Day 21 : Weeeeeek 4 : Monday

Date : 21st, October 2013, Monday
Day : 21



With the start of week 4, I'm towards the end of my journey. Time has flown indeed! Because I do more than 1 class a day, I am on day 25 on my lovely board. I love my smilies ! haha.



Ok so Monday morning, instead of the pain in my arms decreasing, it only got worse. But that's true of any big exercise you do. And I love Daphne's flow and I hate the train crowd at 8. All these factors combined, made me go for the class. So I go to class and find out that Daphne is out for the week and Lily is taking the flow class this morning. I was disappointed for a bit, but then was looking forward to how Lily will teach flow. I haven't spoken about Lily, in this blog have I? She mostly teaches in Orchard, which is why I don't get to do too many classes of hers. But I find her classes extremely tough for some reason. She really pushes you to give your best. When I say pushes I don't mean it in a bad "forceful" way, but she keeps talking to you when you are practicing and you yourself feel like going down and stretching or lifting a little bit more. In some of her classes, I feel exhilarated and in some, I feel like I am going to pass out. So I was excited to see how her flow was. But I was also scared because my body was still in pain and I didn't want to push it too much.

The class was actually really good. A lot of core. A LOT of it. But we always came back to Samasthiti to rest for a breath or two and so it wasn't continuous. Daphne's flows are continuous, you are actually flowing, there is no stopping. Of course you can stop if you feel tired, but the class goes on. So Lily's style and even the asanas she choose were really different from Daphne's flow class. 

When I did the first vinyasa, my arms felt like they were going to crumble under my weight. It took a lot of mental strength to not give up or rest in between. When I was doing the 108 surya namaskars, because I was still doing it and there was no break, the pain in the arms didn't exist or wasn't this acute. But in Monday's flow class, every arm movement hurt like crazy reminding me every time I went down into Chaturanga Dandasana of last Saturday. Haha. 

Speaking of being in week 4, here's what the poster in Hom yoga's facebook page says : 



Its called : Letting Go

In this last week of your challenge it is time to soak up everything you have discovered, acknowledge your efforts and release expectations of judgements surrounding the outcome. The healing and knowledge you have gained does not come from how proficient you are in the postures but from the intention to come to your mat.
Letting go has a lot to do with trust - letting go of resistance and trust in the knowledge that you are exactly where you need to be and in doing this practice for ourselves it has a ripple effect on everyone else we touch. It is universal.

By the way this is the picture from the 108 surya namaskars class on Saturday. It's me on the extreme right and the lady right next to be is Deborah and the the lady on the extreme left is Daphne ! Sigh. How I love them!



So today I am going to talk about a very cool pose. The first time Daphne tried it in a class, I was hesitant at first but when I took my body there, it came very naturally and without resistance! It's called Camatkarasana or the "Wild thing". And this lovely website yogabycandace.com explains how to get into it. 

The asana stretches the shoulders, hip flexors, chest and strengthens the upper back and shoulder muscles. Here's the brief how to:

1) Start in Downward Dog and lift up your right leg to go into three legged dog
three-legged-dog-yoga.jpg
(Image courtesy : Yogabycandace.com)

2) Bend the right leg, open up the right hip and reach the foot behind as your right hand comes off the ground
3) Your left hand is pushing the ground away and your right leg is straight and extended. Your left knee is bent and your chest and hips lift towards the sky.




(Image courtesy : Yogabycandace.com)

4) Breathe 10-15 breaths, keeping your focus and strength
5) Come back into your downward facing dog and repeat on the left side.

This asana is also called the flipped downward dog and is infact considered a back bend. When I searched for the meaning online I discovered that Camatkarasana means :  "the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptered heart" . Don't know how true that it :) But I love the pose, it makes me feel like I am flying in the air  and I always feel wonderful after it !

My evening class today was Ashtanga with Michelle and I missed it last week, so was really looking forward to catching it this week. Ashtanga always make me smile :) But it also meant more vinyasa. Haha. One thing I noticed it that the pain in my right sit bone, which was there before the 108 series, was back and it was really really painful now. I made a note in my mind to ask my teachers about it. But I was in a hurry to get home and forgot to ask Michelle. Maybe I'll ask June tomorrow after the morning Hatha class.

Hopefully it's nothing too bad.

Namaste.


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