Thanksgiving

Since I abandoned the idea of battling holiday traffic to make it to my parents' place this Thanksgiving seasons, and since the Girl is off to Europe for a week, I've got a nice four day weekend to myself this year. So, naturally, the schedule revolves around practice, the dog, and work. I figure I can bank a few hours in the office to make up for late mornings when practice runs late during the week.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day proper, I skipped Improv in favor of 9am Mysore. Part of me wishes I had gotten up early for pranayam/kirtan, but the sleep was wonderful. Improv doesn't do good things to me with the current state of my practice. I feel like I need the understanding of a set sequence to not push too far physically and aggravate my weak points. Plus, Primary targets my weaknesses so perfectly, it's essentially pointless to do anything else.

Practice was a little brutal. I hadn't gotten on the mat in a week due to a climbing trip, so Wednesday was my first day back. Repeating many poses made for a decent practice. Thursday I felt off - the late start time meant I was hungry and was fighting a bit of a headache, but the asanas were decent once my hamstrings loosened up from the previous day.

Today I got up at my 'normal' time of 4:30 am, rolled into the full pranayam session, which made me feel like I was going to die. Then I practiced. Sitting cross-legged for a hour before practice does great things for my hips! Still, practice wasn't effortless by any means. I have this amazing semi-permanent bruise on my right elbow from Garbha/Kukkutasana. I did bind Marichyasana D on both sides, and getting my arms through my lotus is becoming routine though not pleasant. I still fall over into a heap trying to roll around. Yesterday I had to call quite loudly for help, to the amusement of my neighbors.

In other news I've been subbing an Intro to Ashtanga class for my friend Jenny, who introduced me to the practice five years ago now. It's special to come full circle, from being the stiff awkward student glimpsing the beauty and potential of the practice, to try to be the instructor providing that glimpse at the same studio. It is such a challenge to transmit the flow of the practice, the quiet effort and mind-calming routine, to a student who had a basic-to-no understanding of the sequence. But there are many regulars who try hard and are quite keen. In addition to the regulars, it seems that every week I get a new student who comes up after class asking "This is an intro class, right?!?".

External motivation is necessary, the students will flag off during the seated poses without significant verbal encouragement.

Ashtanga is difficult. I'm so lucky to be in San Diego, with such a strong community of very dedicated and talented teachers.