Thursday 24th March 2005
Post practice.
Sitting in the café, adjusting to the sounds and sights of a bustling morning, people starting to move into second gear, gathering momentum.
My coffee arrives, the bitter aroma almost overpowering, deep earthy sienna brown froth hides the dangerous liquid below. Phillip has made it perfectly and topped it off wit a masterful heart shaped pattern in the middle of the creamy froth. I stir in sugar and watch the heart swirl away.
Sitting here after practice I definitely don’t feel a part of mainstream society. The altered consciousness I experience after practice makes me smile, knowing I have a very sweet secret.
Actually I have another one...
I must have packed my work clothes distractedly when I got up this morning because I packed one of my black work shoes and one of my short black boots, so I sit here with odd shoes on, thankfully hidden beneath my black work pants. Good thing they are a similar style, no-one should notice at work today except me.
My left and right sides always feel remarkably uneven after practice anyway…my right side always feels more full, my left side more dull. The boot on my right foot is a fraction higher in height than the shoe on my left foot. If only I’d packed the left boot and the right shoe – that would have been more useful since my left leg is slightly shorter. Homemade orthotics.
Wearing odd shoes is delightfully odd.
I like it.
I’ll meander through the work day with my little secret, watching out for any stray eyes that drop beneath eye contact. Discovery would spoil it. It wouldn't be mine anymore.
Perhaps I’ll award a prize to anyone who notices my odd shoes today. They’d deserve it for being so observant. Gee, even I didn’t notice when I picked them up and put them in my bag this morning. Booby prize for me.
Practice was good. Deep even engagement all the way through.
Two dropbacks, no Headstand – just to be on the safe side.
I’ve learned to love working with my stiff right knee. It brings me immediately into the present and fully conscious of every microscopic subtle change in my body and mind as I hold and explore the pose. I really feel it.
Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana and Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana are the pieces de resistance. I bend up the stiff right leg on the first side, move very slowly a little way into the pose and breathe into the tight spaces that restrict the knee and hip opening on this side – sensitivity antennas on full alert. Then I move attention inwards to the bandhas, and the change in focus from periphery to core is magic…breathing energy up and down the spinal channel somehow dissolves away all muscular resistance and my stiff knee just gives way. I hold the pose for a couple of extra breaths because I know I can go deep into it now, to that secret place where mind, body and breath unite. I love this journey, watching the gradual opening, feeling for the doorway in. The second side is less interesting; by my second breath I’m all the way down, chin close to knee, too easy, not much to work with except my concentration as my mind starts to wander.
But what I remember most about practice this morning is rising from Savasana as if emerging from a time travel journey, unfolding upwards to a sitting position, crossing my legs beneath me, a lovely helium lightness lifting my head up to balance on top of my spine, softly closing my eyes and feeling truly beautiful, angelic, in a state of reverence and bliss. I sat for a minute or so, not wanting to move, but knowing I must. I so much wanted to stay there, seated within the still centre of my elevated spirit, absorbing the feeling deeply into my cells, letting it permeate my day and my life forever, but it was past 8 o’clock. The other world was waiting.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Post practice.
Sitting in the café, adjusting to the sounds and sights of a bustling morning, people starting to move into second gear, gathering momentum.
My coffee arrives, the bitter aroma almost overpowering, deep earthy sienna brown froth hides the dangerous liquid below. Phillip has made it perfectly and topped it off wit a masterful heart shaped pattern in the middle of the creamy froth. I stir in sugar and watch the heart swirl away.
Sitting here after practice I definitely don’t feel a part of mainstream society. The altered consciousness I experience after practice makes me smile, knowing I have a very sweet secret.
Actually I have another one...
I must have packed my work clothes distractedly when I got up this morning because I packed one of my black work shoes and one of my short black boots, so I sit here with odd shoes on, thankfully hidden beneath my black work pants. Good thing they are a similar style, no-one should notice at work today except me.
My left and right sides always feel remarkably uneven after practice anyway…my right side always feels more full, my left side more dull. The boot on my right foot is a fraction higher in height than the shoe on my left foot. If only I’d packed the left boot and the right shoe – that would have been more useful since my left leg is slightly shorter. Homemade orthotics.
Wearing odd shoes is delightfully odd.
I like it.
I’ll meander through the work day with my little secret, watching out for any stray eyes that drop beneath eye contact. Discovery would spoil it. It wouldn't be mine anymore.
Perhaps I’ll award a prize to anyone who notices my odd shoes today. They’d deserve it for being so observant. Gee, even I didn’t notice when I picked them up and put them in my bag this morning. Booby prize for me.
Practice was good. Deep even engagement all the way through.
Two dropbacks, no Headstand – just to be on the safe side.
I’ve learned to love working with my stiff right knee. It brings me immediately into the present and fully conscious of every microscopic subtle change in my body and mind as I hold and explore the pose. I really feel it.
Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana and Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana are the pieces de resistance. I bend up the stiff right leg on the first side, move very slowly a little way into the pose and breathe into the tight spaces that restrict the knee and hip opening on this side – sensitivity antennas on full alert. Then I move attention inwards to the bandhas, and the change in focus from periphery to core is magic…breathing energy up and down the spinal channel somehow dissolves away all muscular resistance and my stiff knee just gives way. I hold the pose for a couple of extra breaths because I know I can go deep into it now, to that secret place where mind, body and breath unite. I love this journey, watching the gradual opening, feeling for the doorway in. The second side is less interesting; by my second breath I’m all the way down, chin close to knee, too easy, not much to work with except my concentration as my mind starts to wander.
But what I remember most about practice this morning is rising from Savasana as if emerging from a time travel journey, unfolding upwards to a sitting position, crossing my legs beneath me, a lovely helium lightness lifting my head up to balance on top of my spine, softly closing my eyes and feeling truly beautiful, angelic, in a state of reverence and bliss. I sat for a minute or so, not wanting to move, but knowing I must. I so much wanted to stay there, seated within the still centre of my elevated spirit, absorbing the feeling deeply into my cells, letting it permeate my day and my life forever, but it was past 8 o’clock. The other world was waiting.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
