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Yesterday I spent the day shopping, I bought myself the Ashtanga yoga book, the David Swenson one that as well as accompanying the dvd I acquired, was also the most highly recommended and for good reason. I am very glad that I bought it as this type of yoga seems a bit more possible for me compared with how I was feeling after watching the video alone. For each of the poses there are many alternatives which provide an entrance level that is achievable and there was also some quite detailed discourse about the movements between poses I think I have a starting point anyway.
Yesterday and today I have been working on the Sun Salutations and the standing poses. Ashtanga Yoga is much more physically demanding than ordinary yoga and I was finding myself quite fatigued at times, but as I was practising on my own I could take the rest I needed.
The other aspect of this practice that is very different from the type I was originally taught is the Ujjayi breathing and the Bandha. I’m not going to go into what they are but the links seem to provide pretty good explanations.
I have recently acquired an Ashtanga Yoga video, David Swenson’s Primary Series. I don’t think I am ready for it yet, but I can start to to work towards it, like maybe introducing the sun salutations into my practice. The major problem is that I am not flexible enough to touch the floor on a forward bend, so am finding it tricky to jump back, without making an almighty noise and possibly straining my lower back. I guess it will come with flexibility and practice. I am tempted to go and buy a good book on Ashtanga yoga and use it to work towards doing the flow. I am definitely feeling a little too intimidated to go and do a Ashtanga class just yet.
On a positive note the lotus posture is getting a little tiny bit easier, and I can do it on the other side too but only just for a few moments.
Thanks to Seth’s Blog for the idea of writing and Internal Blog. Its something that I have been thinking about for a while but this has just given me the incentive to start one. I’m sure that it will be a great boost to creativity as I no longer have to censor myself.
There is bound to be quite a bit of crossover between the private and public blogs but I guess that is part of the reason for doing it but it will also give me the opportunity to fiddle around with Blogger.
I am a little amazed at myself. A few days ago I decided to see if I could get into the Lotus pose and I was stunned that I could and that I could hold the pose for a minute without it becoming painful for my hips and feet. I have attempted for the past few days to stay in the pose for a little bit longer each day and I am able to maintain it for over 3 minutes. It is great to be able to do something that I haven’t been able to do since I was 14 years old. It makes me feel young again (not that my 36 years make me old but it’s all relative). Even so I can remember when I was 14 and trying it, it was sore in the knees very quickly but I had no experience or knowledge of yoga. I was just attempting the pose because I had heard of it, or seen it on TV but that was all.
I have discovered that it’s true that you just can’t slouch in the Lotus pose; it’s just not possible which is probably why it has been deemed the perfect meditation posture.
I had been sitting in half lotus, although more so with my left leg up than my right for quite a while, I stated working on this when I did the yoga course 2 years ago. I had also attempted to sit in that position when doing other stuff like watching television so I guess it has all paid off.
Well I’m not quite sure what I have done to myself but my left hip is still troubling me enough that I can’t run without it coming back to haunt me the day after. I guess my running is going to be put on hold for a while. I started off being pissed off that I couldn’t run but, I’m not sure that I would be able to run for 20 minutes continuously any more as I haven’t for a few weeks. I guess ill just wait it out and when I do recover start over again with the Couch to 5K Programme.
The upside is that I have rediscovered my yoga practice again. I initially started doing yoga from books. At first I did it very sporadically but on my last big trip travelling I ended up in a place called Nong Khai in Thailand and enrolled in a 7 day intensive yoga course and was hooked ever since. At the time I was doing my asanas twice a day for the first few months and then this slipped to once a day. A month or so after I left Nong Khai I met my man and I gradually became even more lax with it and had almost dropped it altogether until recently. I have started doing my yoga practice again on my days off (4 days per week) and I have discovered that in many areas I have not lost much flexibility in the months that I haven’t practiced. Also when I compare myself to how I was prior to doing the yoga course, I am much more flexible. I even realised that as I have been sitting in the half lotus posture quite a bit I can now get myself into the full lotus position, if only for a minute before it starts to hurt. I have not been able to do this since I was around 15 years of age, and it hurt then.
