Personal Practice

In addition to the six classes a week, I have been practicing every day. About half the days I have gone over to the Institute and the other half practiced in the flat. For the last year I have been rehabilitating a shoulder injury. Even before that, I somewhere along the line lost my ability to do full arm balance. There is something empowering and freeing about standing on my hands and I missed being able to float up and support my weight on my hands.

With some physical therapy this past winter and a LOT of yoga the last eight months or so, I finally got up in full arm balance. The first time I needed a little help from my friend Lorene and the next two times I got up on my own.

One of the things I got out of Prashant’s lectures/classes last week was the idea that it is worth taking stock of how far we have come. To look at the instrument panel of our practice and measure. Many times in yoga the measurements are incremental. First I could only do badanguliasana two thirds of the way over my head. It was painful to just take my arms over my head without weight. With practice I could get my arms all the way over my head. There was a lot of downward facing dog, plank and, eventually upward facing dog. Then I could do half full arm balance, even if it was just for a breath. Coming out of rope Sirsasana, I could support my weight in full arm balance and come down with my elbows belted (even though I couldn’t support my weight going up). So along the way there were measurements of progress, of how far I had come. That journey of practice along with patience and persistence I was to stand on my hands again. Next destination? Pincha mayurasana.

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