Practicing with Patricia

oh! i am the luckiest.

today after class patricia sullivan came to the studio with a bog pot of kitcharie that she had just made.  i ate a cup. so wonderful.

and then we practiced together. and talked and shared.

before she got there i had been trying to figure out how to get weight on my heart.  i was playing with the sandbag and bricks and nothing was working.  

she put me in a restorative bridge using 2 bolsters.  then she wrapped the strap around my legs. but she did not just bind them, she mummified me by wrapping the strap all the way down my legs.  my nervous system immediately responded with a deep sigh.  i felt held.  and i had the insight that we create tension as a way of feeling held.  then i experienced a piercing intense pain in my right knee.  but something whispered that it was going to be okay, that something was just moving.  if a student had explained this pain to me i would have taken them right out, but because it was me, i stayed with it and sure enough it softened and opened.

then she put the sand back on my heart.  and pushed a little bit of blanket under my neck to help it be straight.  there is a long standing holding pattern in my neck that causes me to look down and to the right.  (i can't bear to watch kind of thing).  this position allowed for the magic.

from here i went into a side bending sequence and forward folding

to using the bolster, blanket and strap for backbending

patricia showed me "the winter coat" position for the strap.  you create a giant loop and then wrap it over your shoulders like a backback and then step through it.  lie down with your tummy on the bolster and loop it around your ankles.  Bow pose finally feels like a bow.

we then rested in starfish pose and i showed her the cool camera system at the studio.  i am hoping that patricia will feel moved to film a little before she goes back up north.