Yoga photos

Jeanne (Charlies partner) was taking photos of Charlie during his last back bending class and took a few sneaky shots of me – she makes a great paparatzi!      It was really freaky to see myself in the back bending poses… being upside down is really disorienting so you don’t really have much of an idea what you look like!   

These are the two poses I was talking about in this blog entry.

Here are the photos [big thanks to Jeanne for taking them]:

The upwards bow

Vinnay helping me reach my feet after I bent back on my knees

The final pose... once I was there it was actually really relaxing!

Time is ticking…

Well… time is sneakily ticking a long… I only realized yesterday that I have LESS than 2 weeks left AND to make things worse (kind of) we have a moon day on Sunday which means no yoga on Sunday as well as Saturday!   Usually I would be happy about this but with only 9 yoga days (includiong today) left… I could do with the extra day!

News on the body front… Ive been noticing my muscles are coming back, it seems they went on holiday when I was traveling around the north.   My hips seem to have moved as well – this is good news (they were uneven and one was tighter than the other) but in the process I have pulled a muscle which is causing pain.    This means I cant do the full yoga series at the moment… : (    With only 9 days to go this is ‘rather annoying’.    

My reaction to the pulled muscle has been pretty good though…  possibly a sign of a more chilled out Julia?!?    Earlier when my yoga was being restricted by always feeling sick and dizzy in class I got really frustrated and angry (to the point of tears).   At the moment I am occasionally feeling annoyed that I can not practice my yoga properly, but on the whole I seem to be a lot more patient with my body.

In fact, I think generally I am a bit more chilled out than when I arrived in Mysore.  This is something my masseuse commented on the other day….he said my energy is a lot more settled than it was.   I wonder how long that will last?!?  I will have to make a real effort not to let life back in the rat race put me out of balance.    

No other news really, same old – same old.    The kid in the internet café has just cranked up some annoying sounds so I am going to go home for a big bowl of post yoga porridge!

Happy New Years!

My New Years was VERY quiet… but during the day I was thinking about everyone in NZ partying away… I was with you in spirit!    A few of the yoga people from my school went to some Bajans (chanting) but because I went to the evening back bending class I was too late to join.    There was a few parties in Mysore but I decided I didn’t really feel like partying with people I didn’t really know… so in the end I went out for dinner with a couple of people from my class, then headed home and crashed!    I woke up in time for midnight and watched the fireworks from my balcony.  While it was an unusually sober and rather solitary New Years it was a really nice one….   I felt peaceful and happy.

I have had a fantastic year in 2008 and have a really good feeling about 2009 -  it is going to be awesome, even better than 2008!

Today was a holiday – so no yoga classes.   I decided to do my own practice and for the first time I did the primary series all by myself.   I did it on the balcony in the early evening (when it was nice and cool) and it took me about 1hour 45mins (this is about right I think) – it felt like it took me 40mins though, the time went so fast!!

Other than the yoga session I haven’t done much today.  I just pottered in my little apartment….  I wrote out my recipes from cooking class, sorted out paper work, did housework and read – it was so nice just to chill out and relax.

While eating my coconut on the way to the internet café I realized that I have only got 2 weeks of this yoga lifestyle left… I’m going to enjoy every last bit of it –  I must also start taking (and posting) some photos!!!   : )

Oops – I spoke too soon!

Hmmm… It seems I spoke to soon about the Pranyama.     Today I had a shocking Pranyama session…  my mind was ok for the first 15 mins and then it was all over the place.    THEN…. When doing one of the rounds of breathing I got the giggles.   I was busy trying to suppress my giggles and Vinnay (my teacher) saw that I was not concentrating and decided to remind the class that we should be concentrating hard.   I opened my eyes and he was smiling at me…    that was it – the giggles would not go away… I tried so hard but had to abandon my practice!       I tell ya – I am really lucky that Vinnay has a sense of humor and seemed to be amused by my inability to concentrate!

The good news is…  I had a cracking yoga class today.   I really enjoyed it…. I can’t explain why it went well, it just did.    I think things are starting to come together now.   Yay!

A conversation with my 3rd eye

I am happy to  report that my Pranayama practice is still improving.    I can now sit for the whole time without needing to move my legs AND I no longer get shooting pains up my back - this is quite an achievement given only 3 weeks ago I wanted to lie down every few mins for a rest!    : )     

I am also amazed at how I can slow my mind right down and just think about the sitting and breathing – those who know me well will know that my mind generally works ‘a million miles an hour’ often at VERY random tangents.      I am now able to calm my mind to the point that when we are supposed to observe our thoughts at the end of Pranayama I can only think about how I have nothing to think about or about how boring my thoughts are (ie if they are about breakfast plans).

So today in an attempt to trigger some more interesting thoughts I decided to look hard at (or with?) my 3rd eye – this is where you look at the gap between your eyebrows with your eyes closed.     I find this sometimes stretches my eyes and causes images to appear in the darkness of having my eyes closed - this in turn often leads to interesting thoughts.  

