The Journey of my practice

Monday evening fitted in an hour between the two world cup matches, just needed to stretch after the weekend and Moon day of Sunday

Last night it was Primary series with C, surprising amount of people there, around 8 of us. We seemed to run out of time very quickly (we only havve the hall for 90 minutes) and disappointingly had to leave out Mari B, though C gave a me a deep adjustment in Mari C. “Turkey at Christmas” posture aka Supta K went quite well and managed to lift myself up as well.

C’s count is quite erratic, I have been in some postures for 3 breaths before she counts “One”, which is why I more and more see the Tuesday class as a technical class, compared to the deep moving practice of Friday night with Easter and her very even count.
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After the effort and exertions of work and practice on Friday and yesterdays Karma yoga, I didnt even wake up until nearly 10am. This is unusual, I usually wake on Sunday when the Sunday newspapers crash onto the doormat, but I was mega shattered last night and I obviously needed the sleep.

Its a Moon day, so I read the papers and mowed the front and back lawns before an afternoon watching England in the World Cup, god help them when they play a decent team is all I can say.

My body actually wants to practice, but as I have striven to be an ashtangi I feel it would be wrong to do practice today, does anyone do practice on Moon days? My body feels in need of a stretch after all those hours in a vehicle yesterday and moving stuff around, it needs to spread, a few sunsalutations should be alright.

Well not a hard decision Friday night to get on the train, as I needed to be in London anyway and the World cup is only offering France versus Togo, which on this side of English Channel is an irrelevance (OK we hope Togo win). Its a lovely warm evening as I sit in Mcd’s enjoying my pre practice cup of tea, now that the OK YA is no more.

Only myself A and S there last night with Easter, so we chant the opening mantra together and then begin our practice, the sanskrit numbers are the mental signal to move through the Surya’s. There is a nice even natural flow, Easter’s count is very even and we seem to progress through the standing asanas in no time. The room has been decorated since last time, white walls without footprints and some beautiful new photos on the walls.
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After rushing home from work to see the World Cup
I was in two minds whether to go to practice last night as England were playing Sweden. After some thought I decided that I would be home for the second half, so walked to practice. The town was like the aftermath of a nuclear bomb, the streets were empty, not even a cat as the population was obviously glued to the TV sets
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After the issues of practising late in the evening and the ensuing stomach pain that came on Friday night, I decided after a leisurely breakfast of toast and tea and some playtime on the computer to begin my practice at 10.30am Sunday.
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On a Friday night I would normally be heading for the “L” shaped room, but alas last night it was being used for a Nepalese Thangka exhibition. In some ways I wasn’t worried about missing the slog of a train journey and getting home late. I had intended to practice when I got home before the game, but arrived to the sound of dripping water as my cold tank attempted to over flow, water pouring out of the tube into the back yard, so had to deal with that. I watched the Mexico vs Angola World cup game, which was a lesson in patience and trying to stay awake, I wanted to practice, but I just had to watch in case the unthinkable happened and the african minnows scored. The Mexicans laid siege to the Angolan goal, but by the end although you like to see goals scored I was willing the Angolan’s to hold out for an historic draw, which they did despite having a player sent off.

At 9.50pm after the match I turned the TV off and rolled out my mat in my living room and staretd to practice..
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Well I still didnt manage to get out of bed to practice, mainly due to my nieghbour making lots of noise at 2am, which meant I woke up even later than normal.

At least I was able to go to class last night, a warm, sticky room, unfortunately cooled by fans, I would rather just have the heat.
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I think my practice is going to suffer over the next few weeks of the football World cup. With matches starting at 5pm and 8pm, there’s barely time to eat for football fans, let alone spend two hours onm my mat.But it only comes around every 4 years and practice is there all the time.

I usually practice at 9pm, but the games don not finish until nearly 10pm. Yesterday was a Moon day, so I didn’t feel so bad for not doing practice. But I just wish I was one of those people who could get out of bed at 6am and do practice, alas I am a very solid sleeper and never wake until I have to.

I will try

5,15pm I am sitting here drinking tea and thinking what a testament to how important my practice has become to me when I am willing to suffer a hot train ride to south London and spend two hours sweating on a sticky blue mat, when I could be at home watching the soccer world cup. To put this into context for yogi’s on the other side of the Atlantic it’s the equivalent of a Yankees fan missing watching the world series. I just hope I set the VCR right.
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.org that’s where you went, doh! Still had you in my favouites as Ashtangi.net. But still cant work out why the website is different on my home PC compared to the one at work?

Anyway the UK weather is at last feeling like summer and last nights practice was seriouslly warm going for a change.

We did Primary series up to Navasana and then did some second series postures as we all need help with backbends. Doing Ustrasana and Dhanurasana I find a better lead up to Urdhva Dhanurasana.

I am trying to make sure I practice every day now, to try and keep my knee working and willing to do Lotus, it did the Marichyasana’s last night, which lead to my fingers almost but not quite meeting up in Pasasana, if I could get my heels down I’m sure I would be able to do it.

Only 7 weeks (and counting) to go until I head for the retreat in Bali, I can’t wait