Autumn Lotus Yoga

Woke up with fatigued legs & altered plans in light of that.   Took one early hot class rather than two & took it easy.

How does one take a class easy?  First, leave off some of the “vinyasas” (colloquialism for half suns frequently done between poses or sets of poses).  (Though I tend to leave some of those out anyway in faster-paced classes — I don’t care for any overly quick transitions into backbends, including/especially Up Dog.  It’s bad for my back & bad for a lot of other people’s too, reading bodies & expressions.)  Second, don’t go as deep into poses, especially bent knee standing poses when the legs are tired!  Three, rest as needed in child’s pose or down dog or other pose appropriate to what’s going on.

Why take a class easy?  (As opposed to taking a day off.)  Well, for one thing, sometimes when you go to class when tired, it turns out to be a surprisingly excellent class anyway, in terms of what you learn, or how it makes you feel, or suddenly you get there & don’t feel tired anymore.  And, right now anyway,  it feels better for my body to do some movement rather than rest — it’s keeping things “lubed up” as it were.  I suspect if I took a full day off at the moment, the next day I’d feel MORE sore rather than less as things locked up.  Oh yeah, and there’s that whole stubborn/discipline thing that is useful to cultivate sometimes. 

Felt mentally & emotionally fab afterwards — even went & got a haircut at 9 am!!  Decided to embrace the fact that I have thick, wavy, uber-voluminous Big Hair & got bodacious amounts of long layers.  Thankfully, the stick straight fashion phase seems quite over & Beloved Husband is a child of the 80′s & deeply looooves Big Hair.

As referenced in the FYCET Day 5 post (http://autumnlotusyoga.omblogger.com/2010/01/28/fycet-day-5) Ana had us do a writing exercise focused on several key questions.  Here’s my response (most of it) to the first question on what delights my spirit.

Playfulness

Deep breathing

Pretty clothes

Beloved Husband

Our kitties

Quiet time to myself

Healthy touch

People I’m comfortable with

Really good food

Feeling proud of myself

Moving forward

Feeling grounded, vibrant, supported

What does your list look like?

It delighted my spirit to take two full-on 90 minute hot classes today.  Way wicked cool.  Except, like, 95 degrees.  Which was perfect since it’s freaky frigid in Boston right now.  Was tired but extra bendy for the second class.  The bath & rollin’ time seemed useful today as well so I’m gonna try it all again tomorrow.   Next weekend is the second Mentorship session in New Haven & only two weeks till assisting (knock wood!)

Today’s practice was FREAKY AWESOME.  Took the 0645 hour long class, then the 0900 hour & a half class & both were TASTY & PAINFREE!!

Theory at the moment: I got up early enough to take a hot bath & do some body rolling on a Yamuna ball which loosened up the back & everywhere else.

Intend to try it tomorrow also to see if it was just coincidence… Details to follow (& some selected answers to yesterday’s q’s.)

I did make it to one early class today & about half an hour chill stuff in the evening at home — but it was sluggish & tired & a wee bit ill yoga fer shur!  Took the rest of the day as quiet time/mini sick day at home which makes it a perfect recap opportunity.

So when last we left our redheaded heroine, she was facing the last day of the Forrest Yoga intensives/teacher training after a fall on ice, with two swollen hands & one banged & bruised knee, none of which could take weight.  No chats, no dogs, no arm balances, no lunges, no 90 degree angle poses that leg… oh yeah, and the back is still happy only with cobra & baby bridges, so no fancy backbends.  Bottom line, there were alot of poses I couldn’t do.

Things is — that level of tweakiness is hardly an uncommon thing, especially when someone is starting yoga.   We modify, we adapt, we practice anyway if it can be done without pain (and if Ana is expecting you to show up — cuz if so, you.show.up.  

I did a lot of dolphins instead of vinyasas &/or Down Dogs.  (For a shining moment this was a good thing as I witnessed my compatriots do a Turbo Dog that lasted, like, 19 years!)  I did twists at the wall or on the floor instead of hand-based arm balances & did forearm balance where appropriate as a substitution also.  I spotted/assisted my friend during center handstand series the entire time so she hopefully had fun with that.  I backed off standing poses & did knee-off-the-floor lunges.  I crawled around alot.  

What really amused me is that the final apex pose was one I could totally do, even though I couldn’t do all the others.  Leg behind the head pose on the mat is a happy pose for me any day, but INCREDIBLY welcome that day!!   Friends told me they cheered inwardly when we finally hit a pose I could do just fine.  

The theme, btw, was connecting to Spirit.  It was an emotionally tiring practice — I felt incredibly battered, jarred & banged up — but also a huge learning experience & a blessing.  Connecting to Spirit can happen however injured we are & that’s a really important thing to learn & relearn in a visceral way, getting it into the cell tissue.

The afternoon teacher training had two distinct parts.  In the first, we split into pairs & gave each other a private class. This started with a short Q&A on injuries & poses-of-interest, & ended with feedback on teaching.  My incredibly talented partner worked on my back with me & it was awesome.  Assists in every pose, especially focused on twists.  In turn, I gave her a shoulder class, doing both range of motion & strength work, with peak poses a whole string of center forearm balances & handstands.

