Commitment Day 2 - Dragonflies & little secrets

Today I set up my mat outside. I’ve been practicing inside lately and I turn the air off but it doesn’t get quite warm enough since we keep the house cool overnight.  Yesterday I definitely felt like my body didn’t warm up as much as I would’ve liked.  I also had a very slow and unfocused practice which didn’t help with keeping me warm.  This morning I decided to step outside to feel the air and found it was quite nice for a late July, northern Florida, summer morning. I imagine it was a slightly humid, high 70s in the shade of my patio. Perfect. So I put down my mat and set up my music.  I wanted to listen to a couple of playlists I had put together for teaching and see if I like them.  Traditionally Ashtanga is not practiced with music but when I’m at home, in my space, I have music. Sweet, beautiful, music.

I opened my practice with the hip opening exercise from David Keil then went into primary series up to navasana. I did want to practice past that but the concrete patio floor was not exactly the place I wanted to touch my face to for bhujapidasana or plant my heels into for kurmasana.  I felt focused and dedicated to getting the most out of my practice today.  I usually rush through closing but today I enjoyed it.  One of my little secrets.. sometimes in karnapidasana, I get so comfy and cozy that I close my eyes, release my practice and take a little blissful kitten nap. A kitten nap is shorter than a cat nap but just as refreshing. I did 6 backbends again and 2 drop backs. I need to work on a little bit more control at the tail end of my drop back. I get back to where I can see my mat and then I reach my edge of control and just drop. I want to work on lingering at my edge and having a more controlled drop down to the mat. I worked on rocking back and forth to lift up but I didn’t feel any weight lift out of my hands today. Coming up from back bend is definitely in a land far, far away for me. That’s ok, one of these lifetimes I’ll get it!

I spent two hours on my mat today which is an improvement. The only pose I skipped was Janu B. I need to do a little reading up on that one to see what the purpose is. It’s just so similar to Janu A that it seems almost redundant. So I admit, I have somewhat of a tendency to skip it when I’m getting a little bored with all the seated forward folds and want to move on.  But shhh, that’s between you and me.  I was able to bind to my wrists on both sides in Marichy C today. Taking the time to do parivrtta parsvakonasana twice is really helping with my twists. I do one round with prayer hands and then one round working towards full expression in which I get about half of my hand on the mat. Slowly but surely it’s getting there.  That one might actually be within this lifetime.

I think I will always practice outside unless it’s unbearably hot or humid. It’s quite serene on my patio. I look out onto a bright, sunny yard.  The morning is peaceful & quite.  The fresh air is relaxing and when I’m done I sometimes get a lovely random breeze blowing over me in savasana.  If I wasn’t outside I wouldn’t have experienced this beautiful moment as I was in sirsasana (headstand) when a dragon fly came flying by just as Nina Simone was singing “dragon fly out in the sun, you know what I mean” and I think, he did know what I mean. Today I felt joy in my practice. It was a new day and I was feeling good.