After some encouragement from A a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been working more on 2nd series.  I complained to her that I usually end up quitting at pincha mayurasana since my balance is still of.  She said that I should go ahead and keep working through the rest of 2nd series regardless of whether I can do each pose perfectly.  She said, “Perfection…is in the mind’s eye. If you’re on the mat, breathing,focused, and challenging yourself then your practice is perfect. Pincha mayurasana will come.”  

    So I’ve been practicing 2nd series the past couple of weeks.  I still have a few problem areas that mainly involve getting the left leg behind my shoulder.  The left shoulder is still a little bit tender, so I’ve been taking it easy on the leg-behind-the-head postures.  And I’m able to do kapotasana now without any shoulder pain.  Unfortunately, the left shoulder (my tight side anyway) has tightened up a bit, but I think it’ll stretch out in no time.  Last night I went through all of 2nd series.  Some of the postures were laughable…but oh well.

   Class with Louise this week was awesome (as expected).  She’s been giving me adjustments in my dropbacks that have been really helpful in keeping my feet down and my legs straighter.  And at the end of class she led us through a short yoga nidra session (my favorite part of her classes!).  I asked her what book she recommended on the subject and she suggested “Yoga Nidra” by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.  I’m going to see if I can find a copy at my local used bookstore.  If not, there are some used copies on Amazon that are inexpensive.  Last night, I went through a short yoga nidra session on my own before savasana.  I don’t know that I’ve ever felt as relaxed as I do after the sessions.  Going to incorporate them into my practice before savasana.

   I’ve been focusing on refining my backbending lately, especially with regard to dropbacks.  For a while, I was stuck in a rut….not making much progress.  But, after Tim and Kino’s workshop last month I finally seem to be in the right mindset to move forward.  I’ve been focusing a lot on my feet — grounding down through the heels while dropping back and standing up.  This has helped my backbends tremendously.  For the first time, I feel like I’m actually standing up from backbends instead of flinging body up and forward.  It’s such a good feeling.  And I’ve been taking the dropbacks really slow.  While helping me drop back, Kino said, “take all the time you need.”  So that’s what I’ve been doing.  Slooooowwww dropbacks.  On a good day I can maintain full control until my fingertips touch the ground.  Then I let gravity take over. 

   I also tried a tip from Kaivalya on grounding the big toe in backbends as well.  This has also helped to keep my feet from splaying out.  They don’t move much in backbends (I’m more of a heel-lifter than a foot-splayer), but this helps keep the feet even more grounded. 

   On a random practice note, I noticed something new in practice on Tuesday.  While moving into dhanurasana (bow pose), I bent both knees and then kind of lifted my torso to rock back and grab the ankles.  I used to grab one heel at a time until Kino said, “No, you do both heels…both heels, same time.”  Um, okay.  So now I’ve been grabbing both heels and I’ve noticed that I have the back strength to left the torso up and back in position without having to bend my knees very far.  Does that make sense?  I feel like I could almost lift the torso first and then bend the knees to grab the ankles.  Kind of strange…but neat. 

   I love backbends.  Found this picture from my wedding last year.  That’s my husband making sure I don’t fall out of my dress during my backbend.  Hehe.

…but first I need to get a better booty to fit into them.  Haha!  I wasn’t able to do any cardio during the Kino workshop two weeks ago in Miami.  And last week I think I got in three good workouts.   Plus, I went on carb overload in Florida.  So now I’m feeling kinda soft….and it’s annoying.  I’ve been so busy with school (7 more classes until I graduate with degree #3!!!), work, yard work, and house cleaning that it’s been a bit of a challenge trying to get back to my workout/yoga balancing act.  I’m sooooo looking forward to not having to go to school anymore.  After my law degree I told myself I was done with school.  Then somehow got persuaded to apply for a graduate degree.  Well, I’m done for good now.  D-O-N-E.  I’m looking forward to spending more time enjoying my non-work time and having more time for yoga and exercise. 

   Back to the booty shorts issue.  Last night I made it back to Exhale Fitnessfor Brittany’s Velo Barre class (first time back in 2 weeks).  It felt so good to workout uninterrupted for a whole hour.  And seeing Brittany in her tiny booty shorts reminded me that (1) I need some new cute workout clothes and (2) I need to step up my workout routine if I intend to fit my badonk in some booty shorts of my own.

    So I’m on the lookout for cute workout bottoms.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. 

Yoga Practice Notes:  I was short on time last night after velo barre.  So I went home after class and did second series up to kapotasana b.  Practice felt good.  I was nice and warmed up after velo.  Laghu vajrasanawas rough after all the ballet pliés.  My quads!  But I was able to come up with the hands still on the ankles.  I’ve been working on the suggestion that Tim Feldman gave me in bhekasana to rotate the tailbone down toward the floor while pressing the feet down.  I’m seeing a little more improvement in this posture.  Both feet are only about two inches off the floor now, and it’s getting easier to lift the chest higher.  I think that having more confidence that I’m not going to tear up my knees in this posture has also helped me to press the feet down with a little more force.  Overall it was a good, short practice.

