![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"You are old, father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head
Do you think, at your age, it is right?
"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again." (Lewis Carroll, of course)
I went back to the intermediate yoga class this morning, and discovered it's gotten a lot more demanding, which is ultimately good. Yoga is definitely one experience that reminds you that your "reach must exceed [your] grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Making progress toward a difficult pose really is more powerful than doing one that's become easy for you.
Since I wasn't doing a lot of yoga in the summer while traveling and letting the tendinitis in my ankle heel (will buy new walking shoes in time from now on), I'd dropped back to advanced beginner classes for the late fall and early winter. But it was good to be really challenged in the long vinyasa that opened the session, moving fairly quickly from one pose to another without a lot of breaks. Our teacher used the wonderful image of each pose as a pearl strung on the string of the breath.
I was happy to see that I can do side plank pose now repeatedly (Vasisthasana), including the backbending version. I've gained some arm strength, but mostly have learned to keep my shoulders back enough that my shoulder blade supports me.
Even better was dropping back into a backbend or wheel pose(Urdhva Dhanurasana)assisted by the wall (got partway down) and then by two partners--got all the way down and back up, twice! The world looks wonderful upside down, and the trusting feeling of support from others is really healing. And I liked helping them, too.
You will definitely hear when I get this pose unassisted (you might not even need to go to Live Journal to hear it, I'll probably cheer so loud!)
I also find that in meditation during savasana at the end of class, it's much easier to fix my mind than it sometimes is when I'm just sitting. I think it's true that the practice of yoga does unite mind and body, and teaches you how to focus.
Now if I ever really achieve Samatha, you won't hear me cheering, of course. But sometimes it seems even harder than the wheel.
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head
Do you think, at your age, it is right?
"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again." (Lewis Carroll, of course)
I went back to the intermediate yoga class this morning, and discovered it's gotten a lot more demanding, which is ultimately good. Yoga is definitely one experience that reminds you that your "reach must exceed [your] grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Making progress toward a difficult pose really is more powerful than doing one that's become easy for you.
Since I wasn't doing a lot of yoga in the summer while traveling and letting the tendinitis in my ankle heel (will buy new walking shoes in time from now on), I'd dropped back to advanced beginner classes for the late fall and early winter. But it was good to be really challenged in the long vinyasa that opened the session, moving fairly quickly from one pose to another without a lot of breaks. Our teacher used the wonderful image of each pose as a pearl strung on the string of the breath.
I was happy to see that I can do side plank pose now repeatedly (Vasisthasana), including the backbending version. I've gained some arm strength, but mostly have learned to keep my shoulders back enough that my shoulder blade supports me.
Even better was dropping back into a backbend or wheel pose(Urdhva Dhanurasana)assisted by the wall (got partway down) and then by two partners--got all the way down and back up, twice! The world looks wonderful upside down, and the trusting feeling of support from others is really healing. And I liked helping them, too.
You will definitely hear when I get this pose unassisted (you might not even need to go to Live Journal to hear it, I'll probably cheer so loud!)
I also find that in meditation during savasana at the end of class, it's much easier to fix my mind than it sometimes is when I'm just sitting. I think it's true that the practice of yoga does unite mind and body, and teaches you how to focus.
Now if I ever really achieve Samatha, you won't hear me cheering, of course. But sometimes it seems even harder than the wheel.
Tags: