Self Practice

No class today, just self practice. Nice session though...I am beginning to realise the merits of self practice. When B mentioned it during TTC last time, I never really thought about it, but recently I have had to do some asana everyday, mainly because the body protests if I don't. Feels like the knots and tightness in me just craves asanas.

So self practice usually lasts for about 1 to maybe 2 hours. And I am actually very slow and deliberate during self practice, unlike in mysore or class where I am either rushing through the whole primary or waiting for cueing from the teacher. I took extra time with the Surya Namaskrars, only doing A (my bad..I don't like B, which might be all the more reason to do them, but I will have to consciously remind myself to do it.) Anyway I don't know how many times I repeated it, maybe 8-10 times, and I went through them reeaallll slow, and closed my eyes most of the time. Its heaven to feel every move of the body and try to be aware of what I am doing in the different parts of the body.

I started off with modified chaturangas instead because I find once I get into the real deal I am not so conscious of what I feel, with a more gentle practice, you get more aware of the sensations. And cobras instead of upward dog. I read something abut Patricia Walden saying in all backbends to inwardy rotate the thighs to create space in the sacrum and I tried to do that in all my backbends today. More on this later..

Anyway after the suryas, I did utthita hasta padangustasana and ardha baddha padmotanasana, and then forward bends - paschimotanasana, janu A, tiriang mukha, and just allowed myself to get to the most comfortable place, no striving or compulsive getting chest to thighs etc. It was nice, felt good, I just breathed into it and the body just yielded. In fact it might have taken a little longer than 5 breaths to get to my max, but it happened anyway in a much more comfortable way.

Then I went a little off the track from primary, agnisthambasana and then baddha konasana against the wall with the block behind to push on. It think its the best self adjustment I could have done for baddha K. Usually my other prep poses like sukhasana forward bend and a janu shirshasana kinda asana just does give me so much opening in the hips. After a loonggg hold for maybe 1-2 mins in that position ,I swear my thighs were about 1 inch away from the floor on its own, no need to open the soles for it to drop! And I could really feel like I was being adjusted by a teacher by doing that, and best of all no discomfort in the sacrum or lower back which I get when I bend the lumbar to get the head down.

Next I went into pasasana, krouchasana and the second series backbends. I tried rotating my legs in, but didn't really feel that effect in most of the backbends. Even though I repeated ustrasana about 3 times, I just didn't really feel the spaciousness that peopl talk about. Anyhow then I did UD a few times, and decided to bring my feet together like B asked me to do once. And when I lifted, I concentrated on squeezing the outer thighs in, and heaven that was a different backbend altogether, felt no crunch in the lower back and all the bend was in the thoracic and cervical I am pretty sure. Felt really good. Was able to press my chest forward over the arms by then and it was such a good stretch to the shoulder and chest! Then I did another one with my legs straightened, like in viparita dandasana, but with the arms straight. Nice too, worked the shoulders like crazy, but good feeling.

I then finished with shoulderstand, plow and headstand.

Overall it was a good session for me to experiment with what people say but I never really get in class, and I gotto remember to do the same action as the UD feet together and inward rotation thing I did today. I think it might really be the answer to my backbend crunch recently. Yoga rocks! I am so glad I found this practice;)




Next I did Mari A and C, leaving out the lotus