Just when I’m starting to get use to supta kurmasana, I get given garbha pindasana and kukkutasana. So many new poses all in one week. My body is going a little spastic on me.

I’ve tried garbha pindasana months and months ago, and never really had a problem pulling my arms through my legs. I did that today and it was a bit of a struggle. Possible causes: I was not totally sweaty so didn’t have the slip factor, or my calves got bigger, and of course, it could be a combination of the two.

Anyway, so yeah, I’m rather indifferent about the pose itself. I got rolled around with some help, so we’ll see how spastic I’ll look in tomorrow’s practice when I’m likely to not get help. Rolling up to kukkutasana was not possible either, but who am I kidding? It’s not as if I expected to be able to do any of it by myself perfectly the first time around.

I’m fearing a face plant on over-rolling up to kukkutasana. Once I got up though, it wasn’t very hard to hold for 5 breaths.

I feel like I’m getting deeper into supta k too. I hope it wasn’t just my imagination.

The left hip, no… both hips are having some issues. No pain, just some weirdness. The hip flexors are sore, over stretched sore, I think. More weirdness wiht janu C on the left side; it sucked yesterday but was problem free today. What the?

I’ll never understand my body.

Had another sutra talk today. Third stanza. “Tada drashtuha svarupe avasthanam”.

I’m officially getting kurmasana tomorrow. I haven’t practiced it since I started morning classes (about 2 weeks ago) at the shala but I don’t forsee much problems getting the feet airborne. Maybe I’ll get to have supta kurmasana too, then I can be told why the heck I can cross my own darn feet by myself.

Just a few quick thoughts and notes today. I haven’t been in much of a blogging mood in regards to my practice, mostly because not much has been happening but also because my zombie moods aren’t conducive to writing.

1. My hamstrings feel more flexible than they’ve ever been, must be all the paschimott. squashes I’ve been getting.

2. Bhujapidasana with right foot crossed over left foot is still hard. I’ve lost the tittibhasana to bakasana to jump back because I spend so much more energy in bhujapidasana itself that when it comes to that transition, my arms are jello and my bandhas refuse to comply.

3. I think I finally got shirshasana after that elbow adjustment earlier this week or late last week. It feels so much more steady and I can hold it for 25 breaths and… dare I say it? It’s getting easier.

4. We chanted and had an explanation about the second stanza of the yoga sutra, “Yogah citta vrtti nirodhah”. The chat sounded more like “yogaha sh-chitta vritti nirodhah” where there is a “sh” sound before “chitta” so the tongue is in place to say chitta and the tongue doesn’t need to move between “sh” and “ch”. Not sure if I’m making sense, but this is more to remind myself for the future when I chant. I’d love to have a CD of yoga sutra chanting. Oh that reminds me to have a read of Gregor’s book tonight. I want read the first two stanzas of the yoga sutras and his explanation to gain a deeper understanding. Also want to read up on kurmasana yet again.

5. Back twinge is practically gone. What remains is more of a psychological fear of pain during up-dog-down-dog transitions. The only pain left is the flexion-adduction of the left hip, everything else is hunky-dory.

Ok, so I’m writing more than I thought I would… must be the coffee kicking in.

I think I’m getting use to the early morning rise. I had about 6 hours sleep (less than usual) but I managed to get up without feeling totally out-of-it. Maybe it was the sleep-ins I had over the weekend, although I recently heard from some sleep studies expert that sleeping in on the weekends actually messes up your sleep patterns/rhythms.

Nevermind, I’m glad I don’t feel like a zombie like last week.

Practice… yeah… good… nothing to report. Silently and patiently waiting for a new pose without “wanting” it. I almost just want a new pose so I have something new to write about here!

Got an alignment adjustment in shirshasana that made that pose a little closer to the “Ah ha! Now I get it” stage. I had my elbows too far out. I was upside down on my arms, got my whole body lifted and a pair of feet shoving my elbows closer together, then… oh! Balancing was suddenly easier!

We had a couple of talks last week. One was about ambition and how some ambition is good so you can progress further with asana practice, but too much ambition and you’re actually going against what yoga is all about. The second talk we had was an explanation of the first verse (is that what they’re called?) of the Yoga Sutras, “atha yoganusashanam”. We chanted it first before receiving a detailed breakdown of its meaning as well as a brief explanation of the Yoga Sutras and Patanjali. It was very interesting and I hope to have more of these talks.