I think it was my 17th Mysore practice after the TTC. I thought a lot about the first time I tried Ashtanga yoga. When I began it was only 1-hour half-primary practice. I think it was only last year(2017) I tried the full primary series for the first time. When I first tried Mysore practice, I did without memorising the sequence. How brave I was! Now I love Mysore practice and 1.5+ hour practice seems not a lot. After the TTC, I've been trying to practice Mysore style 2-3 times a week. As I will be leaving for Paris this week, I really wanted to practice this morning. BUT... I was really tired and didn't want to get out of the bed. I closed my eyes for 30 seconds and thought abut my commitment. I opened my eyes and got ready. I was at the shala around 06:50 which was 20 min later than usual. I got new rugs (one for myself and the other for my friend) and practiced on it.
Since I was a bit late, I didn't sit too long. I don't know whether this is Mysore style, but I like to sit for 1-2 min and bring ujjayi breath. In surya namaskar I felt something in my shoulders. My attention was a lot on shoulders and I was trying to find reasons. But I found none. In one of the adho mukha svanasanas, Anne pointed in the middle of my torso and the sound of my breath changed briefly. I thought of third chakra, solar plexus (명치). I was a bit afraid of having a 'tiring' practice since I didn't sleep much but it went better than I'd thought. From the last 2 or 3 practices I can do marichyasana D right side without help. I can hold two hands but I still struggle to twist more and have chest facing back. It is really amazing to witness 'practice and all is coming' for myself. For navasana.. my tailbone/sacrum area still bothers me. With the weather becoming cold, the pain grow bigger. I hope this will one day go away. I am rounding my back and roll back and forward few times on my sacrum area before going to navasana. This helps reduce pain. I am again still struggling with making titibasana and shooting legs back after bhujapidasana and supta kurmasana. I guess I need to engage both mula and uddiyana bandhas more... but I don't know how I should feel and what exactly to do to make this possible. With garbha pindasana, my rolling became better I felt. These days I am just too afraid of hurting the sacrum/tailbone area so I don't really roll much but today went better than before. For drop back and come up... I am still afraid. I know where to engage and where to open.. but when I try to practice alone I am just not there yet. I really want to see progress but I won't hurry. I will keep my practice steady and it will come one day. I think I wrote 'afraid' a lot on this post.... !!!
At Ashtanga Yoga Brussels on 27/11/18(Tue) from 06:50 to 08:25
Teacher: Anne