skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Ahhhh...sleep. Went to bed at 9pm woke up at 8:30am. What a beautiful thing. I feel like I took the appropriate measures to recover from my slightly excessive previous day because I feel quite alright today. I took further measures to balance my excess of yang with my practice today.
First I hit the cushion for almost a full hour of meditation - about 10 mins of metta followed by 45 mins of insight practice. It was quite lovely actually. I hadn't really noticed before today but my sits have been much shorter of late - only about 20 mins or so. I almost forgot how much more clear the mind becomes during longer sits. I think that I will need to try to set aside more time for at least a few longer sits per week. I used to get an hour with my group once a week but sadly my old Sangha has dissolved for reasons that I won't discuss on this blog. I guess the good news is starting in September none other than Heather and I will be starting a new meditation group at our yoga studio. Stay tuned for details!
I followed this by a little over an hour of self Yin. Here is the sequence I did:
Wide Kneed Child's Pose - 5 mins
Wide Kneed Child's Pose w/Twist - 4 mins/side
1/2 Saddle - 4 mins/side
Full Saddle - 5 mins
Child's/Laying On Stomach - 3 mins
1/2 Butterfly - 4 mins
Dragonfly Twist - 4 mins/side
Dragonfly - 5 mins
Twisted Root - 5 mins/side
Savasana - 10 mins
As you can see most of the focus was on front hips and hamstrings. Somehow this felt like just what I needed. I practiced in complete silence which was a nice change. Normally at home I put on some sort of ambient music. One funny side note - for no apparent reason the theme from Teddy Ruxpin got in my head while I was laying in Savasana. What the hell!?
But all told it was a lovely day. I'm feeling quite rested and ready to get back to a more vigorous practice tomorrow morning.
Namaste/Om Shanti to all the fly Yogis/Yoginis out in blog land!
This morning was rough!
This blog is definitely the only reason that I actually made it this morning. Under regular circumstances I would have turned off my alarm and gone RIGHT back to sleep. I guess that means that the commitment is doing it's job though.
I really can't express how groggy I was this morning. I felt kinda like a zombie wandering around in search of brains. I hit the cushion for ten mins of "metta" practice. I think describing it as such is a bit of a misnomer though. It was more like:
"may I be safe. May I be happy. May I...ooooh I have to do blah blah later...oh yeah...metta...why am I doing metta? Why am I up? This is lame...FOCUS ROB...okaaaaaaay...May I be healthy..."
So by the end of the 10 mins I decided that attempting to do some vipassana would result in me sleeping sitting up and that would not be advisable. Instead I opted to try some walking in my living/dining room. I'd actually never done that at home, only on retreat. If you can imagine this only extended the Zombie like feelings as I crept slowly back and forth.
But yes, I wasn't going to stop there. I made it all the way to the studio for my morning Mysore practice. This is really the sorest and most tired I've felt on the mat in a LONG time. I guess it's just the karma for my shoddy few weeks catching up with me. My hamstrings were super sore and definitely tighter than yesterday. This is odd cause normally they progressively open more with each successive practice. I felt like I weighed a million pounds and each jumpback was quite an undertaking. By the end I copped out and stopped at Navasana. (My current practice stops at Supta Kurmasana)
I definitely fell asleep in Savasana. That's okay though. I think it gave all the PranaQi a chance to properly circulate cause as I'm writing this I feel like I've got my mojo back.
I'm pretty darn glad that tomorrow is a New Moon. As per the commitment I'll still practice, but as per Ashtanga tradition I'll hold of on vinyasa. I'm think maybe some lazy Yin/Restorative will suit me just right.
Check in tomorrow to find out exactly what happens!
