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