Here’s the kicker.  My poor swollen, cut unhappy hands felt HUGELY better after assisting my amazing partner.  It was really healing to have my hands on her, both for her & for me.  Hands-on work should NEVER be underestimated.

And I think I’m not allowed to use all caps for emphasis again this post.

Second part of the final teacher training afternoon was a beautiful process of working through a series of important questions.  I’ll give a selection of them now & share some of my answers tomorrow or the next day.

For your consideration, seriously:

1) What delights your spirit?  (Or, if you can’t feel your spirit yet or right now, ask your heart.)

2) What can you do to delight your spirit TODAY? (Ok, I had to all cap that.

3) What brings healing to you?

4)  What are you willing to commit to doing TONIGHT (same exemption to take care of yourself?

5) What can you do daily to get intimate with your Spirit or to entice it back, building a passionate relationship with Spirit?

Think about it.

Honest to Ganesh, I think it’s going to take a frickin’ week to catch up on all the stuff I let go of during last week’s excitement.  I will get the FYCET Day 5 recapped tomorrow; I’m barely able to hang on through getting my face washed tonight as it is!

Made it to 2 hrs at the sweaty studio & can totally feel the effects of Nicole’s sacral therapy.  In tomorrow with a chiro finally!  This whole thing where I get help from others with my issues is really quite nice.

Proper entry tomorrow.  I have scheduled official downtime & will insist on taking it!!

Recapping Day 4… first, there is a reason these are called intensives.  They really are intense!   But there is also a reason it’s called a yoga ceremony — there is that quality of the sacred brought to every moment. 

The theme for the am asana practice was feeling for what quality you want to bring into your cell tissue, what do you want to embody?  I felt the concept of  “joyful strength” just resonate right through me.  That sweet spot combination of heart & warrior, play & power.  The poses focused on a lot of standing series & twists.  I know this was my most physically yummy day of practice, but can’t now remember a lot of the specifics!  (Largely because of what went down later that night which made Day 5 a humdinger, but more on that in a paragraph.)

In the afternoon, the teaching session included a few assists, but mostly was spent in another small group teaching practice.  For two hours we taught each other an intermediate level class while receiving interactive feedback from Ana or one of her more experienced assistants.  It’s worth explaining what this feedback exercise is like, cuz it’s frequently damn fun.   The purpose is to help people access ways to take their teaching to the next level, whatever that is for them.  For example, someone had to teach entirely in song for a while, then go up & down their vocal register to help make the voice a more responsive tool rather than a flatline monotone.  Someone else taught a large part of their section while doing a held squat against the wall, mostly to piss her off so she could access more authority.    Others had to get off the mat & get their hands on people the whole time to help connect with students.  It’s a really worthwhile process, I think, though it can get under the skin of teachers who are very invested in their own approach.

Ana gave us an additional sadhana (spiritual practice) that night as well — not just are we to stay out of self-mutilation & speak our truth, but also to speak about what’s precious to us.  Not just the hard or nasty truths, but the sweet, valued treasured truths also. 

During the course of my evening Sunday, after the teacher training, I managed to fall on some of the last bits of ice.  Landed on my hands & right knee, which meant I went into the final day of FYCET unable to put pressure on that knee or EITHER OF MY HANDS because all three body parts were swollen & bruised & cut up. 

Yeah.   Will talk about how that went tomorrow, when I recap Day 5.  Let’s just say my empathy for & creativity with modifications has gone up another notch!

That’s the sound of my behind hitting the couch for practically the first time in a week.  

It’s also the sound of me feeling grounded.  Ahhhhh.

I’ll update on today, then in a separate posting recap Day 4 of the FYCET.

Today, my friend, Beloved Husband and I all STILL woke up before 4 am!  There was lounging around, then friend & I went to a 6:30 am Baptiste class.  (BH sensibly stayed home.   Following that, we went to Nicole Clark’s Hop, Pop & Rock class at Back Bay Yoga.  That class was fan-f’ing-tastic!  Her way of holding a space that is both supportive & playful is amazing.  She also “had me at hello” by giving me the most luscious attention all class.  I was feeling a bit whomped (as opposed to “Whump! and she gave me like a cumulative 30 minutes of TLC including breathwork, back massage & the sacral therapy part of cranio-sacral therapy.  It was beyond words, but the best I can provide are that it was like turning from rock to liquid, or from transforming from a cranky, creaky armadillo into a purry sleepy, floppy kitten still in the nursing stage.  If you are in Boston or can run, hop or fly here, get to one of Nicole’s classes!

The other big event of the day was a site visit to my volunteer project.  It looks like I will have the good fortune to initiate a program between Back Bay Yoga and a Boston subsidized housing community.  The community is in a large converted former school that houses 50 residents between the ages of 18 and 80, many previously homeless and/or with mental health challenges or addictions.   Each resident lives in a kind of shared semi-private apartment with large common rooms available to all.  It’s an amazing place.  After some weeks of phone calls & emails, today I visited the facility, met with the coordinator & was able to talk to several of the residents.  It was a skin-tingling delight.  Next week I’ll do a small presentation & mini-class & see how this rolls!