2012 Reflections

My yoga journey thus far has been such a great great help in my life. I went through very difficult times emotionally and mentally with the help - the discipline - of yoga alone. Last month, ashtanga has ceased to be somewhat a foreboding experience, in fact, if I approach it as a breathing exercise the poses just flew by quickly. I also began to enjoy surya namaskar because I am working on my jumping. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Today, I got it on the last try, the hip over wrists, balancing for milisecond.

I have been practicing Ashtanga for 14 months.

Here I wrote last January:

I've told you that my target list for 2012 is to:

1) master Jump Throughs and Jump Backs

2) Do a good Setu Bhandasana and Wheel Pose

3) Half Moon Pose

4) Try a Mysore class

So what happened here?

1) I have yet to 'master' them but I have somewhat a unique way of doing the jump through and jump back. My jump back, on good days after bandha konasana, I could swing through, but could not till chaturanga yet. My jump throughs are better, I could easily swing through, although right now I am practicing lifting my legs up and putting them down with control. Control is key.

2) I have decided to let go of Setu Bandhasana due to my neck injury. Attempted it again in November after feeling that my neck could take it, but just one try and I felt the repercussion all the way down to my left fingers. I am okay with a normal bridge. If I am feeling adventurous then I'd do a dwi pada viparita dandasana. Urdhva D is now my favorite! I love it. Could do 5 breaths 5 times. And currently working on walking my hands towards my ankles. It's simply simply amazing how this was the bane of my practice with the pain - it was a teeth grinding pain really - and now it feels wonderful, open, and intense (of course, its a serious backbend, you've still got to feel it!)

3) Half Moon Pose - forever a favorite pose. I could do it now, and currently working on doing it without my hand supporting me. 

4) Oh Mysore style class. I started with Ganesh's class. Then it was with Liz, then went to London and did it with Sarai, then Laruga and Kiri. As much as I love Mysore style class I also LOOOOOVE home practice where I don't have to worry about my body odor, or being distracted in UHP or my ego getting in the way. As much as that is a good practice to  strengthen my mind, I could sharpen it with once in a while classes.

What are the other benefits of practicing yoga?

1) Nailed Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana. One of my favorites. I saw it first on Kathryn B, and I was intrigued with the degree of chest openess it requires. I worked so much at it, daily with a block, and once my Urdvha D got stronger I find it is effortless to drop into Dwi Pada. It's a goooood thoracic opener.

2) Nailed handstand and pincha on the wall. Slowly working on my strength, building the hold to more than 10 seconds. I have yet to consider trying to balance. My left shoulder is still refusing to open effortlessly, I still need to do stretches to make it feel good. 

3) Because I have been working on Dolphin and Pincha a lot, I could do a salamba sirsasana without wall assistance now, and FEEL the difference. Before, I did not even feel my shoulders. Now, I could feel it strong, engaged, steady, allowing my neck to breathe. In fact, my head barely takes the weight, whereas before I could feel the whole bodyweight pushing into my head. I only would do this in short spurts, just to strengthen my core so that I could learn to balance in pincha without a wall.

4) Chaturanga feels better - no pain on front of shoulders. I continously work on this, being mindful every time I drop down, making sure my alignment is correct.

5) Uttrasana feel great, can bend backwards now without support from my hands on the back of my thighs. PRACTICE!

6) Parsva Bakasana - can hold it for a few seconds now, without my butt resting on the shelf of my elbows.

Firelog pose still is hard to do, the funny thing is I can't figure out why, and which part needs work. I still can't do the full Bhujapidasana, nevermind the vinyasa. 

Recappp

Wow I havent really updated in a while. Here's a recap:

Thursday: It was a public holiday so I planned to do a super long yoga session. First it was a 60 min class with Tiffany C, which was hard and tough, and it had me doing the standing splits and three legged dog and reverse half moon. Also crazy core work, like navasana crunches. Then it was a 90 minutes Marc H class. It was good. Attempted handstand hops and succeeded a few times. Loves it.

Saturday: Visvamitrasana class with Step S. What a class, it was fast paced to the point that I got annoyed. She never gave us any rest! But I managed to hold Visva for a split second on my left side. Worth it.

Sunday: Simple lovely class with Tara J. She's a little bit kooky, but love her twistting and side crane and urdvha poses.

