Saturday mornings the “gents” have class at 7 AM and the ladies at 9:30 AM so there were fewer bodies in class.
Suneeta, who taught Wednesday’s class, also taught this morning. A large woman with a commanding, stern, crabby voice led us through a sequence of poses. As a breast cancer survivor she doesn’t seem to have much compassion as she ridiculed a couple of people for yawning during her questioning and showed her disatisfaction to the answers to her pop quiz questions. As much patience as I see out and about on the roads, there is a serious lack of it in the practice hall. We are too slow, too stupid, too distracted.
Shortly after we started it was clear one of the students in class was suffering a back issue. Suneeta picked her out and commanded senior teachers in the room to help give modifications and props to the woman and, during supta padangustasana, had us gather around to watch the modification before we tried it ourselves. Even then, one on one, Suneeta’s barking voice is harsh and impatient.
There’s a nice link in the sequence somewhere at the root of the thigh, which I will have to find during practice. The whole episode left me feeling jangled and disconnected. It’s not an environment that is conducive to my learning style. I was back to neutral by the time I was back to the flat but it didn’t feel like a complete, calming, or integrated practice or class.
As one of my teachers says “Sometimes the best part of yoga is having done yoga.” Today was one of those days when I was glad class was over.
The sequence (from what I remember) went something like this:
Adho Mukha Virasana
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Parsvottanasana
Trikonasana
Uttihita Padangustasana, foot at the wall
Supta padangustasana (making a point of bending the knee into the chest before taking it straight up or out)
Sirsasana
Eka pada and parsva eka pada in Sirsasana (making a point of bending the knee into the chest before taking it straight out/down and to the side/down)
Bharadvajasana
Paschimottanasana
Salamba Sarvangasana
