Tuesday Morning

Well, it's a cold day here in central Texas, although from all the posts on Facebook, it is not as cold here as it is many other places I am reading about. I was talking to someone yesterday who asked me how I was enjoying the cold weather and I was like, " I could live my whole life without being and cold and not miss it!" Okay, probably a big exaggeration but still, I am not a fan. ( yes, I know, I am going to Copenhagen in February... I didn't say I can't deal, I just said, "I am not a fan!")

Anyway....

Yesterday I went to Peggy's advanced Iyengar Yoga class with Anne which was interesting. We made a lovely foray into ekapadarajakapotasana 1 and 2.

Here is the basic sequence she worked with:
(think long holds)

Low Lunge and then High lunge with back heel on wall
Eka pada bhekasana forearm down
Eka pada bhekasana curling torso up toward cobra
Danurasana
Parsva danurasana
5 minutes sun salutations
Eka pada rajakapotasana prep front leg folded deeply, torso upright
Eka pada rajakapotasana prep, front shin parallel to front edge of mat, torso upright
Lunges with back shin on wall, back to wall
Lunges with back shin on wall, bringing pelvis forward
Headstand
Headstand drop overs to chair and then back up repeatedly
Headstand drop overs to bench ( which is a little lower than a chair and harder) and back up repeatedly
Eka pada viparita dandasana over a chair-2x each side
Rope back bends on rope wall- some very fun variations but way too much to describe here
Ekapadarajakapotana 2
Ekapadarajakapotasana 1
Hanumanasana
Uttanasana
Parsvauttanasana
Uttanasana
Supported halasana
Savasana

Good times. It was a very effective sequence. Talk about no wasted poses and using back bends to prepare for backbends! That pretty much says it.

I have been talking about this idea with a lot of my teacher trainees and advanced students lately. In the beginning of teaching our students to back bend we can use lots of movement, lots of vinyasa and lots of standing poses to get people warm enough to bend and so forth. But as we and our students advance, it is good to see how deep we can get without spending a lot of extra energy so that we have lots of energy left to use for working on the actual peak pose. So often, if we are not careful, we can spend all of our energy in preparation and have just enough to do the peak pose maybe once or twice but not to really work on it. (this kind of economy is also very useful to master when, for various reasons, we do not have a lot of time for asana practice. If we can learn what 6 poses can take us to urdhva danurasana well then we can throw out that script that says, "I don't really have time to work on x,y,or z" or "unless I have two hours, I need to skip the hard stuff." Obviously, it is great to have lots of time to prepare ourselves, I am just saying economy in sequencing has very meaningful applications in a busy life.)

Anyway, this was one of those sequence that was very effective yet at each step of the way my mind was like, "seriously? That pose? Already?" and then lo and behold, there I would be, feeling great in the pose.

After class, Kelly and I had dinner and sat around the fire together. I did some work, he did some studying and then we headed to bed early. Lovely!

Today I and going to spend the morning with mom and dad. mom has an MRI to explore the next steps in her treatment. Her lumpectomy indicated a need for more information before deciding the next course of action. So, I am gonna go to the doctor with them and then to lunch and probably spend a few hours this afternoon practicing asana.

More soon.

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