Tartan Yogi

It is a massage day today, so I will go for some deep tissue work after I have finished at the office and will go home and read all the books I have just bought in a relaxed state. I always feel a bit beaten up after my massages because the girl who does my massages works really deep into the muscles. She needs to though as I hold such a lot of tension in my shoulders, she always says my shoulders are a challenge! I always end up being a bit zoned out afterwards too and float home making no sense to anyone. It is quite nice really.

I got the new Harry Potter yesterday so have already started it. I really wish I could control the amount of books I have, they are taking over the flat!

And my practice plan for the week is a talk through tomorrow, mysore on Wed/Thurs and a full primary talk through on Friday. Then I will practice at home on Sat/Sun seeing how I am doing after the week's practice. I have to make an effort to step it up a pace ready for teacher training in December ;)

Had a good practice on Saturday, nice and slow. My practices at home are definiteley more meditative and slowly paced, unless I am following the John Scott DVD!

Am looking forward to the week now, even though I really didn't want to get out of bed and my husband is having a day off today.

Practice yesterday was slightly hampered by my knee deciding to be really, really stiff. I guess I was overly optomistic about it being back to normal. Oh well. Maybe it will be better tonight at mysore with more heat.

And typically this morning as I was walking into work I went over my ankle again. It really must be the weakest ankle ever because it really hurts now. I guess I will just have to be patient with my right leg today, and the left one with its hamstring injury. Argh!

On the up side, I managed a really good headstand yesterday. I really concentrated on the lift in my arms and although I didn't get my legs all the way up, I stayed actually standing on my head for quite a while. So I think that is progress. It is all in the arms I think!

Also noticed afte my deep tissue massage on Monday that my whole back and shoulder area was really tender, but loose. I guess this week I will just have to try to take it easy and try not to overextend my shoulders. Mind you I always say that and then end up doing uber strong practices. You feel different when you get into the swing of a good practice sometimes though ;) I guess you just have to listen to the body and not the mind.

I had an interesting mysore class last night. I used my new mat, which is cotton with a thin sticky layer on the underside. It was pretty slippy till I sprayed it with water and then it was fine, but it doesn't give the cushioning of my usual sticky may. Maybe I could use them both together. Or use the sticky mat untill I get sweaty (how nice, ashtanga really is soooo glamorous!) and put the cotton one on top. It is a shame my black heavy mat is so heavy otherwise I would use that all the time, it is really great and very long, but a pain to carry around.

Anyway, mats aside, a friend of mine went to the class and she has never been to a mysore class before. So my teacher asked me to go through the poses with her. It was interesting as I had to keep stopping myself from speeding ahead and also bear in mind she can't do many of the full poses yet, so I showed her some variations. It was a good exercise and I am pleased my teacher thought I knew what I was doing enough to let me guide her.

Maybe the idea of teaching one day isn't so remote. I still need a whole lot of practice first though! I did a lot of good backbending work last night trying to work on my charlie chaplin feet when I come up from a backbend. I must really engage those bandhas before coming up and stop trying to use momentum to get myself up - practice, practice, practice!

And another almost headstand was done! I am getting there, really it is my nemsis pose at the moment!

Mysore again tonight, hopefully my ankle will take it. It wasn't too bad yesterday, wlthough it did twinge a wee bit on Mari B and D, patience, patience and all is coming perhaps ;)

Ladies holidays to be exact! Mine arrived most inconveniently yesterday so I didn't make it to mysore. I went straight home after work with major cramps and did what is my usual practice on such days, which is a nice long Iyengar session.

This seems to be fairly contraversial in the ashtanga world, i.e. practicing two different styles of yoga. My take on it is that I practice ashtanga, but when it is a moon day, or a ladies holiday I like to do some asana otherwise I get really stiff for my next ashtanga practice.

