Thorn In My Side

I slept for hours and hours last night, from about 8pm onwards... Its boiling hot and so I've been staying out of the sun in the afternoon. Still getting bouts of dizziness but just drinking lots of water and trying to eat properly. I felt better this morning and was ok to practice. Forgot my towel though so was soon slipping and sliding around in a lake of sweat. Nice...

Its funny, because when I teach a class I bang on about how important it is to use the bandhas and relax everything else as much as possible, not to be results- hungry etc etc but just to experience the posture. And it seems that I spent the best part of 2 hours doing everything I know not to do- quite unconsciously. So its another new beginning. Ajay told me to widen my feet in Padangustasana which actually made it much deeper- and easier. And to approach Marichyasana C quite differently too. He pointed out that theres a lot of stiffness around my ribcage which I wasn't so aware of before. Thinking about it though, I usually feel/visualize my ribcage as just that- a cage, and not in a good way, like it has to be very hard to protect the centre. I think its a side effect of how defensive I am and how I quite like to hold things in, and to be in control ALWAYS. Such an archetypal Capricorn girlie in some ways.

Towards the end of the class he got us to sit up for a minute and gave us a little 'bhavana'. He said 'If you had a thorn in your foot you would want it out wouldn't you? Because it was hurting.' We all agreed this was true. Then he said 'And when you removed it, would that hurt too?' We all agreed that it would. And then he basically said that that is the aim of the asana practice- to remove these obstacles in the body. Obstacles that have all kinds of different origins. And to remove them will be painful. Then he grinned massively and said 'No Pain No Gain!!!'. Before on a more serious note just reminding us that the asana practice is not the Yoga, but just one rung on the ladder. And that each and every one of us has our own thorns, our own crosses to bear, that no one is perfect and if you ever think you are then there's a problem... It was a good practice, my baddha konasana was deeper than it ever had been, and I know my hips are going to feel quite, quite different tomorrow. He was gently but very skilfully pulling my chin forward whilst leaning his all weight on to my back but at the same time there was no pressure whatsoever on my knees, and there was no pain. Here we must draw the distinction between pain and discomfort. It was in no way comfortable but I could feel my body re-aligning and I can sense this is doing so much good. That was the last asana for me today after some prep work for kurmasana and approaching it from the core, from the centre. As I finished up he said 'Tomorrow... Backbending' . So that'll be interesting...

I met up with Eilis and her girls, and Dorothea, for a beautiful lunch. A local lady in Laxmipuram called Sunyta does home cooked lunches for 100 Rupees, all you can eat and we had this feast, spinach cooked with fenugreek, about 3 different kinds of veg curry, biryani, chapatis, chai, curd and syrupy jaggery. Beautiful. And stuffed afterwards so I'm just going to be reading again today, and being quiet. No the novelty of silence has not yet worn off....