Tartan Yogi

Hear me roar!

Or should that be ujjai breathe...actually how do you spell that, ujaii, ujjaii - must find out so I don't embarass myself in written homework for Teacher.

The first weekend was incredibly nerve wracking. I kept having odd dreams about turning up late and being banished from the course and then one where the course started with a dancing competition and I am not blessed with rhythm unfortunately. However after meeting everyone and getting on with the business of learning some anatomy and yoga history it all seemed a bit less daunting.

There is an interesting mix of people on the course all wanting to teach for different reasons and some are not sure they even want to teach (myself included). But it is going to be such a great learning experience on so many different levels I am now quite happy I made the decision to do the course.

The bit I was dreading most was the actual practicing part as I thought everyone would be way more advanced than I am. Stuck as I am on the primary series - which will be forever until that arm bind comes in Supta K, although I freely admit to being a crim and practicing the whole sequence and drop backs to add insult to injury. As an aside I think my problem in Supta K is the size of my thighs. They are quite, erm, chunky. Possibly need to do some anti-chunk exercises. Mind you I suppose ashtanga is pretty good for that even though it hasn't solved that particular problem for me yet.

Anyway, when we did our mysore practice as part of the weekend it was fine and actually although obviously there were people more advanced than me, there seemed to be a good range of abilities and a couple of people weren't actually practiting ashtanga at all. There are also a few people with injuries so my sore knee didn't feel too out of place.

Actually the knee is getting better, although am not quite back to Mari D I am doing Mari B so it is getting better fairly quickly. It does really give me an appreciation for some of the primary series that I love like the finishing postures. Weirdly I really like urdhva padmasana for some reason.

Also interesting was that some people had an issue with adjusting because of touching people. Not something I have ever had an issue with at all because I think physical adjustments are amazingly powerful and have helped me so much. Obviously you have to be quite careful with them so you don't injure someone, but there is nothing like a good adjustment.

We even managed to fit in some teaching practice too. I had a bash at teaching sun salutation A. It was quite difficult and I kept talking really fast because I was nervous. But that will improve with practice. Also it is never a good idea to try and talk and do a sun sal at the same time as you end up sounding a bit strained! Or like a heavy breather, neither of which is a good thing.

We have lots of homework too already which I am going to get cracking on tonight I think. Poor husband thinks I have become totally obsessed. I have even started reading bits of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika to him in bed which he thinks is a riot. Especially some of the more *ahem* invasive shat karmas especially the one involving an intimate area and a bit of turmeric root.

Anyway, I have a week of Dharma Mittra to look forward to this month as part of the course, am really looking forward to that as he seems to be a bit of a legend. A whole week of yoga, hoorah!

I am sitting on my chair at work in virasana and a colleague just told me I was freakishly bendy. Other people's perceptions are fascinating! I am doing it to help combat the effects of sitting in a chair at work. Ideally I would work sitting on the floor, but I think that might be a bit to much to expect other people to cope with - they already think I am odd as it is.

Yesterday was quite weird. There was a power cut and everyone left the office within about 5 minutes. Someone got trapped in the lift though which must have been quite scary, but justifies my fear of lifts. Much better to use the stairs. Anyway, it was bedlam outside with alarms going off everywhere and people running around panicking. I went home and did my practice there as I was vaguley unsettled by it all. As a result my practice was all over the place. Oh well, sometimes it is like that.

Am looking forward to mysore tonight though. Although I do tend to get loads of adjustments as there are usually 2 teachers on a Thurday. I do like adjustments, strong ones too. Who knows maybe I will get closer to supta K tonight...

I must also crack on with my teacher training homework tonight when I get home after practice. It isn't too complicated, but I want to make sure I get the anatomy stuff right as I am so unfamiliar with it. I have to practice my chatarunga dandasanas too, we have to build up our time in it before the next training weekend. It is a great exercise actually as I am pretty weak in this still.

We did this interesting exercise where you lie on the floor on your front, bring your hands to the side of your chest, then raise your bum off the floor leaving the chest on the floor (so elegant ;). You then push up strongly with the arms to get into chatarunga. It really helps you to focus on the alignment of the pose and gain some strength.

Anyway, am now off to lunch at Henderson's (a fab veggie place in Edinburgh). I have forced a bunch of carnivores it is a good idea so hopefully they won't turn nasty without their usual meaty lunches...

I just ordered myself some new yoga clothes. It was about time after the indignity of my trousers falling apart during class and almost flashing my boobs at a teacher the other day. So I have bought some sturdy items to keep everything where it should be and not swinging about perilously. May have also accidentally bought a couple of DVDs too, an Andrey Lappa one which looks interesting. Not ashtanga, but I can save it for a Saturday practice ;)

Practice last night was a bit mad. We had three teachers at one point because for the beginners class only one person showed up so he was made to join the mysore peeps, poor guy! It was a great practice actually, nothing particularly different to usual, but I just felt like all was well with the world and everythign flowed nicely. The sitting on the floor I have been doing seems to have really opened my hips so I was going great guns in baddha konasana. Sadly made no difference to supta K though, stupid pose anyway.

And I am still modifying for my knee, which made an alarming pinging noise at one point when I tried to go forward in ardha bhadda. I got given Marichi F (from 4th series eek) instead of Mari D until my knee is better. Most crim, but it is a nice pose and at least this way I won't end up wonky by only doing Mari D on one side.

I wonder if the centre will get quite quiet because the festival has started. During the Edinburgh Festival the population of the city doubles and most of the extra people seem to be in the middle of town where I work. Lots of fun dodging people trying to give you flyers for their student comedy revues. Actually after practice tonight I am off to see the Ennio Moriconne Experience, the husband's idea. seemingly it is film theme tunes played on kitchen utensils. Sounds intriguing!

Am off to a workshop on headstands tomorrow which I am looking forward too. Although am weirdly enoying my headstands now even if they are a bit wobbly. At least I am doing them now which is a leap forward. Totally a fear thing, which is mad because I have no problem with falling over. In fact falling over is one of the few things I am really good at. Reminds me of when I did horse riding when I was young, my area of expertise was falling off and always being able to land on my feet. Just as well I didn't become a jockey really, mind you I would imagine there aren't many six foot female jokeys.

Am also going to treat the husband to an afternoon of mooching round the shops and possibly going for a cheeky coffee after the workshop tomorrow. Will be nice to see him. He has been working insane hours recently and I have been obsessing about yoga training so we don't seem to have seen each other for ages - except for when we are sleeping and wallking to work.

In other news there was a nice interview with David Swenson in Yoga Journal this month. What a nice chap he is.

Had a good led primary on Friday, although was completely knackered from the week's practice so my arms kept objecting to chatarunga. Then went to see a show (the Spagetti Western Orchestra - crazy Australian's playing theme tunes from westerns using homemade instruments, they were surprisingly good!) so got home at about 1am.

I was then up early for a finishing postures workshop on Saturday morning. I was quite grumpy when I realised it was going to be quite a full on physical class for 3 1/2 hours (not sure what I expected, a nice lie down possibly). I was only cross because I was suffering from ashtangi ache which for me is only cured by doing more yoga or covering entire self in tiger balm and grumbling a lot which wasn't really an option at a workshop sadly.

Once I had got over myself, we did the usual standing postures and then lots of good prep for headstand, strengthening for the shoulders and abs and then practicing falling out of headstands. One of the variations was to go up into headstand keeping the legs bent once upside down, then falling over backwards into a backbend with arms still supporting the head. I really enjoyed that one. Interestingly most people found it quite a challenge possibly because they weren't confident in their backbends so just ended up falling over.

The great thing was that we did the prep for headstand over and over, I was actually doing quite well and didn't have any problems getting up at all surprisingly. All that practice falling over at home has paid off. I think the workshop has really solidified in my mind how to approach headstand properly so it was worth it for that. And also I feel much more confident about it because the fear factor has gone (and hopefully my obsession with the pose too). We even got to practice some adjustments on each other which was good teaching practice. Also a good lesson in where to stand to make sure you don't get kicked in the face helping someone with a headstand.

After class I met the husband and we had a wander round a few charity shops. I got a fabulous huge ring with a big green stone in it, and it was a bargain, I am such a bargain shopaholic. After that the husband made me walk about 5 miles so he could go to some dull shop selling men things like switches and bits of wire and sprockets. By the time we got to where we were going (to see some jazz) we had walked about 10 miles and my legs were in danger of falling off. Mental note: don't wear flip flops when the husband suggestes a 'wander'.

Spent yesterday recovering and was quite thankful for my ladies holiday and a day off. I spent a happy hour painting my nails a beautiful shade of blue complete with sparkly bits. Must remove before Dharma Mittra workshop in case everyone thinks I am some sort of frivolous city type! Am sadly happy about having shiny nails - probably means I have huge amounts of work to do on my attitude to life...

My Andrey Lappa DVD arrived today so I am going to run home and have a go. Technically it should be a day off so I can get away with practicing non-ashtanga! Some of my new yoga trousers arrived too so I can try them out. Am sadly excited about the new yoga stuff. Most unyogic, if yogic is a real word which ezboard tells me is not...

The husband is working till late tonight so I will have a rare night on my own. last night I spent watching a large number of episodes of the Family Guy with a friend - I had never seen before (and was making the most of my ladies holiday). it is very good indeed. Maybe I will watch a couple tonight too.

Must do some more of my homework for the next teacher training weekend too. Most of it is quite straightforward, but one if the questions is about why you want to do the course and I have lots of reasons none of which seem right to write about. I think I will just start to write some of them down to see if I get inspired. I suppose the main one is to learn more about yoga rather than to teach, although one day I would like to. I think my aim is be to be an assistant actually, a bit like an apprentice I suppose.

I can't wait for the Dharma Mittra workshop next week. Work really is dragging along. Roll on Friday. Although my sister has comandeered me to help remove woodchip wallpaper from her ceilings on Saturday - maybe all those chatarungas will come in handy as I will need good arm muscles to keep them over my my head all day.

I am still at work and will not be leaving for a while, ah the joys of taking a week off to do the Dharma Mittra workshop. Have had a really unsuccessful week yoga wise with ladies holiday, a moon day and now work taking up all my time. I will practice in some shape or form tonight though, once I get home. May end up eating dinner at 11pm though!

Am also quite cross as the class I was going to tomorrow has been cancelled, will probably go to the other centre across town. But that will be weird as it isn't where I usually practice and the teachers don't know me.

Gosh, I am a bundle of fun today.

On the up-side I went to see Dylan Moran do stand-up last night (taking full advantage of the moon day) and he was very good indeed. And rather attractive too. I wonder if that makes a person funnier...

Right, must stop procrastinating and do the work I have to do so I can go home and practice.

Am having a bad day and it is only 9.30. So am sitting with a triple shot soy latte from the big brother of caffeinated beverages trying to work up the motivation to do everything I have to do today before I am off for a week. That is the problem with taking time off, you have to do your usual amount of work in a shorter space of time and it is Not Good.

After leaving work last night at 8, I went home and managed to do the standing postures before I stopped. Not great, but at least I did something. I did them really slowly and even managed to remain in a freestanding headstand for about a minute which is a bit of a record for me. Am looking forward to mysore tonight although it will be at an unfamiliar place.

Right, must stop moaning and get on with work...