I made a good choice resting my body last night. I do not know why, but I felt like I needed to not do anything. Yesterday's morning I took it easy with a slow yin class, nearly falling asleep (and did, from savasana until forever) because I was tired. That was my only workout.
This morning, refreshed from a good rest, went for my ashtanga. It was more or less a good practice, with 50% concentration on the breath. Lost it halfway due to company of M, who came in while I was halfway through my first series. We talked on and off.
When I did my urdvha though, I managed to hold for 5 breaths all five times, even walking my hands closer to my feet. But M told me she saw that I've been keeping all my weight to my upper body, and nothing on my legs. They were straight, bearing no weight. So with her guidance she made me grip her leg placed in between mine while I was in wheel, and that made all the difference. The first time though when she pulled me forward to transfer the weight to my legs, I couldn't tell which way was which. It was that disorientating. I would use this helpful tool to work the legs even more. Put a block in between and then learn to engage the quads. I cannot believe the progress I have made in my urdvha D. It took me a year to finally feel pain free, thanks to tips from Noah M and other wonderful teachers. It is all about patience and practice. I realized now that I love the journey and work put in the practice that I don't even mind not nailing it. Because after hard work getting it just feels amazing.
No progress on Bhuja. Forget about the vinyasa. But well, its all about the practice!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Reflection of a yogi
I havent been updating. But thats because I was having a ball of time, loving my practice. It's been a steady 3x per week of ashtanga, with vinyasa tuesdays and thursdays, and weekends are for backbends and arm balances.
What I learned: When you let go of expectations, and just enjoy practising for what it is a clarity for the body and mind. I tried to focus on my breath more, just inhaling exhaling, feeling good and sometimes feeling nothing at all, just awareness of my body, my legs engagement, shoulder engagement.
Arm balances class saturday was really sweet. Pretty easy, with vashistasana variations (of which all 4 I could do) bakasana, prasva bakasana, titibhasana and bhujapidasana. I find that the more I get rid of my expectations or frustrations of wanting to nail a pose, I find a peace within the practice that is waaay better than nailing a pose. My neck injury taught me this. In a way, that injury was sort of a gift. A gift to realign my mindset of how I approach yoga.
No technical updates here, just what I've been thinking about.
What I learned: When you let go of expectations, and just enjoy practising for what it is a clarity for the body and mind. I tried to focus on my breath more, just inhaling exhaling, feeling good and sometimes feeling nothing at all, just awareness of my body, my legs engagement, shoulder engagement.
Arm balances class saturday was really sweet. Pretty easy, with vashistasana variations (of which all 4 I could do) bakasana, prasva bakasana, titibhasana and bhujapidasana. I find that the more I get rid of my expectations or frustrations of wanting to nail a pose, I find a peace within the practice that is waaay better than nailing a pose. My neck injury taught me this. In a way, that injury was sort of a gift. A gift to realign my mindset of how I approach yoga.
No technical updates here, just what I've been thinking about.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Journey of Practice
I skipped yoga today. Ladies holiday, beside, wasn't really feeling it.
I did ashtanga monday and tuesday, knowing that I wont really do ashtanga today (moon day) and the next 3 days. This time though, I am trying to let go of all expectations, and instead focusing on the breath. I often say that don't I, but this time I was adamant. Trying hard to level the in breath with the out breath (the outbreath always longer). I enjoyed the forward bends, the janu sirsana as always. I have noticed that I favor certain poses and dread certain poses. It starts from the beginning - surya namaska B is not my favorite, then the UHP, then the revolved plank, then Navasana. I always do feel happy approaching janu sirsasana, bandha konasana, supta konasana, and now wheel. Surprisingly. I love wheel now. Cant get enough of wheel.
I have also noticed that my jump back seems smoother after bandha konasana. Definitely the open hips is the main reason, which always amazes me because I feel the same, but my hips showed me otherwise (that they are more open after bandha konasana). Goes to show that you might not realize it, how your body are already reaping from the benefit of the posture.
