Vivian's Page

Vivian's Page

A picture of me, almost unrecognizably happy, drinking a coconut, is a the closest image I have to describe my yoga practice these days in Mysore: Drinking in the raw simplicity of asana and finding peace and bliss in its elixir.

Aeryk and I have had the first time slot at the Shala for a while now, which is the most peaceful. All the yogis in that time are experienced at the shala, at least by a few months, but the vast majority are on second, third or tenth trips to Mysore. There is not much jockeying for placement, the hierarchy seems obvious, and most have grown beyond caring about a "good" or "bad" spot. The first group gets to chant the invocation with Sharath, the only ones who receive that privilege on Mysore style days. We do get up very very early. Most days I rise between 2:15 and 2:45 am to include my full cleansing and awakening before practice.

Aeryk and I are yoga twins these days. Our practice is essentially the same. Sharath now is giving us the same new postures at the same time. One day he even had us go back in tandem to demonstrate a posture for him we had already passed, and approving it, gave us both our next asana. Thursday he came up to us during our backbends and joked, who goes first? He helps first one, then the other, holding the ankles.

Aeryk is looking quite flexible these days with such a deep final backbend. Sharath still has different advice for us, "No fear" and "heels DOWN" for Aeryk, "Relax" and "relax your hands" for me. It is new for us to receive this attention at the end of our practice. Sharath has started moving my hands up higher on my legs, and it almost feels normal.

Important update for you yogis at home in Olympia: Sounds are not permitted at the shala. One lady makes some noise every time she holds her ankles. Sharath always says to her "No Crying!" and everyone laughs.

We have a friend here who was just working on dropping back. Sharath rewarded him with the first posture of second series, and told him he needs to stand up from of his backbend. One day, he was trying, but without success and plenty of grunting. Sharath said, "Stand up, push hard" Our friend replied "I can't!" Sharath returned with "Is possible... You don't go home until you stand up." and he walked away. Our friend stood right up. Now he does it every day, of course, because whatever you do here once, you must repeat forever.

Aeryk and I are still finishing at a place "lower" than our abilities in the sequence of postures. This is completely ok with me. We are not being stopped at all, we have a new posture added every week. Our practice is much longer now than when we started here. It has some intense asana. It is only a matter of spending more weeks and years here to get more postures added. As Aeryk says, we know who we are, and it is not defined by the postures we are "allowed" to practice.

It feels good to let go of greediness for postures, or even for the sensations of more advanced postures. I know when Sharath tells me to relax my hands, mostly he is telling me something specific about progressing my backbend deeper...Only a soft hand can let go of one place to climb higher on the legs. At the same time I also hear a parallel lesson for my practice. I don't need to grasp on to postures, but instead to relax and live in my body softly. Progress is a different space than I imagined it to be.

I feel that we have a good relationship with our teacher and with our practice. I have never felt happier in my yoga. I feel tired out and peaceful at the end of every day. I am recharged and enthousiastic upon waking.
Ashtanga yoga is a sweet life.