I have a great video that I use, it is a John Friend tape (before he went all Anusura!) and is quite a strong practice. It even includes some second series backbends, which I enjoy doing to complement my primary series and will be good practice if I ever advance to second. Although to be honest, sometimes I throw in a sun sal between each pose to get some heat going, I am an ashtanga cheat ;)

Actually, the tape is a much better practice session than any Iyengar class that I have ever been to as it is much stronger and the poses aren't held for 20 minutes! The weird thing about the Iyengar classes I have been to is that I always felt like I hadn't practiced when I came out, I guess ashtanga has ruined me for Iyengar. Oh well!

I am also debating with myself about going to led primary today, I am such an ashtanga criminal.

The past few months just seem to have been a catalogue of health disasters! First the knee, then the ankle and now my IBS has flared up again so I had to take yesterday off work. Thankfully yoga helps so I practiced as usual. Just as well noone from work saw me doing ashtanga or they would think I was making up my stomach complaints!

It does help though. I think that the yoga must massage my stomach so it soothes it or something. That is my non-technical description anyway. It does make those marichis challenging though...

Anyway, am going to a led class tonight and am going to take my normal sticky mat. I have decided my new cotton mat is probably best saved for mysore classes when the sweat really gets going. Either that or I will have to soak it with water before I use it.

On a different tangent, I read a really interesting book over the weekend, called 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver. It is about a mother's account of her son who kills 13 people in a school rampage. All the way through the book the mother keeps asking why her som would do such a thing and the interesting thing is that a reason is never really identified. I highly recommend this book and am going to lend my copy out to everyone I can make read it.

I seem to be on a reading roll at the moment, read Harry Potter in a couple of days, a biog of Byron and then a book by David Nobbs about sex changes (!). Now I am reading the Gita, the version with the introduction by Aldous Huxley which gives a very good general overview. If anyone has any good links to explanations of it I will be most grateful :)

Had an interesting talk through last night, the teacher throws in all sorts of crazy moves for us to have a go at like the splits. I am not too bad at this on the right side, give me another couple of inches of stretch and I will be able to do it (she says optimisticaly!) But the left side is a whole different story. Maybe I should try persuading the leg to go down a bit further by chatting to it or something (might look a bit mental though!), but man - it is an evil injury this thigh one. Definitely hamstring related.

I would go to the doctor, but I can't imagine a Scottish doctor being too sympathetic to someone going in and saying, 'Doctor when I try to do the splits, it hurts', cue telling me not to do the splits....

I imagine the real problem as per usual is patience, how annoying! Seems to be a real battle for me (and the real battles are always the mental ones I think), in that I have been practicing Primary for such a long time I sometimes feel like I really am going nowhere, even if I think I would be satisfied doing primary for ever.

I seem to remember on the advanced yoga video I have with David Swenson et al. doing the most amazing superhuman practices that one of the practitioners said he had done primary for years and years before he advanced, which does give me hope. Not that I am a series chaser or anything, just keen to add some different poses to my practice I suppose.

Am going to mysore practice tonight. Unfortunately it seems my favorite, and usual, teacher is having his classes taken over by the other teacher who I don't like as much. I will just have to get used to this though. It does put me off mysore practice a bit though.

What a moaning post! Must be the time of year or something. Edinburgh often is quite traumatic during August due to the Festival and the fact that the middle of town (where I work) gets so busy. On the up side I gave a few shows planned and am going to the circus on Friday to see some martial arts experts give a demo, which will be very interesting. I will report back - I wonder if they use yoga moves...

A reasonable mysore class last night. Did some good dropbacks with the teacher, although I really want to start working on these more on my own. My standing up from a backbend could be much smoother so I am going to start doing more of them at home between practices to get the action going. My teacher reccomended practicing against a wall, so I will maybe venture doing this in the ladies at work, not very glam, but needs must!

I also got told off last night, I was talking to a girl who I see a lot, but have never spoken to before (it takes me an age to work up to things like that!). I asked her about her cotton mat and she said it took her a while to get used to it but now it is her favorite, so maybe I will persevere with mine. Anyway, I have a loud voice (thanks to having to do lots of training and things at work), so got told off for distracting a class that was just finishing up. I felt awful because I know it annoys me when other people do it. Must do better in future!