My Garbha pindasana was the best one yet. It is obvious what a properly calculated breathing could do to make your GP roll as perfect as sushi. I came up high and did perfect 9 rounds. It's like cutting 9 slices around a big gooey cheesy cake.
I have decided to forever take out setu bandhasana. Have tried to incorporate the real setu bandhasana (charlie chaplin pose) with my hands supporting the head, but it might not work with my body and injury. I did on Monday, and felt the repercussions of it the whole entire day. On top of my always and continuous achy neck and shoulders, my left elbow and fingers were tingling and numb. Bad bad sensation. It couldnt be the finishing postures because I've done the same thing about a few weeks ago and nothing was this bad. Definitely not going to be in my practice. Maybe... I would do viparita dandasana instead. Hmmm.
Forgot to let you know that I've sort of incorporated a few poses of second series into my practice. Not an ego thing... I just feel my backbends would benefit if I could incorporate the first few postures. It's not really a real practice - straight after Urdvha D I would do the first 6 poses straight, sometimes with a tiny vinyasa in between. It is more like a backbend supplement.
I did ashtanga monday and tuesday, knowing that I wont really do ashtanga today (moon day) and the next 3 days. This time though, I am trying to let go of all expectations, and instead focusing on the breath. I often say that don't I, but this time I was adamant. Trying hard to level the in breath with the out breath (the outbreath always longer). I enjoyed the forward bends, the janu sirsana as always. I have noticed that I favor certain poses and dread certain poses. It starts from the beginning - surya namaska B is not my favorite, then the UHP, then the revolved plank, then Navasana. I always do feel happy approaching janu sirsasana, bandha konasana, supta konasana, and now wheel. Surprisingly. I love wheel now. Cant get enough of wheel.
I have also noticed that my jump back seems smoother after bandha konasana. Definitely the open hips is the main reason, which always amazes me because I feel the same, but my hips showed me otherwise (that they are more open after bandha konasana). Goes to show that you might not realize it, how your body are already reaping from the benefit of the posture.
My Garbha pindasana was the best one yet. It is obvious what a properly calculated breathing could do to make your GP roll as perfect as sushi. I came up high and did perfect 9 rounds. It's like cutting 9 slices around a big gooey cheesy cake.
I have decided to forever take out setu bandhasana. Have tried to incorporate the real setu bandhasana (charlie chaplin pose) with my hands supporting the head, but it might not work with my body and injury. I did on Monday, and felt the repercussions of it the whole entire day. On top of my always and continuous achy neck and shoulders, my left elbow and fingers were tingling and numb. Bad bad sensation. It couldnt be the finishing postures because I've done the same thing about a few weeks ago and nothing was this bad. Definitely not going to be in my practice. Maybe... I would do viparita dandasana instead. Hmmm.
Forgot to let you know that I've sort of incorporated a few poses of second series into my practice. Not an ego thing... I just feel my backbends would benefit if I could incorporate the first few postures. It's not really a real practice - straight after Urdvha D I would do the first 6 poses straight, sometimes with a tiny vinyasa in between. It is more like a backbend supplement.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Bhujaaaa
Tuesday: What a great choice, I took a vinyasa flow with Seane C, a class that concentrates on hips hips and hips. We warmed up with sun salutations a and b, and got started. It was hard! We did the fire hydrant pose first on knees which was hard enough as it is and then standing. I failed those... could not even lift up my leg! We moved to reverse lunge, a lot of warrior 2, triangle pose, bound side pose, then onto the low deep lunges for long holds. That was insane... it was just mental. We also did supine gomukhasana.
Wednesday: Full Primary... with modifications. No chaturanga... only once or twice... or thrice, can help it, but mostly I just did full plank. My current issue on the practice now is Bhujapidasana. It's funny, isn't it. This wasn't an issue for me from the starting but once you sort of get deeper you realize there are ways to deepend the pose and that's when you fail. Trying hard to get the descent down on Bhuja, as well as the transition from titibhasana to bakasana AND jump back. It's hard because I get so sweaty my legs slipped off my arms. Will have to wear pants when I practice. At least legs wont slip easily down in Kukutasana too.
