Day 4 & 5 : Presence

Date : 3rd October, Thursday

Day : 4 and 5 (making up for Saturday)

The hot journey has a theme for each week. And the theme for Week 1 is Presence. Here's what the sheet I received says:

Finding presence is at the heart of all yogic practices and essential for living a happy, fulfilled and enjoyable life. Our yoga practice encourages us to truly wake-up, to become present to the state of our body, our mind and ultimately our lives. As we awaken to the truth of our reality, we develop greater wisdom, compassion and empowerment. This first week we will explore how breath control and physical postures can act as vehicles for developing concentration and ultimately greater presence.

I think in the few posts that I have published on this blog, I could't have stressed the importance of the word "breath" more. It's all about your breath. That determines how long you will stay in your pose for and how high you can push you feet and how much further can you twist. 

So yesterday's evening class was with a very very popular teacher in Hom Yoga. His name is Anton. I absolutely love his classes. He has a very soothing, calm voice. Even when he is telling you to push more, he will say it as if he is offering you a bowl of chocolate ice cream and you will push yourself even if your body is screaming out saying no! Haha. But i realised he is very popular in Hom, when I heard two girls chat in the changing room once. So there was this girl who said to her friend, "I'm very sore today from yesterday's class and I almost didn't come to class, but when I saw Anton was taking a class, I just had to drag myself here, he is so cute no?" Haha. Locker room gossip ! 

But apart from the obvious effect he has on the girls in the studio, that if of course not the only reason. He is really an awesome teacher. And in fact, I fell in love with Ashtanga yoga because of him. He teaches it really well and tells you how to get into a pose. I've attended some workshops that Anton has conducted and i owe my knowledge of  chaturanga dandasana or four limbs staff pose to him and Deborah, they taught me the vinyasa and I'm so glad I learnt it correctly, because it's one of those poses that involves your spines and also needs you to move fast. So if you get it wrong, months of practicing it incorrectly can lead to a very bad back problem. I am very grateful to Deb and Anton. So yea, that's superstar Anton for you. I practiced his Hatha class yesterday and the minute my mind knows I have a Hatha class coming up it automatically relaxes. Haha. I think it is the easiest of all the hot classes Hom offers. Anton was returning after a two week break and I was so glad to see him back in time for the journey.

So, the class this morning was hot Hom.  I had a very late night last night and go to bed only around 12 am. When the alarm rang at 6 am , I cursed myself for not sleeping earlier, dragged myself out of the bed and got out of the house. The teacher today was Monica. Like how I owe my alignment techniques to Anton and Deb, I owe Monica the progress I have made in my postures and how deep I can go in them. She is a taskmaster. Not in a bad way at all! The best part about the teachers at Hom is that they know you personally, especially if you are mad like me and go twice a day!  So Monica will know what asanas I can do, which ones I like, which ones I don't like, and which ones I need to and can push more for. So When she sees me slackening in a particular pose, irrespective of where she is in the room, she will say "Nayana, more up, more up, push more!" So yea, I can't cheat in Monica's class.  I learnt to push myself and learnt the tips to stay in the pose more and more importantly realized that the pose actually begins when you want to leave it ! In fact I think I can do the dandayamana- janushirasana because of her and the techniques she taught me. 

This yogi describes the steps to get in to a dandayamana janushirasana and I used to stop at Step 1, until Monica told, I should try lifting up my leg:

                    

So I can almost touch my forehead to my knee now. The key now is to stay there longer and balance. The trick is not only lift your leg but to kick it into your palms, flexing your feet. That improves the balance. 

This is a Hatha pose, not a Hom one. I don't have pictorial representation for a hom class, but I will briefly describe the asana that I particularly proud of now !  I find the hom series much much much more difficult than the Hatha class. It's still a fixed series, but i think it involved a lot more of the core than the hatha poses and somehow I think there are MANY more poses than the Hatha.  I used to find the extended hand to big-toe pose : uthitha hastha padangustana very very very very tough to do. But I started doing it slowly and today I tried lifting and straightening my leg and voila ! 

[image courtesy : http://www.athleta.net/2011/11/22/12-days-of-yoga-gifts/ ]

You need to take your toe by wrapping the first two fingers or the right hand around the right big toe and slowly extend the right leg as much as possible. Take a few breaths with the leg in front and then on an exhale slowly take the leg out to the side. And of course repeat this on the left side. 

So that's for today. I'm heading out now for my evening class which will be Day 6 and then I will be on a three day break. I will practice yoga however, maybe just not hot yoga. Anything that makes you happy ! :) I will log in an entry for this evening before I head out tomorrow! This evenings class is also Hot Hom, I had an option to do the lovely Daphne's flow at 5:00 PM but just had too much work to leave office at 4:30 , So it's June's hom for me ! 

Namaste