Am off to mysore tonight, hoorah - fourth class in a row.

Great mysore class last night, as it was my fourth practice this week I thought I would be really stiff, and I was at first - in fact on sun sal B no 4, my arms were not feeling very happy at all. But that is the amazing thing about the primary series, you think you have no energy and then suddenly you are at the sitting postures and full of beans. It must be some sort of chemical reaction to the postures!

My knee was OK last night too, so maybe the key is more consistent practice. I really do know this, but it is easy to kid yourself that doing three practices a week will help you progress. In my case it doesn't. I need to do five or six, and now I have proved this to myself I am determined to carry on as I have been this week. In a weird way I think having this blog has helped me focus on the way I was practicing and the reasons for being stuck at the same stage for so long.

And as if to prove it to myself last night I did the strongest Mari D on the right side I have ever done. With assistance I really do enjoy this pose. I almost had the wrist in the bind, which is unheard of for me. Sadly the other side was a bit more limited as my ankle is now the focus for the right leg pain, but this too will be worked through. I guess it is like I heard someone say the other day, you have to work through your edges sometimes to really experience what your body and mind are capable of.

It is an interesting journey this yoga way you know!

I went to see the Cinese State Circus - part of the Edinburgh Festival, on Friday and there was a contortionist as part of the show. She was amazing, it looked like she had jelly for a spine! She did lots of backbending and some very yoga-ish manoevers. Although I would imagine most yogis don't attach candles to themselves while upside down ;)

There were some Shaolin monks performing too (although I wonder about the fact they were performing for entertainment, not very yogic). They did some amazing fighting and broke bricks on their heads. I think I would have rather watched the contortionist for the whole show though.

We all went sea kayaking on Saturday as well, which was amazing. The weather was awful to start with but when we were actually on the sea the sun came out. We landed and had a bit of lunch and quite a crowd gathered to watch me as I did some yoga to stretch out my back. Some of the children seemed most intrigued in my back bending!

So didn't do much yoga, but did other exercise instead and to yoga tonight. A led class I think.

I can't really believe it, but my husband and I are discussing plans to take three months off work to go to Mysore next year. He wouldn't be doing the yoga bit though so I need to investigate into what is in the surrounding area to keep him busy. but oh my goodness!

It might not be feasible, but I have a feeling it will happen because I really want it to. Gosh! I feel like I shouldn't talk about it in case I jinx it...

In other news, I went to two great led classes on Monday and yesterday. Tonight I am practicing at home and am going to do the Richard Freeman vid of the primary series. I like using it as it is nice an slow and that suits my home practices sometimes. And I remembered I have a massage booked tomorrow so I am going to try and get up before work to do some yoga. If I do only half an hour that will be an achievement. I am definitely not a morning person. That will be fun getting over if I do go to mysore! Although I don't have any problem getting up early if I have something to look forward to, so will probably be OK ;)

Actually, I am aching a bit after the two classes this week. I think it is because the teacher throws in poses like the splits that my body isn't used to in its usual primary series practice. Although I am used to a bit of aching, I think I have got used to that though over the last few years. Tiger balm is the answer! I get the massage lady to use it and it is amazing.

My friends and family are beginning to think I am totally obsessed with yoga! They will so even more if we really do go to Mysore. I spent last night practicing (fairly mediocre practice, I think I am suffering from those two days with no practice still and the knee is playing up, most frustrating) and reading about India in my old 1995 copy of the Rough Guide to India. Funnily enough it doesn't mention yoga much, but gives some good info on the culture and history of India.

I have asked at work about the possibility of taking unpaid leave to go. I hope they are OK about it, fingers crossed. It seems like January would be the best time to go to make sure the husband doesn't die of heat exhaustion...also would be nicer practicing then, rather than in summer. I guess it wouldn't be till 2007 in that case, but that if fine. Gives me something to aim for!

