It's the Lunar New Year, which always falls during er... the new moon. So I know I'm not supposed to be practising today, but I did anyway. I needed some grounding. And I didn't practice much last week anyway.
So I cranked up the poor radiator, y'know, those oldskool heaters on the sides of the walls... to the maximum all night... and woke up this morning in a sweat. HAHAHA.
But it led to a nice, warm and toasty room for practice. I even had to turn down the heat halfway through coz I was getting too stuffy. I was "good" since I only did Full Primary. Could've gone further, but thought I'd just ground and restore today.
It's snowing outside, but I'm nice and toasty indoors. Heh.
My sliver of a practice area works, but was impossible to make a full circle in Garbhapindasana, so I just rocked back and forth in a straight line on the mat. And the only other time I ran into a problem was after dropbacks. For some reason, I couldn't for the life of me stand up after dropping back today. I felt extremely claustrophobic, with the door behind me, the bed on my right, the armchair on my left, and knowing I'd stand up right in front of the desk made me panic "What if I stumble at the top of the mat and whack right into the edge of the desk?!"
(Hey Grimmly - I have the grey Manduka eQua mat towel too! Along with the hot pink Sunset one. They're the best colours, I reckon.)
And I collapsed in a heap on my mat, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. Here's a Chinese girl from Singapore, trying to practice an ancient Indian art form in the dead of winter in Amsterdam. Like... ?!!??!?!!???
Anyways, yesterday I went out with a friend to explore the city. We caught up and chatted for ages at a bar, and I was nicely surprised to see a cat AND a dog hanging out in the bar too! Apparently it's very common here to have animals EVERYWHERE. Lots of bars have cats... er... they "keep the rat population down". EEK! Not that I needed to know that.
And walking around this lovely city, it was nice to see that people DON'T CLOSE THEIR CURTAINS AT ALL! You can see right into every single apartment. And a good thing that the Dutch have a good sense of style. There are so many nicely decorated interiors. This is a crap quality photo, but it gives you an idea of what I mean with GAPING WIDE OPEN WINDOWS at night.
Happy Sunday! I'm off to explore more of this city today.
hi Skippety
ReplyDeletethose are good cultural observations about the dutch. yes it's wonderful that the windows are open and that they have animals everywhere.
cheers,
Arturo
hey Jaime!
ReplyDeleteburr....
I get all whacked out too if there is something near me when I practice (and I don't mean another person). It's totally psychological and I know that, but still! I always picture broken limbs, feet crashing through the wall, etc.
Is that red carpet? I dream of having red carpet somewhere in my house! And those wide open windows- love it!! I'm surprised they don't use curtains just for insulation, but then again, I do live in a warm climate and am quite wussy- I'd have blankets on the windows to keep the cold out!
Hey Arturo, apparently there are also dogs in the office I'll be working in. I guess I'll need to bring my antihistamines and inhaler with me everywhere I go now!
ReplyDeleteLiz - yeah, the carpet looks red but I think on closer inspection it's more like a vermillion... with a hint of orange in it. ;p And I think like you too, if objects are too near me when I practice (including humans). I wonder how I'm gonna do parsva dhanurasana tomorrow? Haha.