Hard night

I'm sitting in Starbucks at 8pm and that shows you just how desperate I am. My hotel room was closing in on me tonight. I'm working on the Shala questionnaires. I am so incredibly grateful for the honesty and thought that went into all of your responses, those of you who did respond, that is! I have a very good picture of where things are and I'll be presenting it all to Jody and Matt soon after I get back! Plus we have some exciting new marketing strategies developing, business cards, all kinds of goodies. It's hard to be here and have all this bubbling up, only waiting for me to get to it!

Two Days LATER: No real reason I never finished that post other than I didn't have much to say! That was a hard night for me. The Wednesday (hump day) of the second week. Not a good day for me. I felt such intense frustration at being here and all alone. It was one of those "I can't stand this another minute" feelings. Of course, I did stand it, and it eased quite a bit once I realized that it really had nothing to do with wanting to come home, which of course I do. It had much more to do with what is emerging for me in this solitude and how nice it would be to be distracted from it. I had a hint of this when I felt some very old, self destructive feelings pass through me. Then it was, 'ah, I get it' and everything eased up and I felt a shift. It is also nice to know I'm on the other side of the 'hump.' One more practice day tomorrow, then Sunday, then the homestretch. Today was nice too in that the London women took me under their wing a bit and invited me to breakfast. Lunch next week. I find that, while I totally miss my family and friends, I also am not very inclined for socializing. So just a little contact was good.

I do have some practice news. Circling form has some changes. Finally, something new to bring home! Of course, one of the changes is beyond my capability, but he said the pose was on the DVD, so I can point to it!! I'm also going to try to work it while I'm here and see where I can take it. At the beginning of Circling, we no longer to the side lunges with reverse prayer, etc. We do Vahni! We are holding it for five breaths. Not sure if that is standard, but we do Vahni, then go right into the Prasarita variations. Oh joy, my favorite. My injured hamstring is very sore. Not re-injured, but definitely a bit pissed off at me for asking it to do this after it thought it had successfully prevented me from EVER going there again. I'm bringing it along slowly this time. I have the rest of my life to master Prasarita, and, I'm giving myself notice, I WILL master it someday. It is my particular mountain to climb, and most likely just the first of many mountains to follow. But perhaps, it is the one that will unlock the door that will make the others much more doable?

Anyway, we do Vahni, then Prasarita variations, no changes there, then we come up out of Prasarita, and into the same sequence we've always done. Up to a point. There are two major changes. The reverse Sarpa now winds much farther and you are to rest on your bent leg with the other leg up off the floor. I'd be happy to demonstrate when I get home, but this is the pose that eludes me as of now. Like I said, the DVD has it. And I'll try to get it better by the time I get home. I believe the reverse Sarpa we were doing before was preparation for this one. 

The other change is in doing Sarpa at the end, we only do it once each side then go into Praying Mantis, which looks to me to be a martial arts pose. Very cool. My injury didn't like it, but once it is better, it will be good to do. You do that once to each side, then right into Surya Namaskar. We will be doing the closing sequences tomorrow (Hanuman, Mayurasana, Paschimo, etc.) 

So a few changes here. Next week he is going to show some of us something to be done before practice that churns the energy. I believe it will be the Shakti Chalana mudra (involves ujjayi breathing, bhastrika, surya bedha, nauli), and I believe we have done some form of this before in our practice at home? I'm not at all sure and may be completely wrong. And I may never know. Only some of the folks are going to be able to do that. I may not be one of them, if what I'm hearing is true. I can't do 5 minutes of mayurasana! Maybe 2 minutes, but wobbling and not fully outstretched. So I may be of no help there either. Sad, because I will fail miserably in my job as emissary for the Shala. 

That's it, except for a few more Vienna pictures. Mostly of one building from different angles that I thought was cool. Until later....