6/2/17 Ashtanga Mysore Practice Journal

I Felt Great!!!

I've been busy and was not able to update my practice journal lately. Finally, I had some time today. Over the last few weeks, I was easy on back bends, mainly Urdhva Dhanurasana and Kapotanasana, to let my middle/low back to heal. Instead of focusing on deep back bends, I put more emphasize on the breath. It helped to keep my middle back and heart lifted while preventing me from collapsing. The breath tended to be shallow (especially the inhale) when doing deep back bends and twisting poses. The deep inhale expending the rib cage really helped open the front chest and avoided dumping the pressure to the spine (area between thoracic and lumbar vertebrae). I started going deeper back bends and doing drop back this week because my back was finally feeling better.

Somehow, my body felt great today (not complaining). It was pretty open this morning. I was able to twist and back bend deeper than what I normally did. I had no clue why, but the body was supposed to be different everyday. For example, today was second time that I could clasp fingers in Pashasana without help. I was able to do Kapotasana A & B without back pain. I could drop back and come up from Urdhva Dhanurasana with ease. I made progress in Bakasana B. The body was acting to my favor.

Besides working on back bends, Bakasana B was another focus in my practice. Instead of jumping from Adho Mukha Svanasana, I walked my feet closer to hands (shorter stand) and hopped to Bakasana. I normally hopped about 5 times in my daily practice. Not until this week was I able to "stick" in Bakasana without toes touching the ground (after several hops). Today, I did it in the second hop. I was quite excited about it.

I have been immersed in the excitement of how open my body was. I hope my body will remember how deep I went into the asanas today. I hope it was not an one time thing. Lots of hopes...   Maybe I should just be happy and grateful that I am able to practice yoga.