Thursday Night practice at Breath and Body Yoga is quickly becoming the highlight of my week. There were 27 of us there last night practicing together. I had the camera and everyhting ready for pics but we were all so consumed with the practice that it just slipped my mind and Kelly who often remembers was so busy rocking out his backbends and helping the guys all push up that he neglected his photog duties also! We worked out what I felt like was a great arrangement relative to the heat in the room as well. After the 4:30 class, I cooled the room down. Then once we started practice, I turned the A/C off and kept the door to the lobby open. What resulted was two distinct climate zones in the room. The far side of the room remained hotter for those who really enjoy the heat and the door side of the room had a fresh breeze (Okay, that might be a generous way to say it!) of lobby air for those who do not respond so well to the heat either psychologically and/or physically. I was right in the middle and found myself with a nice layer of sweat but not dripping, which to me is perfect.
Okay- but the heat thing aside, what was really remarkable is how many people returned form the past two weeks of practice for more. This is always very inspiring to me. We worked with backbends like urdhva danruasana, dwi pada viparita dandasana and also going from wild thing to urdhva dnaurasana. Zoe and Lauran and Desirae did some inspiring work on eka pada viparita dandasana (the deep variation where you grab hold of the foot that is on the floor) so that was fun to help with. I also loved how many men came to the practice and how many people asked for help with the poses instead of sitting them out or taking the modified form without even trying the fuller expression of the poses. That is what makes the whole thing worthwhile to me is being part of creating an atmosphere where we all help each other grow and advance and expand out boundaries and pre-conceived notions of what we can and cannot do.
Dr. Phillips was in the house as well which was great because we got to plug his book signing party with him right there in the room and he gave us some teachings about how important an accent can be in asana. For instance, you know the pose malasana? You squat down basically and place your elbows on the insides of your legs in this squatting position. Well if you say MAH-lasana you are referring to the mala or the "Hindu Rosary" and you are like a bead on that garland. But if you say Muh-lasana then you are referring to a pose of dirt and excrement. And given the basic shape of that posture (think third world toilets here), one would definitely want to be clear! Anyway, I love having a yoga expert in the room so I can check my facts as I go along and he is always so generous with his expertise. Which is why we should all show up for the festivities tonight.
Okay I have a fair amount to do today and so on with it!
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