Hatha - Day 4

The upside to telling my friends and teachers that I am doing something like this month of astanga is that I find out about others who are undertaking similar challenges, and get lots of advice. The downside, if you could really call it that, is that I'm in class doing sun salutations and thinking "okay, now that my teacher knows I'm working on astanga, I hope that everytime I have funky alignment they don't think this is how I do it at home!"

ah the neurosis. There's nowhere to hide, because it will always find you if your mind is open to it. And allowing yourself insecurity leaves your mind vulnerable that way.

Steve's class was great this evening. He was subbing the rare Yoga 2, which is not a common class anyway and even less common for him to teach it. Steve is also doing Astanga stuff right now, and unsurprisingly the class really reflected that. Great for me! It was totally the perfect Astanga/Hatha hybrid class for my in-between day. I could hear others struggling though, with the pace and rhythm. It's an advantage to be in class like that and be familiar with the sequence, because you know how to breathe and can anticipate what might be happening next. Without that familiarity it is easy to get huffing and puffing. The studio was really humid also, which made for a nice astanga-y atmosphere. I felt strong the whole class, and didn't drop out during savasana either. Evening classes really are the best for me.

I also got my books today, which is great timing because it looks like we are in for a massive snowstorm and I will have plenty of exciting reading material! Not that I need to start reading other things..I am still enthusiastically plugging away at Iyengar's Light on the Yoga Sutras - different from Light on Yoga, though I have that too. His work is brilliant, and really offers a lot of clarification and helpful insight to Patanjali's work. I feel, however, like there is no end to the number of texts and writings about yoga that I want to read and learn.