Lay in bed until 9am, happy not to be getting up early for Prasant. Though of course I heard afterwards it was a wonderful class – backbends; brick setubanda and padmasana, chair back arch -legs in padmasana, rope sirsasana, standing backbend (preparation for drop back), ustrasana, urdhva dhanurasana, ending with bharadvajasana. The rule is, you may only attend one class per day, though actually if I was being particularly diligent I could have got up and observed Prasant’s class.
Instead I am giving you Nicky’s experience of the class in her own words: “The theme of the discourse – arrival and departure – the analogy being flights – from some airports you can get flights anywhere but not from others ..so from some you can arrive from anywhere and depart to anywhere but not all..The same in yogasana, you can arrive in the asana from many places ..physical, mental, from the senses.. and leave from anywhere..it is a manifestation of many qualities..
If you go for a picnic you bring certain things with you ..what do you bring?…what is your condition?…if you come to a yoga class what do you bring? what is your condition?
Prasant then said how do we hear? (the instruction)..do we hear with the intellect, with the mind? How do we hear? What do we hear? When we listen to music we hear differently to when we listen to yoga instruction..How do you see? when you observe asana that is being shown?.Try hearing from the hind ear, front ear, inner ear, outer ear. With the vision try and see through the front of the eye, the back, the side..
The class ended with laughter as Prasant spoke of I-anger!
Its possible to think you were in a different class to another student as each persons take on a Prasant class is different!!”
I practiced at home, though Jenny went to the Institute for the scheduled practice session and reported back that the excessive numbers have thinned out a bit. Also she got the benefit of watching Guruji teach a student Pinca Mayurasana, so I think it is time to take my practice back there.
Ordered a big bag of salad online from http://www.greentokri.com. What astonishing value! A carrier bag full of leaves, 2 big bunches of dark green rocket, cucumbers and tomatoes delivered to the door for 150 rupees!!! (£2) The delivery day for Model Colony area is Monday and you can text, email or ring your order through. Amazing!
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Showed Rika (our lovely cook /maid) a picture of my children today – the point was to show her my children so that she could tell me if she had any. We have been told not to “spoil” her by overpaying too much, what we can easily manage with our budget is not so easy for people living on local wage. So we thought it would be nice if we could show her our appreciation by buying small gifts for her children. Not sure how much she understood – she kept pointing at Josie and laughing saying “You? No?” in disbelief. Anyway despite the confusion managed to ascertain that she has 2 children – 1 big 1 small.
Headed off to medical class at 4pm and worked with Stephanie and a couple of assistants. Wasn’t sure whether I was going to spend the afternoon lolling about on bolsters in various states of bliss (treating the coeliac’s) or whether it would be afternoon spent in various different kinds of hell, stimulating the pancreas (treating the diabetes). Guess which I got?!
Intensive forward bends with Pranayama pillow under ribs, using the back ribs to press the front ribs forward on the pillow. Sequence of Janu Sirsasana, Parsva Janu Sirsasana and Parivrrta Janu Sirsasana. Then some killer abdominal work perched on the edge of the platform with legs extended out straight – she’s building me up to 2 minutes hold. Jathara Parivartanasana hugging the pillar to keep side ribs in contact, backbender sirsasana, sarvangasana, pindasana, parsva pindasana, set bandha.
Now medical science says my pancreas cannot be stimulated to produce insulin once Type 1 Diabetes has set in. Yet whenever I do this kind of work with Stephanie the pump has to come off and I end up glugging the glucose as there is too much insulin in my system (what I have taken manually with the pump and hypothetically what I am stimulated to produce with this work). Would be fascinating to find a way to study this empirically.
Felt strong and vibrant after the class, just the right balance of working , strengthening and calming / resting. Thank you Stephanie!Jenny went to Gulnaz in the evening and I had to try not to have ‘class envy’ as it was again a really thorough, challenging class – lots of padmasana work, ardha matsyendrasana 2 and marichyasana 4!I want to do them all! I am seriously thinking of booking my place for next year – I want to carry on with this learning while the opportunity is still here. So any of you Yogawesties that have been meaning to come to Pune, now is the time to get organised!!
Jenny studying the texts!
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