Led Primary with Kino MacGregor in DC

Back in March I had the fortune of catching a led primary series with Kino MacGregor through Woodley Park Yoga in DC.  When my daily mysore practice began almost a year and a half ago, I’d started by watching Kino’s and Sharath Jois’ Primary Series DVDs.  I've spent hours  watching Kino's videos mainly because she speaks my language when it comes to verbal cues. 

Prior to Ashtanga, I had a steady Baptiste vinyasa practice peppered with led primary classes and had developed a slow ujjayi rhythm.  When I began teaching led classes, I’d keep the same tempo while counting and occasionally heard from students that my counts were long.    Rather than compromise consistency, I maintained the slower tempo of counting which is slower than most; however, not slower than Kino’s counts.

Kinos 5 counts were 10 of mine, and the shakes set in early for me during her Led Primary class.  My hips also felt heavy during jump throughs, resulting in mat burn and a nice toenail nick on the top of my hand.  Prone to hyper pigmentation, I knew that I'd be reminded of these long counts for some time to come.  More immediate and pressing a matter, however was finishing the practice. The deconstruction of it all came during closing when my shoulders were so tired that I couldn't sustain the inversions.

I hadn’t been pushed by a teacher in the area of long counts since attending a weekend with David Robson at the Miami Life Center in 2013.  There, he used the drum beat to which he asked us to  move through sun salutations.   Since practicing with Kino, I've taken to extending my counts a little, which I didn't think would be acceptable to traditionalists until I read a recent throwback blog posted by Shanna Small  that featured excerpts from the theaspiringyogi.  If you scroll down in this interview with Manju Jois (the oldest son of Ashtanga Yoga Founder, Sri K Pattabhi Jois)  you'll see what he has to say about holding postures for longer than 5 breaths.    Basically, he says that the body begins to settle in a posture after the fifth breath.

Touche students, I feel your pain :).

* Pictured above are a some of my students who attended Kino MacGregors' March weekend workshop in DC.

Miami

Back in February, I visited Miami for a workshop with David Robson at the Miami Life Center.  Not long ago, I bought myself an iPhone which takes pretty good pictures and it has reawakend my inner shutterbug :).  Hanging around a professional photographer is also inspiring.

Buddha that was stationed at the hotel walkway.

Breakfast location.

This lounge was my favorite space at the hotel.  I call it The Saffron Room.

David Robson's workshop location.

That is who you think it is, Jamie Foxx!

Old Faithful

Today was a good day on the mat.

Last night I didn't get to bed quite as early as I wanted, but resolved to sleep as SOON as my head hit the pillow. I think my body is getting accustomed to getting up an hour earlier, because I become alert at around 4:50 AM, drift off lightly (natural snooze) and then my alarm sounds a few minutes later. So up I bounced, rested, alert! and headed right to the kitchen to feed Mona Lisa, roll out my black mat and begin. Absent was The Weaver (Mona) and I missed her presence, so solitary practice commenced and I would recall later that the mind chatter also was silent. The warring sides that spoke so loudly on Monday never uttered a word; today there was complete congruence.

Moving lightly, I applied some of the things I learned during the weekend workshop in Miami with David Robson and also a few things that a local teacher, Keith Moore taught me. Contact free jump backs are coming. It's been a year or more that I've struggled with kicking back by pushing my feet down to lift my hips (cheating), aggravating my knee in the process and taking one foot back at a time. Now, I've learned to press my hands more into the mat which gets my hips up and legs back together although still with foot contact but no pressure on my knee. Floating forward happens periodically in the seated sequence right now. In standing, tight back muscles and flat out fear of jumping too high keeps floating out of reach during sun salutations. Quarters are tight at my place, and it would be catastrophic to flip onto my fathers' antique desk. Something certainly justified in fearing in my opinion.

Admittedly, there's another roadblock in my morning practice; backbending. Despite having done many delicious up dogs prior to the time for wheel, I just feel that I'm not ready. By my own admission, I can do wheel just fine and as I type this it doesn't make sense. It's obviously all in my head because just a few weeks ago I couldn't imagine waking before 6 AM. I guess that's the next layer of stiff thoughts that will peel off in practice.

Feeling pliable and quiet, I rolled up my mat and went in search of Mona Lisa. She was in my bed curled in a ball, a position in which cats tend to sleep, deeply amidst a mushroom cloud of down comforter listening to my second alarm which is set to "Children of the Sun" by Floacist. As I approached the bed, she looked over her shoulder and regarded me with a sweet good morning mew stopping my intention to shoo her away to make the bed right in its tracks. Deciding (my first decision after having been up for more than an hour!) to leave Mona in peace, there was only one thing left to do...

Make my old faithful smoothie. It just felt like the right thing to complete practice this morning, and I have missed it so.

Ashtanga Weekend with David Robson

Narrowly escaping a nor’easter that would clobber New England, I left for Miami. Destination, the Miami Life Center in South Beach for a weekend with David Robson. He runs the largest Mysore program outside of Mysore India, which is based in Toronto.

Florida in all of its splendor didn’t disappoint when we arrived; temps warm and balmy, the people young and beautiful. Even those not young in years had a vitality about them. I think it’s the vitamin D. Right off the bat we connected with the hotels master chef who also turned out to be a shutterbug and was quite photogenic. He was the first of many friendly Floridians whom we had the pleasure of encountering.

The Learn to Float workshop was Friday evening. In the vinyasa sequence the jumping forward and back on your hands can also be achieved by floating. Its not part of the ashtanga practice because there is no count for it, but yogis like to do it anyway. It requires strength, a fair amount of fearlessness and a WHOLE lot of practice. I found it difficult to keep my arms straight, but it is coming.

David also had us practice sun salutations a and b to a drum beat. Moving in this manner required slowing down some movements such as up dog and expedieting others such as warrior 1. Breathing in this manner is called sama vritti, and connected with movement resulted in a lot more internal heat and focus for me. The weekend was multipurposed and therefore split between led primary and mysore.

I love workshopping because I get to spend time on nuances that just can’t always be broken down in a guided class. My teacher Ursula often says at the start of her guided ashtanga classes, “we get right to it” so in keeping with the self practice of Mysore, ashtangis owe it to themselves to spend time supplementing their practice with workshops, dvds and or books. Regular practice is a must, but knowing the sequence is simply not enough. I recall many of the teachers I‘ve spent time with documenting their svadhyaya or self study and writing about it also cements the experience for me.

Workshopping

One of the things I always look forward to is a good yoga workshop. Very soon I will be in Florida to attend an Ashtanga weekend with David Robson. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I've been practicing Ashtanga exclusively and teaching it regularly. Through its steady sequence and my own patience, I've experienced more growth with it than in any other practice. It's just how it's worked for me frankly and underscores what I've come to know about Ashtanga.

And so it's time for some professional development and a little hotness in South Beach ;).