Lovely practice, and now finding myself looking back forward for the udrvha dhanurasana. As always, the first three was a serious one, then the last 2 a more relaxed, stay as long as I could. Less pain on the back, if I took the time to properly lift up following noah m awesome awesome advice. Then for fun I did one dwi pada viparita dandasana. Feels good, can feel it stretching my upper back.
My left shoulder feels doubly sore right now. Have to carefully not push myself so hard on Friday.
Wednesday: Full Primary... with modifications. No chaturanga... only once or twice... or thrice, can help it, but mostly I just did full plank. My current issue on the practice now is Bhujapidasana. It's funny, isn't it. This wasn't an issue for me from the starting but once you sort of get deeper you realize there are ways to deepend the pose and that's when you fail. Trying hard to get the descent down on Bhuja, as well as the transition from titibhasana to bakasana AND jump back. It's hard because I get so sweaty my legs slipped off my arms. Will have to wear pants when I practice. At least legs wont slip easily down in Kukutasana too.
Lovely practice, and now finding myself looking back forward for the udrvha dhanurasana. As always, the first three was a serious one, then the last 2 a more relaxed, stay as long as I could. Less pain on the back, if I took the time to properly lift up following noah m awesome awesome advice. Then for fun I did one dwi pada viparita dandasana. Feels good, can feel it stretching my upper back.
My left shoulder feels doubly sore right now. Have to carefully not push myself so hard on Friday.
A Real Yoga Entry
I was doing my daily rounds of reading yoga blogs and I just realized how different their entries are from mine.
Theirs are definitely more in depth, an exploration of their wonders and thoughts while going through the practice. I love the ones where the writer muses about the effect of a good, or a bad practice. They usually resonate with what I feel after my own practice.
My posts on this particular blog was at most, short, and squat. It bears a scary resemblance to my now quite defunct triathlon blog and literally has the mark of a triathlete. When I was training for races, I kept a blog/journal of my practice. They were always short, in lists, and informative: stating my drills, the routes, timing, and something new I introduced or learned. Hardly there was an entry about what I felt at that moment, unless it was really a mood changing training.
It sort of seeped into this blog.
The reason I opened a new blog was because I always feel I have a lot of things to write about with one interest. I just love to write, that I grew up with tons of blogs for my interests - I had a sewing blog, a running blog, etc and now a yoga blog. I had meant to use this as a vessel to chart my progress, both physically and mentally, well spiritually and emotionally as well into my forays of yoga. I wanted to write about how awesome this feels and how I am always feeling good after a practice. I want to yell out loud that sometimes I feel like I could sing from a good, hard practice. I want to write about how my hips would definitely feel more open after Bandha Konasana every single time. I want to write that practicing using a tennis skort is annoying.
It didn't happen. What I have instead, is a bunch of hastily written blog posts on the practice I did, more on quantity, than quality. It's an old habit of mine, to keep a record of every single workout. It doesn't matter if it doesn't sound pretty.
Would I change it? I don't know. Most of the times I get too busy to keep track of my practice, which explains the harried entries. Usually I enjoy the good feelings just by going through it, and when the feeling left me I was just glad to have experienced it. Being a serial documenter growing up I am starting to want to enjoy moments in its purest form, not to have it delayed by writing a post or taking a picture of it.
Anyway, here's an entry I did on my main blog, which sort of explain my inner relationship with yoga:
Theirs are definitely more in depth, an exploration of their wonders and thoughts while going through the practice. I love the ones where the writer muses about the effect of a good, or a bad practice. They usually resonate with what I feel after my own practice.
My posts on this particular blog was at most, short, and squat. It bears a scary resemblance to my now quite defunct triathlon blog and literally has the mark of a triathlete. When I was training for races, I kept a blog/journal of my practice. They were always short, in lists, and informative: stating my drills, the routes, timing, and something new I introduced or learned. Hardly there was an entry about what I felt at that moment, unless it was really a mood changing training.
