YTT Week 2

I wrote this on my laptop as hubby drove us from YTT to Disneyland after class on Saturday. I thought I'd posted it already!  But apparently hadn't, so here it is, a bit late.

My theme for this training is courtesy of that great master jedi, Yoda.  Pardon me as a geek out a bit here. This quote from Star Wars 5 (The Empire Strikes Back) just reverbs through my mind.

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

Maybe Lucas had read Patajali’s Sutras…

 

Our Friday night was full of the history and philosophy of yoga, finishing with Patanjali’s sutras 1.1 through 1.6.

Saturday we practiced externally rotated standing poses, including Ardha Chandrasana and Virabhadrasana II. Lots of forward folds, which felt fantastic on my back, and fewer Surya Namascars than the previous Saturday, which my wrists appreciated. We finished our practice with a modified Salamba Sarvangasana. Even before that pose, I was feeling tears come on from the awesomeness of a few of the earlier poses in the practice. I kept waiting for them as we worked from the shoulder stand to Savasana – I’d somewhat expected the tears as soon as I came out of the modified Sarvangasana. But they didn’t come on until after Savasana. Weird.  I just sat in a supported child’s pose for a few minutes and cried. Not really sure if the awe of attaining poses that I’ve never tried for was the source today, or if there’s something else going on.  It felt like that was the cause, so I’m going with that as the explanation. (Yikes, listen to me analyze everything. It’s all those engineers at my day job rubbing off. LOL)

One of today’s poses was Vrksasana. I have done this for years, though it’s never been one of my “go to poses” since I tended to avoid balance poses (because I wasn’t good at them… which is actually the precise reason to go them *sigh*). Anyways, so one thing I used to do in this pose that was wrong was placing my foot on my knee. I didn’t press my foot into my knee, just rested it there. Which is probably why I could never balance well in the pose, since the actions of pressing the standing thigh and the raised foot together is what gives stability to the tree. As it is, my flexibility limits where my right foot will go; it just won’t stay on my left thigh. So on that side, after attempting a few times to coerce my foot onto the thigh, I placed it on my calf and continued on with the pose. However, while standing on my right leg and raising my left, I was able to get my foot to my inner thigh and keep it there reasonably well. That was really cool, because it’s not something I’ve been able to do previously.

We did my favorite pose today – Ardha Chandrasana (half moon). We did it against the wall and then again on our mats. Although this has been my favorite pose for a long time, I have never done it without the support of the wall.  My goal was always to just get into the pose and let my hips open, so I wasn’t too concerned about the balance component of the pose.  However, learning how to get in and out of Ardha Chandrasana the correct way was very cool, and is especially important for doing the pose unsupported. When we took it to the mat, I used the blocks to get into the pose and only managed to get into the full pose with the top arm extended on one side. Despite that, it was so cool to get there on the mat and get into the pose. I managed far better than I expected, which is probably an indication that I am mentally limiting myself – if I think I can’t do it, obviously, I can’t. Which is why there are no can’ts for me in this training. I will do everything to the best of my ability. Just trying isn’t good enough… “Do or do not. There is no try.”

I received a card from my secret yogini (think secret Santa concept…). It was so sweet and it’s awesome to have the encouragement. Everyone in our class is so great and supportive, I am really fortunate to be in this place and time and sharing this experience with them.

Also, since I have to miss Sunday's class, I have scheduled a makeup with Jackie, and today at the end of class Dede suggested we do our makeup together since she is missing the same day too. I hate to miss at all, but I think it will be great to have a shared makeup session.