Wonderful Practice Space, complete with miniature Patanjali
Woke up this morning completely deaf in one ear – ever since swimming there has been water slooshing about in there and now the ear is completely blocked. Have been putting drops in hoping to clear the blockage, but instead just filling my poor ear canal even more. Anyone who suffers with this will know how completely disorientating it can be.
Decided to skip practice session at the Institute in favour of the peace, space and solitude of practicing in the apartment. Good call! It was a real luxury to spend some time reconnecting with myself – especially in the medical class where you always have at least one assistant helping you, there can be a tendency just to get ‘pulled along’ without making any real internal connections. And even in the practice sessions, there is a feeling of being observed and lots of distractions that can prevent you from doing any real work. Not to mention complete over-crowding, lack of wall space etc.
Spent the afternoon with Lynne who is compiling research on the medical class students – what effect the yoga is having on their physical, mental, emotional condition. Headed over to Geeta’s Pranayama class for a 6pm start. It was not too busy because only people who have been to the Institute before are allowed to attend. I arrived later than most and found I had a choice between sitting right at the back or literally right at Geeta’s feet. Ah well in for a penny!
I took the risk and sat at her feet. She taught first supine and then seated for digital pranayama. Quite a complex surya sodhana and chandra sodhana. Last year I had been relegated to the beginners class with Rajalaxmi and now suddenly I was in the advanced class with Geeta – it felt like quite a leap! However I couldn’t have been that intimidated as I managed to fall asleep and woke myself up with a tiny snore – yikes, definitely not the time or the place. Even in the supine she encouraged us to actively press the outer shoulder and the outer pelvis down, shoulder blades remaining engaged, not to go into a sleepy or dull state (ahem!). She explained that we were looking for a state exactly between asleep and awake and this is why dawn is the perfect time to practice Pranayama.
In the digital pranayama she taught us how there is stretch of the nostril down on the inhalation and up on the exhalation to create the right channel for the breath to have the right effect on the energy. We sat for a looong time and again I was grateful for the the work I have been doing with the organ body which helped me to maintain the sharp upright extension required. One lady who was struggling was reprimanded “This is the advanced class, you should not be here if you cannot sit”. It was with a sigh of relief we returned to supine and I was able to stay fully present as we ended the class with fifteen minutes of ujayii, inhaling from the tip of the nose staying close to the septum bone, exhaling on the outer side of the nose so that you almost flared the nostrils. As we led for savasana I realised that the room had filled with lots of mosquitos who were probably having a field day with all those plump exposed thighs (mostly in the regulation Pune bloomers).
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