Tartan Yogi

Managed to do a nice practice at home last night as the husband was out so there were no weird guitar wah wah noises coming from the other room. Then I went out for a fabulous Indian meal, I love Indian food so much. My mother cooked it a lot when I was growing up and it seems to have stuck. I had a malai kofta and it was yummy.

So it is a moonday today so I seem to have organised a personal training session for myself at the gym. Should be interesting to see if all the yoga translates into a gym bunnies idea of health!

I had a sumit with the husband last night. He is really, really upset because of all the time I spend doing yoga. I hadn't even realised. Funny how you go along thinking everything is fine and in reality you are hurting someone really badly. I feel awful about it, but I am also worried that practicing less will be quite hard.

I guess I have to be more thoughtful and try to practice at home a bit more. Coincidentally because of the moon day and ladies holiday I have a few days off to make it up to him. Must look at my schedule and work something out. I suppose I need to sort out my priorities a bit.

I guess this comes up with many ashtangis, from reading the ezboard and talking to people. I guess my only other option is to get him practicing too!

So am having an easy day of it as I am definitely coming down with a seasonal cold. I guess I just need to take it easy for a few days in all senses of the word.

After yesterday's traumas, and corresponding comments, I got cross. Cross because I was trying to justify to myself why I can't practice at 6 every day. You know the usual full time job, social commitments, all that life stuff! Then I thought, why I am I making excuses? I enjoyed the early morning practice with Matthew Sweeney, so why can't I take advantage of the 2 early morning mysore classes at the yoga centre and practice at home the other mornings. That way I will have my evenings free to see the husband and do other things.

So from Monday that is my plan. It will take a bit of getting into a routine, but I think it will work quite well. I will have to make myself become a morning person. All I need to do is get up, stand on the mat and practice. It isn't rocket science ;)

So I was thinking about things I need to work on and this is the list: bhujipindasana (specifically coming up from the forward fold), supta kurmasana (getting shoulders under arms more fully), headstand (yuk) and also the jump back from titibhasana. Oh and jump throughs too as they seem to have disappeared! Also the routine of getting up should be on the list too!

That is some list actually, I have my work cut out for me over the next month before the David Swenson week. I really want to mainly work on headstand though. Again! I shall enjoy my ladies holiday and look forward to the next practice.

Oooooh, I just received my Ashtanga NY DVD and can't wait to leave work to go and practice and then watch it! I have wanted to watch it for ages, I love how on the back it says this is Pattabhi Jois' last ever tour when he is planning another one for 2006!

I went for a fabulous massage last night. I practically floated home while listening to Gram Parsons on my iRiver. Apparently my back is easing up a bit, but due to a stressful week at work and traumas with the husband and no practice due to ladies holiday the very top of my shoulders is really tight.

I can't wait to practice tonight, it is always interesting how different my body feels when it is relaxed after a massage. I really think that the tension I hold in my body usually explains why I have trouble in, say, supta K. If only I was a millionaire and could have a massage every week.

I mentioned to the receptionist at the massage place that I was doing a yoga week with David Swenson and she thought it was amazing! Although I am now having second thoughts about doing the training next year to be honest. After all there is all the time in the world to do a teacher training course and even more to improve my own practice. And it would give me more money in the savings account for the trip to mysore I am planning at the end of 2006.

I just don't know on that one really. Part of me wants to teach and the other says there is no hurry. I just don't know anymore. I suppose it would be best to wait until I am practicing second series. I gues it is all academic until I have mastered headstand anyway. That really is my nemsis pose. I need to talk to a teacher about it and get a second opinion I think.

Well I have had a fun week or so with the bug of doom. Knocked me right out for most of last week although oddly managed to fit in 4 home practices, less than usual, but not bad considering I was ill. I just hate being ill, I wonder if practicing helped it linger around. Made me feel better directly afterwards though and certainly beats sitting on a sofa all day with your back hurting. I can really tell if I haven't practiced for a few days as my back starts to tell me about it.

And in a bizarre twist of fate (can you tell I am going to see Bob Dylan tomorrow night!), as I have been at home feeling grotty I have done lots of work on my headstand with the result that I can now reliably get into it without the wall, albeit with my legs bent. It says in the back of Light on Yoga that headstand is good for a cold! Anyway, this is a massive achievement for me and I really don't feel scared of it anymore. I know I will get my legs straight with a bit more practice, so a bit of a breakthrough and woo hoo for me.

Am looking forward to a class at the yoga centre once I have finally got rid of my sniffles, I don't want to infect the whole yoga centre with the lurgi so have been staying away.

Oh and I managed to watch the Ashtanga NY DVD. It is fascinating. Not only because of the people talking about their practices, but also because of the timing of it in September 2001. I liked the bit where Gwyneth Paltrow was talking about starting to practice and not wanting to carry on because it hurts! I love hearing peoples yoga stories especially when it resonates with my own practice (I am so self-centred!). I also have decided that Willem Dafoe is my new pin up, he rocks!

Quite a lot of crazy looking dudes on the practice sections of the film, lots of beards. Not that having a beard makes you crazy, maybe that is the fault of the yoga. I think I will shut up now am havering as I am still a bit ill!

