Monday 20th February 2006
The alarm startled me out of a deep dream state at 5am.
I laid in bed recovering from the shock for about 10 minutes.
10 minutes of confusion.
After all the mental preparation and planning I’d done over the past week to get myself back to the shala and into regular morning Mysore practice starting today, I lay there paralysed and dangerously close to talking myself out it.
But the forces of change seem to be powerful enough to cut through the crap and catapult me out of indecision.
Thank God!
I felt the magic as soon as I walked into the shala. It was a small group today, 8 people, all female too.
I flowed through the practice at about 70% capacity, just the right intensity for re-entry. Loved David’s adjustments: they're not often the standard Ashtanga adjustments. The couple I got today in Virabhadrasana A and Urdhva Dhanurasana showed how little core strength I’ve got in my hips at the moment. In both poses I was supposed to push back against the pressure of his hand on my sternum which was pretty intense, but the hips just ached and gave up.
Maybe after practising on my own for so long, a few unused body parts have gradually fallen asleep.
It’s time to be a humble student with a beginner’s mind again.
After only one class back at the shala, I’m gleefully infected with Ashtanga fever all over again – my love for this practice is rekindled. Now I’m itching to practice there again, but can’t until Wednesday. Tomorrow I promised my Mum I’d take Buffy (my dog) with me to yoga practice in the Gallery and then on to the office to give her a dog-free day. Mum fusses and frets over BuffyDog unnecessarily.
I caught up with Kosta yesterday. He’s just back from India and did a month with Sharath because the main shala was full. He brought back some wonderful stories and one of those cute little bright orange AYRI singlet tops for me. I adore it like a precious jewel - and it's such a timely gift, seeming almost symbolic of my renewed devotion to the practice.
And another unexpected gift arrived in the mail for me at work today. It was the copy of John Scott’s Ashtanga book which I’d lent to someone over a year ago and had written off as never coming back.
Two sweet little gifts from the universe to let me know I've entered the slipstream.
Absolutely no such thing as co-incidence in this beautifully ordered connected universe.
And there are gifts are everywhere if we choose to see them.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
The alarm startled me out of a deep dream state at 5am.
I laid in bed recovering from the shock for about 10 minutes.
10 minutes of confusion.
After all the mental preparation and planning I’d done over the past week to get myself back to the shala and into regular morning Mysore practice starting today, I lay there paralysed and dangerously close to talking myself out it.
But the forces of change seem to be powerful enough to cut through the crap and catapult me out of indecision.
Thank God!
I felt the magic as soon as I walked into the shala. It was a small group today, 8 people, all female too.
I flowed through the practice at about 70% capacity, just the right intensity for re-entry. Loved David’s adjustments: they're not often the standard Ashtanga adjustments. The couple I got today in Virabhadrasana A and Urdhva Dhanurasana showed how little core strength I’ve got in my hips at the moment. In both poses I was supposed to push back against the pressure of his hand on my sternum which was pretty intense, but the hips just ached and gave up.
Maybe after practising on my own for so long, a few unused body parts have gradually fallen asleep.
It’s time to be a humble student with a beginner’s mind again.
After only one class back at the shala, I’m gleefully infected with Ashtanga fever all over again – my love for this practice is rekindled. Now I’m itching to practice there again, but can’t until Wednesday. Tomorrow I promised my Mum I’d take Buffy (my dog) with me to yoga practice in the Gallery and then on to the office to give her a dog-free day. Mum fusses and frets over BuffyDog unnecessarily.
I caught up with Kosta yesterday. He’s just back from India and did a month with Sharath because the main shala was full. He brought back some wonderful stories and one of those cute little bright orange AYRI singlet tops for me. I adore it like a precious jewel - and it's such a timely gift, seeming almost symbolic of my renewed devotion to the practice.
And another unexpected gift arrived in the mail for me at work today. It was the copy of John Scott’s Ashtanga book which I’d lent to someone over a year ago and had written off as never coming back.
Two sweet little gifts from the universe to let me know I've entered the slipstream.
Absolutely no such thing as co-incidence in this beautifully ordered connected universe.
And there are gifts are everywhere if we choose to see them.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