    I’m on a roll with these videos from Miami last week.  The latest is posted below.  Kino talks briefly about the transition from kurmasana to supta kurmasana.  I think I have a tendency (like a lot of people) to have the back overly-rounded.  So her suggestion to keep the forehead on the ground while continuing to flatten the spine is great.  I didn’t capture this comment on the video, but during the discussion I asked her why it was important to try to lift the heels off the ground in kurmasana.  She said it was because lifting the heels helps to flatten the spine.  This makes sense….and now that I have some rationale behind lifting the heels, I’ve started doing this more in my regular practice.  I thought it was just some fancy move before…but now I see the logic behind it.

   She also had a great tip on getting into supta kurmasana from sitting upright.  After the left leg comes behind the head, you lift the right leg up with the right hand (left hand stays on the floor).  Then you press the soles of the feet together in an “X” shape and use the twisting motion of the feet to slide the right foot behind the left foot.  Does this make sense?  I wish I would’ve gotten this tip on video.  It’s really helped me.

   Practice Notes:  As for my own practice this week, I can sum it up on one word — Lame.  I underestimated the amount of catch-up work, homework, and after-work socializing I had to do this week.  Every evening has been busy and so I haven’t had a lot of time for my asana practice.  I do have plans to meet up with a friend after work tonight and practice together.  That’ll be a nice way to end the work week.  While I haven’t had a lot of time for my asana practice, I have been devoting more time to pranayama.  This is something that Tim and Kino emphasised during the workshop.  I’ll have to admit that pranayama has never been much interest to me.  I’d rather practice sitting meditation.  But, I gave pranayama a try this week before I got ready for work in the morning.  I have to say that I’ve felt much calmer and more level throughout the day this week.  There were times at work when remained calm when I normally would’ve gotten frustrated.  I’m not positive that it has something to do with the pranayama….but I’m pretty sure it does.  The change has been positive enough to convince me to keep practicing the breathing exercises.

Okay, so tomorrow is my last day at the Kino MacGregor weeklong workshop.  Wow, it has been so much more than I ever expected.  I’ve gotten some of the best adjustments of my life.  And the best part is…no soreness whatsoever.  My calves have gotten a little sore from long walks on the beach…but no soreness from the yoga.

There’s so much to write about that I don’t know where to begin.  Kino and Tim are two of the sweetest people I’ve ever met.   They have been willing to answer any question that the students throw at them.  And their answers are always well thought out, straightforward, and honest.  It’s refreshing to go to such an off-the-cuff workshop since so many of them are very….formulaic.

I practiced up to kapotasana B this morning.  And Tim and Kino have been bringing my hands to ankles every day in backbends.  (I need to figure out a way to keep practicing this at home….maybe I can enlist my husband for adjustments…hehe).   Oh, and Kino helped me stand up from backbends today with both heels on the ground.  Yay!  I think I’m going to be able to keep doing this at home…with a little bit of patience.  I took some great video yesterday of the asana question/answer session.  Once I get home, I’ll edit the video and post some of it online.

Anyhow, more updates to come.  Gotta go take a walk on the beach….

    I’ve been so busy preparing for the next upcoming yoga workshop this weekend that I haven’t had time to write much about last weekend’s David Williams workshop.  One thing that I found interesting was his discussion about “getting” the next pose.  The whole process of getting permission to move on to the next posture has always seemed strange to me.   I’ve looked around, and I haven’t found a list of criteria that a student must satisfy in each posture in order to move on to the next one.  The best that I can figure is that teachers move students on to the next posture when the teacher feels the student is ready.   Of course, this process is problematic for students (like myself) that don’t have the opportunity to go to a regular mysore class. 

   I’ve never had a teacher hold me back from progressing in the series.  For the first two years of my practice, I struggled a lot with the question of “what posture should I stop at?”  I’ve read ashtanga blogs where students wrote about “getting” a new posture from their teacher.  And, I’ll have to admit that in the early part of my practice I felt like I was missing something.  After all, everyone else was “getting” new postures and I was just, you know, doing what I could with primary series. 

   Last week David Williams stood in front of the class and said that when he started practicing with Pattabhi Jois, there was no “giving” of new postures.  The length of the practice was only limited by the stamina of the student.  If the student lacked the stamina to complete primary series, she was stopped at the point where she became tired.  But if a student had plenty of stamina, she would continue on to complete the series…or even move on to the next one.  Of course, the students were practicing twice a day (for an hour or two at a time).  So, one would have to have to be in fairly decent shape to complete full primary, second, third, etc.  According to David, after Western students started crowding the practice space, Pattabhi Jois had to come up with some way to cut down on the volume of people practicing.  It was only then that students were held back if they couldn’t satisfactorily perform a posture.  This shortened the practice times of many students, which freed up space for Pattabhi Jois to teach larger numbers of people.

   This makes sense to me.  If I were Pattabhi Jois, I probably would’ve done the same thing.  But….if you’re not in Mysore and you’re not practicing at a place with high student numbers, is it still necessary to hold back students based on proficiency in postures?  In my opinion, no.  If a new student has the stamina to go through the entire primary series, then they should be allowed to do so.  The teacher should, of course, monitor the student to prevent injury.   But a student shouldn’t be prohibited from practicing full primary if she can’t bind in Mari D.  After all, some students may never bind due to physical limitations.  But, those students will still get a great deal of benefit from practicing the second half of primary….or even a later sequence.

    So, thank you David Williams.  I no longer feel the need to question my proficiency in a particular posture anymore.  Instead, I can focus on the practice as a whole.