Practicing with Friends

I gathered with Alana and Winifred this afternoon to practice.

We sat together.
Then free formed.
(Schiffman's term for doing your own practice)

I ended up working supine and seated lotus variations.
Then playing with different methods of baby jumping into handstand.
Headstand with Leg variations and Lotus Play
Shoulder stand with a Chair like Patricia Sullivan taught me.
Waterfall Pose.

Sit Together.

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.

Sweet Vinyasa 8:30am Wednesday

Christmas Eve Day

So mix of regulars and peeps I have not seen before and drop ins.

Similar sequence as Monday with Eka Pada Bakasana as the play.

The talk was riffing off the 10,000 hours of practice.  Suggestion that the experience of God, or THE SELF, takes practice.

Yin Style Baddha Konasana

Chest Press Bakasana

Transition to All Fours

Cat/Cow Barrel Rolls

Childs Pose

Easy Side Waist Sequence

Childs Pose

1/4 Dog

Plank

Dog

Sequence 1

Lunge Abdominal Curling

Lunge

Hammock

Twisting Lunge

Dog

Repeat Sequence 1 Other Side

Vinaysa 1

Dog

Rounded Plank

Dog

Roll into Cobra

Locust

Rocket Cat

Childs

Plank

Dog

Uttanasana

Squat

Uttanasana

Roll up to Standing

Shoulder Awareness

Wise Guy

Tadasana

Ujayyi Pranayama

YAM

Sequence 2

Lunge

Hammock

Horse

Squirt Prep

PP A

Warrior 2 Dance

Crescent Moon

Dog

Repeat Vinyasa 1

Uttanasana

Squat

Mouse Pose

Bakasana

Uttanasana

Roll up to Standing

Tadasana

HAM

Repeat Sequence 2 Other Side

Vinaysa 2

Dog

Roll into Updog

Roll into Downdog

Squat

Transition onto Backs

Happy Baby into Supine Crow

Supine One Legged Crow Play

Roll back up

Play with Sleepy One Legged Crow 

and One Legged Crow

with Wrist Stretches in between

Childs Pose

Vajrasana

Transition onto Backs

Bridge x 2 (optional wheel)

Abdominal Hand to Big Toe Pose Sequence with a Twist

Savasana

Practice with My Teacher

Every so often I get to go to LA and practice with my teacher in his home.  These are some of my favorite sessions.  Everything we talk about is super clear and the practice that erupts is always surprising.

We laughed that I still didn't really know his patterns.  Like I am deliberately not paying that close attention for fear of just mimicking.  I suggested that it was a resistance to listening, a need to stay "original".  He said that he did the same with his teacher cuz he wanted it to come through in his own words.

We talked about how something has to come up and from within to feel and sound true as well as be communicated.

We talked a lot about Jesus.  He is reading a book called, "Poem of the Man God."  It's a 5 volume set of a woman's channeled recollections of Jesus.  In her stories she talks about him going from town to town healing people in droves. 

We talked about that as we get more clear, we start to understand ourselves as "That" looking at "Itself".  

I am feeling like I am coming to God in reverse. As I have shared, at 17 I did not believe any intelligent person could believe in God. In my rejection of my mother, I rejected the divine. Slowly, the resistance is being relaxed.

Erich's three suggestions are:

1. It shouldn't hurt

2. You have options and choices

3. Be as relaxed as you can be as you do what you gotta do

I mostly sat tonight, but with deliberate attention on developing the strength of the spine.

From Sukhasana, Cactus and Swamp Monster forward and back and to the side.  Holding and breathing and slowly investigating.

Still sitting, play with arms extended over head and at slight angles.

Felt like I was strengthening the central channels for the dormant prana to rise

Lots of Toe Torture Play.

Self palpitation of hamstrings, particularly the outer hamstrings.

(Self Thai Massage is common for me in my practice and has led to the play of self healing)

 When we were talking about Jesus and his healings we were connecting to his clarity of how things are.  His ability to see the truth and not buy into the suffering allowed him to change the patterns in people?  He could "bring people back from the dead" cuz there is no such thing as death.  The way he is relayed as doing it in the book is saying, "i want it".