It is freezing in Edinburgh today, am off to buy a hat! Something warm and fuzzy would do nicely. I almost got a Bob Dylan one last night at the gig, but restrained myself. It was a good concert, excellent at the start, dipped in the middle and there was an amazing encore. There was a mental woman next to us throughout though, the husband thought she might have been Anita Pallenberg. She smelled strongly of gin and spent the whole gig singing along to the songs, I wouldn't have minded but she was horribly out of tune. Just as well the band played loud!

Am off to the Friday talk through tonight and am looking forward to it as haven't made a class for a while due to the lurgi. Practicing at home is good, but it is nice to practice with other people and I love the Friday class. It is such a nice way to end the week. And it will be nice not to practice while feeling a bit feverish and filled with snot ;)

I got a list of 2006 workshops through the post today and there are loads I want to go to, shame I am not a squillionaire.

You know, I really can't wait till the week with David Swenson, a whole week doing yoga, bliss!

I still have the horrid lurgi, whatever it is. Had lots of fun on Friday at the talk through as I kept having to run off to blow my nose. I think it did me good though. Weirdly I had a fairly good class, I even managed to almost get the swing back to chatarunga from titibhasana. I am sooo close on that one!

I am looking forward to a class tonight and a workshop on bandhas at the weekend, lots of yoga, excellent. Have decided to ignore the cold (except for intermittent complaining) so will practice as normal again. Which is good because my back is missing its usual twisting and turning today. Although I wonder if that is because it is so cold at the moment. I have a massage on Thursday so that will help. If I make the morning mysore on Thursday too it will be the perfect day.

I am beginning to get a bit nervous about the David Swenson week. I hope I will be up to muster, which I am sure doesn't matter as they say it is suitable for all ranges of flexibility, but you know how it is. Which reminds me, must do some work on the evil headstand of doom...

Am off to a workshop tomorrow on bhandas, which should be good. Although I have been a bit rubbish on the practicing front this week. I practiced on Tuesday and it was great, but went to a body pump class at the gym for some reason on Wednesday and yesterday was a massage day. But tomorrow will be great and I will practice on Sunday too. I think I am still working on getting rid of the lurgi so am trying not to be too hard on myself.

The body pump class was interesting as I coped very well, it really is amazing the strength you get from yoga. And I do like doing something different to yoga occassional, very crim, but oh well!

I am having a bad week and it's only Tuesday. Work is being a nightmare, people are just being awkward for no reason at all other than they don't want to do actual work and everything just takes sooooo long to organise as I have to put out fires all over the place. I really am not cut out to be a project manager you know, time for a rethink. And I still have a cold.

Am as a result, I think, I am really starting to stress about the David Swenson week. I have it in my head that my practice is nowhere near good enough to do this workshop. I am sure it will be fine when it gets to Monday, but I am going to be nervous as hell. I just have to keep reminding myself this is something I really, really want to do and nerves and stress aren't going to get in the way.

Oh the joys of having a type A personality....right moan over!

I have started to really look at the sanskrit names for all of the primary series postures to help myself feel less nervous. I do know them all mostly (!) but I want to be sure I can go through them all for talking through them in the workshop. The next thing will be learning how to spell them all ;)

The workshop on Saturday was great. We did lots of work on vinyasas and how to engage the bhandas and how it makes a difference to jumping through. We did a great ecercise where you had to do a jump back and then jump through without moving your hands. I used it in my home practice last night and it really does help you focus on doing the jump through properly. We also did some full vinyasas, which I really like sometimes. They are good for doing when it is cold actually. John Scott uses them after certain groups of poses in his DVD which I really do enjoy following.

Interestingly we did some work on bhujipidasana (I wonder if that is spelled right) to explore the lift you use in a jump back, I had never really thought about it before but it is true. I really love bhujipidasana, probably because I can do it! So relating it to something I don't like very much (jumping back) because I can't do it is a great way to try and get better. So using these methods I am going to see if I can get that elusive jump back with the swing!

Am feeling much more cheerful than yesterday (which isn't difficult), probably because it is almost the end of the week and then I have a week off from work, thank everything, and I just had a very strong and marvellous cup of coffee.

Had a great class last night, got a fantastic adjustment in parivrtta parsvakonasana (I so just had to look that spelling up) where the teacher practically revolved my torso so I had a great twist while my hand was still on the floor. I wonder if doing that will help with Mari D. I think in Mari D I may be concentrating on the bind too much without really working the twist. And I do have quite a deep twist in Mari C so maybe it is the aspect of fear that is hindering me here.

It really is true (for me anyway) that yoga is often more about I you approach a pose rather than if my body can do it, although obviously that helps! I suppose it is easy to get stuck in a rut of not being able to do a pose and it stops you from progressing.

Anyway, thanks to a comment I got yesterday I am going to focus on getting the most out of the David Swenson workshop and stop being so absorbed in attachment to the poses and if I can do them in the 'proper' way. I am beginning to look forward to it more now, although will probably still be nervous.

Moon day today too, which might explain the grumpyness of yesterday. Am going to do a light practice tonight though, I really am attached to those asanas despite my best efforts!

In other news, I have asked for a dehydrator for Christmas prompted by the diet workshop I went on. May have to restrain the husband from making meat things in it though, man being a veggie is so tough ;)