I've been going to physical studios for about 1.5 week now. Taking my teachers' advice, I wanted to go to Hamish at Astanga Yoga London but there is no space for me in early mornings. If I hadn't found a job, I would've gone to late morning practice. But I've started a new job since 7 September so I had to find a place where I can practice before going to work. And I found out that triyoga has many studios but with limited Mysore programme. I think apart from Chelsea studio they don't run a 6 day a week Mysore programme. As my work is near Waterloo bridge, I chose the Soho studio as my main practice shala. I really like all the studios(Camden, Shoreditch, Chelsea and Soho) I tried, but Soho is most conveniently located. Anyways all the teachers I met seemed really nice and they all know my teachers in Brussels. It felt so nice and home when I noticed the way teachers chant here was very similar to my teachers' in Brussels... :-) I got many tips from each teacher and they made me comfortable getting back to the practice at shala. Luckily, really really luckily, my sternum is doing fine. There is still uncomfortable and unusual feeling around sternum but I can do my practice without big interruptions. I am back at drop back and come up practice after two months and also to my intermediate asanas. It is still hard to do some heart opening & back bending asanas as before but I am just grateful that I can be back at a studio to practise.
There are couple of things I've noticed about my asana practice. First, my utpluthih got so bad!!! I was very shocked that I couldn't hold even for 5 breaths! I am not boasting but I used to be the person who could hold Sharathji's count in utpluthih!! And my navasana got also very bad. But it is because I didn't put enough effort while I was practising at home. So this one.. I have nothing to say. But for utplithih, I think it's related to my sternum... Another thing I noticed is my back. My backbend feels less deeper than before but at least I don't feel pain. All the twist asanas (marichyasana, pasasana) feel also more limited than before. But today's practice was okay.. So I guess I am slowly getting back to where I was. Last thing I noticed is that I am way less focused on asanas than before. This sternum pain taught me a lot and brought me new perspectives. I am just enjoying the moment I am doing asana practice and if something doesn't feel right or doesn't happen in the way I want, I don't get frustrated. I try my best for that moment and just let it go. Though sometimes during the practice, I regret eating a big meal the night before (hihi).
It feels so great to be back at yoga studio and to be able to explore different styles and teachers. One really really really great thing about living in a big city is that you have so many options. So far, I love living in London... :-)