Perseverance and patience seem to be key to my outlook at the minute.. I do feel like everything is going to pop into place very soon tho.
Friday 4 June 2010
Finding my Breath
Today was my first led practice at Yoga Place and I must admit that I found it strange and once again (as in life a lot recently), my patience was tested. Strange for the reason that I couldn't 'find' my breath until near the end of the practice when i didn't want to let go! This morning seemed like a struggle to maintain my breath and also, to get out of my head..so to speak. This isn't the first time this has happened to me and I realize now that this does happen during led classes and never during self practice where I seem much more focussed. Nevertheless, with perseverance and PATIENCE I got there in the end.
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After years of only doing led classes and thinking I could never self motivate myself through a mysore practice, I now find doing led incredibly challenging, I am much more comfortable plodding along at my own pace in the Mysore environment with my breath count and not the teachers. Also led is an extenal experience, waiting for the next instruction, even though you know what that instruction is going to be.
ReplyDeleteI confessed to the guy who taught the retreat I went on in January that I hated led...he said so does he (and he is one uber traditional long-term ashtangi). He called it an "austerity", something which is an essential part of the practice, but he said that it's *not* your practice and you shouldn't expect it to be (because yes, you are listening for the count rather than moving with your own breath) . So what it is really there for is to learn correct vinyasa.
ReplyDeleteAfter months of avoiding led classes and making excuses, after coming a few times now I have realised that I actually *do* like them. Partly because the whole room chants, breathes and moves together (in theory). That's pretty powerful stuff. Also it is a great reminder of the correct vinyasa, and that the faffing that we might add in is not correct. The tough bit is trying to match your breath to the count, but I found Mel's much closer to my natural breath than any other led class I've been to before :) (eek sorry, long comment)
You're right. The whole room was breathing in chorus this morning It was funny cos I was sure I could feel when everyone started to get tired too.
ReplyDeleteI suppose led can make you push your limits a bit further/increase discipline. I stayed in headstand for the 15 breaths counted but I wouldn't normally stay up that long..and didn't manage to do B as A was shakey! But in other postures I was putting less effort into the stretch and concentrating on my foot angle or a certain aspect of it anyway. I suppose being led gave me greater chance to do that -as I didn't have to think about what was next! Me and my sketchy practice hehe..remembering the exact order of the sequence has always been an issue for me. Maybe, that's because I'm so used to being led though - oppositely to you guys at Yoga Place. I'm actually LOVING/enjoying/embracing my own practice though now..
Remembering the sequence just comes with time (self-practice time that is) and even then everyone has a day when they randomly forget something! So don't worry, it will come...and be sketchy no more!
ReplyDeleteI think the increased discipline with led comes in the "enforced" flow which we could all probably use a reminder for now and again :)
Even teachers forget the sequence sometimes, E. used to have a habit of forgetting Baddha Konasana in the counted practice. I sometimes forget Triang Mukha, jumping straight to Janu A, then remembering when I'm on Mari C!
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