After writing last night's post, I was inspired to do a short practice at 11pm (?!?) - nothing fancy, just half an hour of Suryas, forward bends and lots of pigeon variations. Then a bit more Pranayama. I figured that would be good to unwind before bedtime.
It had the opposite effect.
I was so wired, I was bug-eyed, staring at the ceiling till 3.30am. I had set my alarm for 6.30am to start practice. On any other day, I would've just given up and thought "Sod it. I need more sleep" and gone back to bed.
But something kept prompting me to GET ON THAT MAAAAAAAAT!!!
I was completely dreading it coz the last few attempts as you well know by now, were just terribly unfocused and painful on the foot. Once again, inspired by Fran's comment on yesterday's post, I thought I'd just plod along through the entire Primary series, modifying as I went along whenever my foot hurt.
I had a brilliant practice! Had to modify whenever any standing pose required lifting of the arches - eg. In Trikonasana, I couldn't grab my big toe on the left side without the arch hurting, so just placed hand higher up on the shin. That worked.
Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana was impossible with a full extended right leg - standing fully on just the left foot was too much to handle (I have flat feet, so this pose is extra hard work on my arches!)... But this was OK with a bent leg/ holding the knee (like when you first start out learning the pose). That worked.
So it was kinda cool, taking it from a "let's see what I can do. If I can't, let's see how else I can do it" approach.
The absolute kicker was - Backbends were incredibly open - from the first one, it felt like I'd already done all the Intermediate series backbends before and opened up the back. I haven't ever felt such an openness in the back after practicing only the Primary series. And this led to 3 amazing dropbacks as well as standing up from backbends.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I haven't lost them this time. (Still can't find the Supta K bind though...)
(In no way do I look like this as I'm dropping back, but it definitely FELT like it was this open. And holy-cow how beautiful is this shot!)
Funny how the body seems more physically able on less sleep (didn't Susan & Kevin talk about this before?) ...But I wonder if this could also be because I was practicing with no expectations today, going along with the flow.
I like how everyday is different with this practice. How can anyone say Ashtanga's "boring" coz it's the "same thing" every day?
that picture is BEAUTIFUL
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? I feel like going "ahhhhhhhhhhhh" like a big, fat sigh of release just looking at her.
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