5

What an amazing day!

Our walk was better than the last 2 days. M wore band-aids (plasters for international friends) and socks with her birks, S just wore birks- bad idea, but read on that later!

We started off by talking about the anatomical position of Virabhadrasana III (standing T pose). M had it completely wrong, but she found the error of her flexions and extensions pretty quickly, and fixed it in class. S was pretty on the ball, because he's cool like that. After a brief anatomical review, we delved into the history of Yoga.

What an amazing history it has, it is so rich, so thought of, so all encompassing. For tonight's homework we need to write a reflection of this morning's lesson. S's reflection is the fact that it IS all encompassing. M's reflection is that of the OM. OM is actually A-U-M-Silence. It stems from the Upanishads and it signifies the 4 states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, profound sleep, and the fourth state, which alone is real. In its simplest form: creation, sustainment, death, and re-birth(silence)- blew M's mind!

In our practice, Erica lead us very systematically through several neutral and hamstring poses to reach our peak pose of Virabhadrasana III. We were placed along the wall, with our body and legs in neutral position and our right foot (our only weight bearing appendage) in flexion at the hip. That again, was very difficult, for S it was a moment of enlightenment where he clearly saw the inbalances of his body.

Lunch with the yogis on the lawn, cut a bit shorter due to studying.

After lunch, some intro to sequencing and how good/bad sequencing can make your class or break it. There are cases where you go straight from wheel to savasana, right? Then some intro to verbal assists: "Charlie, you're breathing really well, ground your foot into the floor more, nice!"

Lastly, some Asana Lab. This was our first asana lab. We all got into the circle of love, acceptance and safety, and did Vira I, Garudasana, Parsvottasana... and Erica and Rachel chose 3 people to do the pose on the mat. We gave props for what the person on the mat was doing well and we also gave verbal assist on how to better their pose. S was secretly wishing it wasn't him on the mat, M was hoping it was.

On the way home, S's idea of wearing birks in the morning turned sour. His feet started blistering. M gave up her bandaid (plaster) to help him out. It wasn't made any better. S ended up taking off his sandals and walking barefoot for over 2 kilometers. You better believe he's taking a long bath tonight!

Bad news friends, no bike! It turns out that the fellow yogi who was offering her bike, has already, but not to M! Oh well, I guess this is the prime time for her to build up callouses on her dainty feet and breathe through the pain.

Tonight's homework... not so much!:

Anatomy review worksheet

read the first 5 Sutras of Patanjali

Read p3-4 in Sequencing section

Review neutrally standing poses p.49

Write out a paragraph on something that inspired/surprised you about the History of Yoga

Write a script on how to get into the general form of Virabhadrasana III

Stay grounded,

S and M