I am off for a massage tonight so no practice today. I have also opted to go to a primary series talk through tomorrow instead of a show at the festival, yup - yoga is taking over my life ;)

Am just dawdling along at work before going to a full led primary class. Am giving up a work drinks thing to go, which I am not too bothered about. I seem to be most antisocial at the moment for some reason, all I want to do all day is yoga. Definitely an affliction.

I have been sorting out with work about taking time off to go to mysore, so it although they aren't hugely enthused by the idea of me taking two months off to jaunt to India, I think I will be able to work round it. Ah, the power of persuasion when you really want something ;)

I work with a few Indian companies fairly regularly from Edinburgh, so who knows, maybe I can even go and visit them while I am there. Although they are in Chennai, Pondicherry and Bangalore, so it would mean skipping about a bit. That could be fun though.

Weirdly in the space of two days what I had though was a total impossibility is coming close to being organised! Very weird, but very good.

Even odder is that the husband is quite enthusiastic, even though he won't be doing any yoga. Maybe he could find someone to teach him to play the sitar! Must look into that.

My practice has been hampered somewhat by being realllly stiff for the past couple of days. I wonder if the moon has anything to do with it. Might also be something to do with the massage I had last week, really seems to have knocked me for six, it must have been very deep. I am off to mysore tonight and I hope my body comes back to me for it ;)

In other news I went to see a great show at the festival, it was an actor doing a Bill Hicks style (called Bill Hicks Slight Return) stand up routine based on recent events. It was surprisingly good actually, I guess something like that could go horribly wrong, but it was very well done. Best show I have seen actually. Some parts were pretty close to the bone, just like the real thing!

Also am trying to stop drinking so much caffeine, it isn't really working though as I just snapped and made myself coffee. Oh well, worth a try. It just tastes so good!

I really have too much to do this week. I have an assignment to finish, freelance editing to get through, a full time job, a visitor after we go away for the weekend so I have to clean the flat and a grumpy husband as he hasn't seen me all week, argh!

Anyway rant over. I always do this to myself, commit to doing too much and am then surprised when I get stressed out doing it all.

On the up side, I have still managed to practice on Sunday, Monday and yesterday. I haven't made it to the yoga centre, but have been practicing at home. I love the John Scott DVD, goes at just the right pace for me so am going to use it tonight again. It also has full vinyasas in it which I like too. Especially when I am feeling unfocused!

Although sadly my mari D has decided to go on holiday. I even resorted to using a strap to get my bind. Most annoying. Maybe it is just because I don't get as much heat generated at home without all the other bending, stretching yogis around.

Am going to make it to a mysore class tomorrow if it is the last thing I do!

I was just reading ezboard (while at work, am very naughty) with a huge cup of coffee in front of me and there was a new thread about how lots of people drink coffee before practice and find it helps. I am so happy about that as I love coffee and have at least one cup of strong coffee a day to get me going. Am so glad I am not a yoga crim!

It is interesting that it is replacing any alcohol I drink, basically if I am out I would rather have a coffee than a glass of wine. Yoga has a lot to answer for. I have decided to stop drinking alcohol altogether for a month to see how I get on. I don't really drink that much anyway to be honest, but I think it will make a difference. It certainly does make you notice how much people do drink in Scotland usually, especially at the weekend. I guess this is a culture thing, there has been so much in the press about binge drinking recently and you often see people lurching home after being in the pub all night. Anyway, it will be an interesting experiment.

Am off to mysore class tonight. Didn't make it to any classes last week as I was in the office until 8 each night, I did manage four home practices though and while I was away at the weekend visiting the husbands relations, I managed to sneak in lots of yoga! I have been working on my headstand and it really is coming on. Weirdly it seems to have made my handstand better too, must be all that focus on balance. Not that my headstand is perfected or anything, but at least I can get up into it regularly now - even if I don't stay up for very long!