Monday Morning

Admittedly, this could be all the back bends talking, but I must say that I have been feeling extremely happy and inspired these last few weeks. Not that I have not had my share of upsets and personal bumps in the road but I was coming home from a lovely practice yesterday afternoon with Gioconda and Hannah and I felt such a deep sense of well-being and happiness.

By the way we rocked out yesterday. I woke up yesterday feeling the kind of soreness from the Shakti Shop that spells "open but not tight" and so I know from past experience that when I feel that way and I go deeper in the same direction the result is usually good. And it was. I worked out a sequence that was inspired by what Peggy taught in her advanced class last week with a few embellishments, side trips and additions and voila- we went very deep.

It was very fun to have friends there and to have a camera because we would photograph our poses and then examine what was and was not happening and try it again. I think this was the 3rd or 4th scorpion and the balls of my feet are on my head and not just my tippy toes, because I kept looking at the photos Gia took on the way in and the way out and could see where I lost my melt, where I lost inner spiral and so forth.
This may have been the easiest and best feeling pigeon that I have ever done and I am happy with it. (However, next time, I need to bring my legs in closer. They are running a bit amuck with outer spiral! Still, I am happy about this pose.) And compare it to the one over in the right column of this blog and you will see I have made some progress in getting my chest more vertical and open. And getting my hands in was not a big war. Like I said, I am totally happy with this and I have lots of things to work on. How anyone EVER gets bored with asana is beyond me. Seriously, there is always something to be working with and some way to be improving and going deeper.

And the sequence was a radically different approach to the bends than we used in the Shakti Shop. On Saturday we used lots of movement, more flow, lots of standing poses and quad stretches and so forth. Yesterday we got there with long timings, no standing postures, more props and a twist between each preparatory back bend. So many roads.....

Here is yesterdays plan we worked from:

• 10 minutes chair backbend
• chair bharadvajasana (1 minute each side)
• Chandra Namkaskar (10 minutes)
• Urdhva Mukha Swanasana (1 minute)
• parivritta trikonasana (1minute each side)
• rope 1 -20X
• bharadvajasana 1, on blanket, at wall, with rope (1 minute each side)
• parayankasana over a block (5 minutes)
• standing maricyasana- at wall,with a chair and rope
• pinca variation with feet on wall, legs parallel to the floor
• jathara parivarttonasana- straight legs- (1 minute each side)
• ustrasana- legs apart- (1 minute)
• ustrasana- feet and legs together- (1 minute)
• maricyasana 1, twist only
• danurasana (1 minute)
• pasrva danurasana
• twisted lunge
• urdhva danruasana
• dwi pada viparita dandasana- head down.
• scoprion prep on chair
• scorpion pose
• kapotasana
• AMS
• hips stretches
• uttanasana
• parsva uttanasana

okay- onward through the day. Oh, I also have to say I have been working really hard these days refining TT curriculum and I am 100% confident that these upcoming Immersions and TT's I am offering will be the best ever. I have been combing through all my notes from past trainings and consulting with colleagues and putting it into the most organized presentation ever. I am so excited about it.