"Self Healing is looking at the thing and recognizing it for what it is"

Seated Wise Guy

Lots of Upavista Konasana

Eventually to counter, I turned onto my belly

Yin Sphinx/cobra

Locust to Bow Play with variations

Backwards Eye of the Needle Bow which was spontaneous and felt super good.

Childs Pose

Virasana and Saddle Play

Twisting from Butterfly Hero Pose

using different places for leverage and opportunity

Sit

Early Morning Practice

I don't usually practice before the sun comes up, but today I did. This practice left me feeling energized and relaxed.

Shape of Baddha Konasana
Massage Sen Lines of Feet and Thumb up Lines of legs
Line 1: under the shin bone, under the quad
Line 2: Middle of calf, middle of inner thigh
Line 3: Under the calf, inner groin line

Yin Baddha Konasana (5 minutes or so)
Backward Arch

Squat Press
Cow Negotiation Pose

Pasaritta PAddotanana with Arm extension

Horse with Uddiyana Bandha Kirya
Horse

Repeat Prasarita Padottanasana Variation

Warrior 2 Dance with Prana Extenstion Arms
Both sides

Low Lunge (Yin Style)
Rounded Plank
Seal (Yin Cobra)

Repeat with Lunge on other side

Saddle Pose (Yin)

Slumpy Spinal Twist

Maha Bandha

Sit

Practice Monday, March 3, 4:00pm

Usually between classes on Monday I take a nap.
But I have been exceptionally busy and allowed myself to keep working through the time I would have been able to pull of a nap. So I needed a restorative practice.

Lie Supine with Knees bent. Feet wide and knees falling together.
Hands on belly. Focus on bringing the breath down to my hands.

Transition hands to lower ribs/diaphragm region and focus on opening up into hands, aiming breath down.

Deepening of breath.
6 0 6 0
6 3 6 3
6 6 6 6
6 0 6 0

Relax and feel the effects.

Roll to sitting.
Easy Sukhasana

Roll onto back
Lotus Prep Work

Roll to sitting
Half Bound Lotus Twisting and Forward Fold
Janu Sirsasana Variation with Lotus
Schiffmann Half Box Twisting Play
(Switch Sides)

Lotus
Maha Bandha Work

Quiet Sit
20 minutes or so...

Transition to back
Easy Spinal Twisting
Savasana

Monday, April 2, Practice 6:30am

Huge Yellow Full Moon Setting
Sun just starting to come up

Constraints:
Woke up thinking about the Bikram sequence.
Wanted to maintain at least a 6:9 breath
And focus on the play using hip rotation and tailbone action to create length on the inside and outside lines of my body.
So resulted in a slow deep investigative practice with pedestrian postures.

Tadasana
Breath
1/4 Suns
1/2 Suns

Lunge Salute Pattern 1
Low Lunge with Arch
Pyramid Variation
Twisting Lunge

Dog
Plank
Several Chaturangas
Sphinx
Rocket Cat
Dog

Opposite Leg Forward and Repeat Lunge Pattern
Step Forward

Bikram Half Moon Sequence
(Long time in the forward fold)

Repeat Lunge Pattern 1
(with some variation in foot placement and Locust Pose instead of Sphinx)

Repeat Half Moon Sequence

Bikram Awkward Series

Lunge Salute Pattern 2
Step back to Warrior 1
Warrior 2
Side Angle
Twisting Lunge
Pyramid Variation

Dog
Plank
Several Chaturangas
Upward Facing Dog
Dog

Step Forward with Opposite Leg and Repeat Pattern.
Stepping Forward and Rolling up to Standing.

Bikram Standing Head to Knee Pose
Dancer's Pose
Warrior 3

Bikram Style Pasarita Padotanasana
Bikram Style Parsvotanasana

Squat
Lie on Back
Knees to Chest

Navasana
Lolasana Practice

Ana Forest and Jill Miller Style Abdominals

Bridge
Spinal Twist

Coffee instead of Savasana