Monday: Primary series. I did it in a no-nonsense style, just going through the poses concentrating on my breath, flow in and out. It went by fast. I attempted Setu B, supported. Felt it all the back of my body. Then did 5 wheel. And then I continued with second series - Pasvasana, Krounchasana, Salambasana, Dhanurasana, Utrasana and that's it. I think I'm going to incorporate the second series into my practice now... just to strengthen my back.

Daily night yoga: Handstand, Pincha, Urdvha, Dwi Pada Viparita, Bakasana. Loves it.

Leg and Neck Stretch

I woke up not in the best feeling today. Scheduled in a run but body (or mind) wasnt feeling up to it. So I started with Dice's surprisingly very gentle leg flow, aimed to stretch the hips area to release stress. I didn't really feel any difference (my work problems are still there) but I do feel better, just knowing that I've done something to release the psoas and hip flexors. It was a lot of lunges, variation of lizard pose stretching to the side, virabhadrasana 2 with reverse virabhadrasana that burns the legs. Some utkatasana variation, and happy baby pose. It climaxes at the pigeon pose. Which was done a bit differently.

Then I continued with Tiffany's shoulder and neck stretch, which was INTENSE. I do not know what is it with her classes - they make me fidgety and uneasy. I guess because both classes I did with her was on the shoulders and neck, and obviously those are the body parts of mine that have the most issues (disc herniation   at C5 and C6) and carry the most stress. The side neck stretch, particularly on the right side was torturous. I surrended earlier in the poses than I would have, it was that uneasy. It wasn't painful or excruciating, I just feel uneasy. I kept imagining someone slicing through the exposed, stretched part of my neck. How's that for creeping myself out of the pose. She mentioned something really nice along the class, trying to keep our attention from the effort. She said something about having the option to take the neck out from our attention, and focus on other body parts instead. And when you let go of the tension, choose not to acknowledge it, it disappears. How right... but somehow this time my inner discomfort won.

 I've also decided that I'm going to pare down my Ashtanga for the next one week. I'm going to do a simpler version of no chaturanggas and skipping the bhujapidasana if I felt like it. My left infrasupinatus and teres minor still are achey. Really sore. Sometimes they burn. and tingle.

 Anyway, good classes today. Those two are my two favorite teachers now.

Pain free Chaturanga

Progress on yoga has been slow, but steady.

 Have I mentioned the breakthrough I made based on last Friday's primary practice? I was reading up on the proper chaturanga alignment because my shoulders were killing me and I could sense the rate of degradation they are facing. So with the help of several googled articles and yoga journal's invaluable alignment articles, I learned how to really set my body up for chaturangga. Of course, Im no yoga teacher, therefore might need proper tweaks to make it 'perfect'.

 But, the MOST OBVIOUS sign that I am doing chaturanga better is that the front of my shoulders do not hurt anymore! What an amazing discovery. Ever since I started ashtanga yoga the front of my shoulders have been taking the brunt. And it's amazing that I keep abusing it week after week and not really give a damn, or not caring enough to do something about it. I have read that if you activate the right chaturanga muscles, the front of your shoulders shouldn't hurt, while your serratus anterior and all the back muscles would feel it.

Friday I was adamant to work on my chaturanga. And what I realized that all these while, even though I am aware I should NOT do it, I was lowering my shoulders below my elbow, making the angle to be less of 90 degrees as chaturanga envisions us to be. I am suprised when I finally figured it out as I always thought my shoulder don't dip but I still feel it in my shoulders the very next day. But that Friday I was surprised to find out that I have been going down lower than I should be. And for the whole primary series I spent my chaturanga looking either to my right or left shoulder to make sure it is not going down below my elbow.

 And the next day - my upper back hurts! Well, good sore, but still. It literally means i've been activating them as I should. There is no soreness on my shoulders, which feels amazing! And it ONLY took me a year to figure this out -___-.

 Sunday was spent anchoring my proper chaturanga alignment, sort of imprinting the muscle memory. I admit it is hard work, making me dread the vinyasas a little bit more, but that's the beauty of primary series. I find that suffering or working through difficulties of a pose to get it right makes it so much easier and better. I remember when chaturanga with my knees off were horrible.

Hatha today!