It sort of seeped into this blog.
The reason I opened a new blog was because I always feel I have a lot of things to write about with one interest. I just love to write, that I grew up with tons of blogs for my interests - I had a sewing blog, a running blog, etc and now a yoga blog. I had meant to use this as a vessel to chart my progress, both physically and mentally, well spiritually and emotionally as well into my forays of yoga. I wanted to write about how awesome this feels and how I am always feeling good after a practice. I want to yell out loud that sometimes I feel like I could sing from a good, hard practice. I want to write about how my hips would definitely feel more open after Bandha Konasana every single time. I want to write that practicing using a tennis skort is annoying.
It didn't happen. What I have instead, is a bunch of hastily written blog posts on the practice I did, more on quantity, than quality. It's an old habit of mine, to keep a record of every single workout. It doesn't matter if it doesn't sound pretty.
Would I change it? I don't know. Most of the times I get too busy to keep track of my practice, which explains the harried entries. Usually I enjoy the good feelings just by going through it, and when the feeling left me I was just glad to have experienced it. Being a serial documenter growing up I am starting to want to enjoy moments in its purest form, not to have it delayed by writing a post or taking a picture of it.
Anyway, here's an entry I did on my main blog, which sort of explain my inner relationship with yoga:
In my yoga practice these days, I am obsessed about backbends. Backbends tend to choose their students. Someone would just take up yoga only for a day and could do an advanced backbend while alienating a dedicated yogi who’s been practicing for years. The thing about backbends is that it tends to make people practicing it to be emotional. It brings out the emotional picnic of panic breakfast, wistful lunches, and heartbreaking dinners. If you’re clueless as to what I am talking about, backbends essentially require you to bend backwards, which means you have to keep your heart open. Heart Openers is another name for backbends. And if you got issues in your heart, it’s not easy to make them open.
So here I go everyday working on my backbends. The process is challenging physically and draining mentally. I came to the world of yoga a skeptic on the spiritual mumbo jumbo of it. It’s just stretching, at least that was what I thought. But after bouts of crying and feeling emotional after a particularly intense session, I took notice. I would have a totally taxing session that night and suddenly burst out crying in the car on the way to work FOR NO REASON. Life was good. I just had sex. Money was aplenty. But I cried because I did backbends.
Needless to say, these backbends have turned me into a raging believer. It’s like having a totally heartfelt session with a therapist about my issues. It’s like writing in my journal with a cup of hot chocolate beside me, only I my body feels good afterwards. Sometimes I would think about my cat Daisy. Sometimes a face of a friend I have long forgotten popped up. Sometimes I came to it nervous, moody and irritable, but bending bending bending, I opened myself up to feelings I cannot describe. It’s a beautiful, emotional journey, and being a totally emotional person I never felt better.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Last Mysore
the last class with Kiri was sweet. It was actually a moon day, but we went anyways. I took my time, this time properly breathing and focusing my breath on the postures. It was actually quite therapeutic. I got to (weakly) kick back after bhujapidasana. My supta K is still tight... K still positioned my feet on her knees instead of my neck. Maybe it's the injury... who knows. I told her I want to attempt setu bandasana... and she showed me, quite fast and abruptly, in my opinion. Maybe she felt I was more than ready for it? It was harddd, tough for the legs, and I foresee a looong time of supporting this posture with my hands before I got the guts to put them on my chest.
Went for a run this morning, and then did a 60 minutes of sweet flow with Jo t. she's fast becoming my favorite in yg! Her classes, like amy I, are always doable but at the same time challenging enough to break a sweat. It was a class filled with warrior 2 and 3, half moon, baksana, runners lunge, crescent lunge, twists, and a nice backbend to finish. Lovely!
Went for a run this morning, and then did a 60 minutes of sweet flow with Jo t. she's fast becoming my favorite in yg! Her classes, like amy I, are always doable but at the same time challenging enough to break a sweat. It was a class filled with warrior 2 and 3, half moon, baksana, runners lunge, crescent lunge, twists, and a nice backbend to finish. Lovely!
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