Weekend intensive

These past few months I have been focusing on my home practice. Well, maybe 'home' isn't quite the right word, as I also carried my yoga mat and block to Hawaii, enjoying the ocean view and sun and breeze as part of my morning ritual.

This weekend intensive with Marlene at YCT was rejuvenating, and I was reminded once again of the privilege to have such a seasoned teacher's voice as a guide, bringing new perspectives to even the simplest of poses. Observing the shape of the legs and then using straps to straighten them to sit in dondasana for 5 minutes, and then seeing what awareness that brings to tadasana. In a workshop I usually surprise myself by being able to do something I didn't think possible: this time I managed to do a backbend, walking my hands down the wall right to the floor. Haven't done that in ages!

Although I am careful not to repeat the same sequences day after day, having a good teacher takes me out of familiar territory. I hear an instruction in a new way, or there is a pose I haven't done in awhile, and am reminded to bring it back into rotation.

I have made up some 'wild cards' to incorporate it into my mornings, cutting up old watercolours and writing some words: "uttanasana with your back against the wall,"  "Tadasana: standing, inverted and lying," "Be present," "palms flat against the wall," "Parivrtta Trikonasana " and "Ustrasana." Nudges to keep practice fresh.