Strange practicing in the afternoon, in daylight, it's still dark here in the mornings so felt a bit weird. Warmer though, heating on, a space heater and the sun coming through the blinds, ujaii cranked up to the max enabling me to get a sweat on, nice practice actually.
I've had a bit of an ache in my back the last few days, seems to be the same place as a couple of months back from when I fell off my bike, perhaps there's a weakness there, not sure why it's come back as practice has been pretty tame, though some deep forward bends. Anyway, been babysitting it a bit in my VK practice, working around it a lot, adding binds in the forward bends to take some of the strain off, curiously backbends are fine.
This morning or rather afternoon I just said to hell with it and cranked up the practice, five of each Sury's, half handstand jump through's, faster pace than I've practiced for a while, just kind of powered through the aches and it seems to have worked, feel much better for it now.
Difficult to know when to babysit the aches and when to cowboy up and practice through them rather than work around.
Somehow Ashtanga seems to marry better with my Vipassana practice, why is that I wonder, perhaps because I associate Japa mantra meditation with Vinyasa Krama or just something about how I practice Ashtanga. In Vinyasa Krama my focus on the breath and bandhas is very strong, it dominates the practice somewhat. In Ashtanga the breath, bandhas, drishti.... all seem to merge into each other, in to that pendulum movement, I think it's the movement that dominates my practice as opposed to the stillness, the inhabiting of asana in Vinyasa Krama.
Just my own personal experience, yours is different perhaps.
Have the urge to practice Primary for a month, pretend I'm in Mysore, or up to and including Karandavasana and pretend it's Rolf's.
Talking of vipassana, loving my lotus at the moment. Perhaps it's all the hip opener work I've been doing but for the last few months my lotus has been becoming more and more comfortable. They say it doesn't matter how you sit, on a cushion, bench, half, full lotus, tailor position or even lying down but there's a reason those old monks favour full lotus, it feels ruddy marvelous, just love to sit at the moment.
All that asana, supposedly just to help you sit for an hour or two at a time, well it seems to have done it's job. That said, though I can sit comfortably for an hour, I still feel it when I unfold, that left knee ( the one operated on ) will probably never be perfect.
7 comments:
The last time I tried lotus in my vipassana practice all I felt was an intense pain in my knees but that was a little before the VK teacher training. Maybe I should bring it back...
The VK lotus sequence has all those nice prep postures leading up to it, all good hip openers. I open mine up quite a lot for the long stay of pranayama and meditation which allows both knees to drop and makes it a much flatter more comfortable base, quite different from a tight asana lotus
I actually tired to hold it yesterday for my evening meditation practice and it just kills my ankles. I feel like I need to sneak more of the lotus sequence into my practice but then I also feel like I just need to wait. Currently, my practice includes one supta lotus, one supine lotus, one seated lotus, and some arm balance/ supta kurmasana.
I did a rare afternoon (Dharma Yoga) practice yesterday, also with sun and space heater, and it was awesome despite the subzero temperature outside. Dharma says the best time to practice is 4pm, when the body is warm....
The AM was for a long sitting practice. I usually don't bother with lotus for that (although that pose is relatively easy for me).
Hi Chris, rather than staying longer in lotus itself i think it's all those prep poses that help, long maha mudra's and especially the VK vinyasas in Seated spread angle pose as well as the badha konasana vinyasas. Seem to have worked for me.
Hi CK, interesting that Dharma Says that about 4pm it's usually 4am that gets suggested. I tend to do my evening practice at 6pm after getting home from work.
Still can't find the best combination which is why I keep switching about. I tried full ashtanga in the evenins but need to get on the mat as soon as I get in the door even then everything feels a bit rushed. Rest days i often do Pranayama and meditation in the morning, I like it.
I always used half lotus and a cushion but had to drop the zafu because of the bruised coccyx, in full lotus I can do without the cusion, feels somehow more grounded.
Krishnmacharya says to do the practice at the appropriate time for where you live; India (4-6am=clean air) is not the same as, say Scandinavia (afternoon=warm).
My inward hip rotation is sorely lacking, so in order to encourage an opening, I do half of my sitting practice in supported Virasana, with an Iyengar-regulation block underneath the sitting bones. I got that one from Kali Ray and it feels oh-so-right.
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.