Lost In Practice: Part 2

It's Monday of the final week here at the Institute, and as many of you know, that means Pranayama! I know this will be a very rich week, so I will wait and share some highlights in my next post.  

In the meantime, let's continue the exploration of being "Lost" in Practice.  Following an interesting and  delicious pranayama class with Prashant this morning, I decided that I would practice at home instead of in the big hall.  My place is on the 5th floor, with doors opening to a patio in the canopy of beautiful trees.  A light breeze floats in along with the squawks of parakeets and vrooms of rickshaw and scooter motors.  

On my walk home through the park from class, I decided I would do a Tick-Tock (timed) practice of supported standing and seated forward bends.  I gave myself just two criteria: 

Stay three minutes per pose or per side of a two-sided pose.

Estimate and create support before starting the timer so that I could stay in the pose without fussing.  

The sequence got off to a fine start, and having my little timer tell me when it was time to come out made it easy to just surrender into the pose, exploring what needed to be done, exploring the breath, exploring the space in the body...but from time to time, the mind wondered...is it time yet?   In those moments, I recalled Sunita extolling us in Saturday's backbend class:  

"When the mind is telling you it's time to come out, THAT'S when the pose begins."

At the end of the seated forward bends, I opted to extend my stay in the final three poses. All in all, it felt well-timed, well-supported and the sthira and sukha in the body, breath and mind was palpable as I put away my props.  

Now...off you go,Tick Tock! 

Virasana	Resting the top of the hamstrings on the heels
Adho Mukha Svanasana	Crown of head supported
Uttanasana Concave feet apart	Hands on blocks to work on the legs and the dorsal, palms flat so that the upper trapezius could be more relaxed.
Uttanasana Feet apart	Crown of the head supported Hands blocks to help take arms to the sides to lift shoulder blades
Virasana	Resting the top of the hamstrings on the heels
Padangusthasana -	Head supported
Parsvottanasana hands down	Head supported on soft block on shin at first, then forehead to shin
Virasana	Resting the top of the hamstrings on the heels
Prasarita Padottanasana	Head supported on floor
Sirsasana	Eyes closed
Paschimottanasana legs apart Janu Sirsasana Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana Ardha Baddha Pada Paschimottanasana Adho Mukha Swastikasana Adho Mukha Virasana	All with head and arms supported to relax the trapezius.  Keep the legs active enough…
Salamba Sarvangasna	10 minutes
Supported Ardha Halasana	5 minutes
Paschimottanasana	5 minutes

Lost in Practice

Practice Hall at RIMYI

Do you ever find yourself staring at your yoga mat, feeling at a loss for what to practice?

Do you ever get lost while in the middle of practicing, wondering where to go next?

It happens!

But then, do you ever get so absorbed that you lose track of time?  What makes that practice different than those on other days?

This week, we had a marvelous opportunity to explore these questions at a Q & A session with one of the Institute's younger senior teachers.  

Raya Uma Datta grew up along side Abhi, with Guruji, Geeta and Prashant as guides.  Now, he teaches at the Institute and around the world with boldness, intelligence and enthusiasm for the subject.  While he has a reputation for swift moving, challenging classes, he stops along the way to share an insight, inspire with a story about BKS Iyengar teaching him, or poke fun at us in a loving way.  His energy is infectious.

But, in practice, his energy is directed inward.  During open practice time in the big hall, I have seen him working up close -- literally --  he put his mat down three inches from mine one day.  There is an efficient, quiet, inward, energy as he took himself through ALL the Sirsasana (headstand) variations.  Another day he did lateral and twisting standing poses facing up close to a wall.

Today's session Q&A began with the question:

What do you practice? 

The conversation wove through many different themes, as practitioners of a few years to many shared their ideas.  Raya encouraged us to get away from "assessment" or "teaching" mode in our practices by taking us through various scenarios to enliven or even radically change the way we practice.   Here are some of them...the titles are mine.

TICK-TOCK:  Do an entire practice with a timer.  Challenge yourself to stay for a given amount of time in each pose, and take the time to create the support you need to increase your success to stay.


ALL RIGHT/ALL LEFT:  Do all or most of the standing poses BUT do them on the right side, going from one to another to another.  Then, do them all in on the left side.  Or, shake things up and do the left sides first.  One can do the same with other two sided poses like the seated forward bends and twists.  Find out what that does for the Body-Mind-Breath experience.

PUZZLE TO THE BRAIN:  A variation on the previous idea, using two-sided standing poses again as the example, alternate which side goes first. Move through them one after the other.  For example, Utthita Trikonasana right then left, then into Utthita Parsvakonasana left then right, then into Ardha Chandrasana right then left, then into Virabhadrasana I left then right...and so on.  Observe your mind before and after.


RANDOM ACTS of CURIOSITY:  Open Light on Yoga to a random page. Break down and practice that pose.  Close the book and open it to another page...continue in that fashion. Don't worry so much about sequencing.  Just explore!

NOT-SO-RANDOM:  Need help really establishing the habit of practice?  Write down 6-7 different sequences or types or practices.  Every Monday work on the same sequence for 3 months, same for Tuesday, etc.   If you have to skip a day each week, don't worry...you have more weeks to practice that sequence ahead.  

GOAL POSE:  Take 5-6 minutes before you practice, picture a pose you want to improve - say Pincha Mayurasana.  Study the pose in Light on Yoga, try it and find out what the obstacles are for you.  Then, contemplate what actions or shapes in other poses might prepare you to take this on.  Make this practice one of your rotation in the NOT-SO-RANDOM strategy to really make headway.  

SHAPES:  Examine the similar shapes in poses, perhaps taking three and practice all three of them in a row.  This one might not employ best "sequencing" methods, but as Raya pointed out, after a little warm up practice, do these "softly" rather than aggressively.  Here's a simple example with photos, but many more abound: 

Padangusthasana

Paschimottanasana

Urdhva Mukha
Paschimottanasana I

REVERSE ENGINEERING: Take a pose you have NEVER done from Light on Yoga.  What other poses are represented in that pose?  Can you practice a few of those elements, and then try to put the pose together.  Let's look at one example of a pose one may not have tried:  Astavakrasana 

Can you see how the torso resembles Chaturanga Dandasana?

And the legs? Jathara Parivartanasana.  Maybe even a little Eka Hasta Bhujasana with one leg hooked over one arm. 

Practicing those two poses, perhaps some other twists and arm balances, begins to set you up to take on Astavakrasana.

APPENDIX 1:  When Light on Yoga was written, according to Raya, one of the notions behind it was that a good book is better than no teacher or a bad teacher.  And, while BKS Iyengar's practice continued to evolve and improve from the days of the first edition, it still is a timeless reference.  Appendix 1 offers sequences laid out as a course for practice.   Try some! 

And send some of your thoughts on practice ideas either in the comments section or on the Facebook link for this blog post. 

Happy and playful practice to you all!