, I like the idea of the pretzely breath spheres! :-)

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