Today however…  while thinking about consulting my 3rd eye for some interesting thoughts I thought the concept was hilarious – this led to a round of the giggles…. the next 5 mins were spent consentrating (once again) on not laughing in class.     

In conclusion I decided that it might not be such a great idea to consult my 3rd eye for more interesting thoughts – I guess I will have to stick to thinking about not thinking about anything interesting.

Speaking of the 3rd eye…  I am supposed to be looking at (or with) it during the whole practice… this is something I haven’t been doing, I tend to close my eyes and look down.   I really ought to start to concentrate harder  on looking at (or with) my 3rd eye.

An Update

I stopped updating the blog daily because I realised that everyday is pretty much the same over here with slight variations.   This doesn’t lead to overly exciting reading.    I will try and start posting more photos over the next week for your view pleasure… nb: easier said than done as the PCs at my local internet cafe are 100 years old and are veeeeery sloow!

So… yoga update:

The last few days have been pretty good.  My guts have FINALLY sorted themselves out and while  I still have a few episodes of feeling dizzy in the morning class - I am generally feeling a lot better.   Hooray, this makes me happy.    

I am still sleeping really badly though as I am waking 5-6 times in the night to go loo and drink water (I get stupidly thirsty at night).   I am hoping this is a temporary phase because it is really annoying.   I am starting to wonder if something is being activated during back bending OR perhaps (more likely) its caused by the change of breathing through my nose during the day (I  always used to breath through my mouth) and then breathing through my mouth at night (old habits die hard).

The morning classes are going well.  I am still finding them  tiring but I am managing to do the whole kibosh (minus a few moves in the middle because I don’t know how to do them properly).   I’m still working on my headstand, still miles off but really hoping to do at least one proper one before I leave Mysore.

Back bending is still fantastic… I am REALLY going to miss this class when I go home.   I am working on two poses at the mo… back bending on the knees where you drop back and then grab your feet, then somehow (I think) you rest your head on your feet (I’m not there yet).      The other one I am trying is going up onto a upward bow/wheel then moving your hands back you do something (I think grab your ankles)… I had my first attempt at this one so I am a while away (about 20-25cm) from grabbing my ankles.

I couldnt find a picture of back bending on the knees but here is what a wheel/upwards bow looks like:

upward bow

Other than yoga – life is good.   Gia and Jennifer have gone to Goa – this is a bit of a bummer (for me) as I really miss hanging out with them.  Jennifer comes back on the 3rd Jan for some more yoga but Gia will go back to Oz after Goa.   This means I have new neighbors…  2 more yoga students (a couple) from Isreal…. I think they will be living next door for 2 weeks and then Jennifer will move in.   

Er…  I have paused my cooking lessons in an attempt to watch my funds and practice what I have learnt so far.   I had my first attempt of making a lentil salad and rice rotis tonight…  it was not an overly fantastic outcome.    All I can say – thank goodness I make a good bowl of porridge!     

The rotis disintegrated when I cooked them and both salad and roti were screaming for chutney…. But I couldn’t make chutney because I don’t have a blender.      So I ended up having a couple of rice rotis and a bowl of porridge for dinner!   Will eat the lentil salad for lunch tomorrow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from India!!!

Today was pretty much just another day for me.    Last night we had some nibbles and drinks at Charlie and Jan’s house which was nice and felt rather festive.    Today however it was business as usual.

Yoga this morning was pretty good – I was feeling ik but worked through it and ended up having a pretty good practice and made it to the end without any dramas.   I even attempted a half headstand again (this time with Charlies help)….  The headstand isn’t coming easily but that’s cool, something to work on before I leave Mysore.  : )

After the morning yoga session I had pranyama – it wasn’t fantastic but it wasn’t terrible.  My nose is still blocked (left nostril) and I really need to have it looked into…  I’ve been doing a netty (where you wash your nose out with a little watering can) but it hasn’t really helped much.   Will try and see a doctor this week just to see what is going on.

After pranyama Gia, Rithu and I went for coconuts from our usual coconut guy and then had some Christmas idlys at the Mahesh (Christmas idlys are idlys eaten on Christmas day, there isn’t actually anything special about them!).   So it wasn’t quite the champagne breakfast I had last year but it was acceptable!     After that I had a power nap (10mins) and then went to my cooking class.     

The cooking class went well… we made Chana Masala (Chickpea curry), Aloo Palak (spinach/potato curry), a yuckie veggie soup and some lemon rice.  My favourite recipe is the lemon rice… I will definitely attempt to make that one again.

THEN after cooking I had about 1hr to potter in my little flat before going to the evening back bending class.   Back bending was good (it always is)….  I managed to do a drop back on my knees (with vinnays help) and then reach back and grab my toes.   It was kind of funny because my toes gave me a fright (they were a lot closer than I expected) so I let out a big ‘oh shite’ in the middle of class…  ooops, probably not a kosher think to yelp in a yoga class!

After our class a group of us went to The Mahesh for Gias last meal (she is leaving tomorrow) and Christmas dinner.  I had a spinach curry and rice, fresh grape juice – and for desert we had cake which was our Christmas treat….   Very lovely but not remotely christmasy!