Woke up late and groggy – still having a few problems with blood sugar and had a disturbed night dealing with hypoglycaemia. Also had a bit of a delicate tummy and realised I have left my supply of grapefruit seed extract at home (natural and very effective remedy for intestinal parasite, diarrhoea etc.). So once again I opted for a restorative practice that is given for IBS – very soothing on the digestive system, trying to nip problem in the bud before anything too serious develops.Had a relaxing day in the apartment – we haven’t ventured to a practice session at the institute yet and again today had to wait for paperwork from landlady to be delivered so stayed home. I even ventured to have an afternoon nap which is something I wouldn’t dream of doing in my normal life!
This year we have the luxury of choosing which classes we attend – so long as we only pick one per day. At the beginning of each evening session the “one class per day” police (Pandu) come round and unceremoniously evict anyone who also came to the morning session. This evening’s class was taught by Rajalaxmi and was attended by more local people than westerners – the majority would have gone to Prasants class at 7am this morning.
I enjoyed Rajalaxmi’s teaching – it was aimed at a lower level and gave some really good basic points – very strong, clear points that you couldn’t miss and were really helpful. We spent a long time standing on our heads in ardha sirsasana learning how to use the extension of the legs to take the dorsal in. There is a real difference between the way we teach in the UK and the teaching here. Here very few words are used – strong, clear direction repeated over and over, MUCH less waffle! It’s very effective and we worked hard. Also what worked really well was taking one simple action and repeating it throughout the class in all the different poses. I am feeling the positive effect in my body already, even though I’ve only been here a couple of days. Partly the heat, partly the teaching and partly the energy here – this is the home of BKS Iyengar after all.
I haven’t got a glimpse of Geeta yet, but all being well we should be taught by her in the morning for the Wednesday morning women’s class. Thus far we have been sheltered from the number of people here because we haven’t gone to the ‘main’ classes – but tomorrow the class will probably be packed – fingers crossed they put the ceiling fans on! Temperature here is about 33 degrees and inside a packed yoga hall full of sweaty bodies no doubt it’ll be a lot hotter.
Jenny paying her respects to Ganesh.
Todays’s sequence below, key action in bold:
Swastikasana bend forward – long stay, most people sitting on the floor. Unfold the body, extend side trunk, take abdomen forward.
Parsva Swastikasana – Long time arms up, turning from the waist, swinging arm back and catching opposite thigh.
Parsva Swastikasana – she noticed some were bringing the arm forward instead of the trunk so we repeated with arms in baddangullyasana, keeping the upper arms back in line with the ears.
Samasthiti – Draw your kneecaps and thighs upward and extend your calves downwards to the heels. What happened? The weight went strongly into the heels, causing the spine to extend upward. Like a bouncy ball, the more you push downward, the stronger it rebounds upward.
Dandasana – same action, draw your thighs upward and extend your (inner) heels away. When you extend your inner heels what happens? Outer thigh grips, legs become compact.
U Hasta Dandasana into UM Pascimottonasana – looking up using the extension and firmness of the legs to extend the spine.
AMVirasana – Unfold the front of the body, move the abdomen forward.
AMSvanasana – Returning to thighs drawn upward, extend from arch of foot to take inner heel downward. This coupled with trapezius should not sit on the neck, press hands down and draw trapezius away from neck – Dog pose is preparation for sirsasana.
Ardha Sirsasana (not to be confused with viparita dandasana where the legs are parallel to the floor). Dandasana distance from wall (measure first). Here we used the leg action (thighs drawn upward, heels extending strongly to wall) to lengthen spine so that dorsal moves inward – so that cervical neck spine does not get compressed. Trapezius lifted like the dog pose. She showed on someone who was getting compression of the neck, 2 people took a rope to either shoulder and lifted upward how this completely released any compression.
Parsvott stepping – Top buttock downward, middle buttock forward.
Trik – Vira 2 – Parsvak – Ard Chan – Parsvak – Vira 2 – Trik sequence. Bottom side chest forward, shoulder back.
Sarvangasana – work of legs in halasana to lengthen spine and take dorsal in. Halasana / parsva halasana
Malasana – take sternum down rather than head and then straightening the knees and coming into uttanasana
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