It's been a long time since I blogged, and I can't really remember where I was at my last entry, so I'll start with my trip to Formentera. I bought the book "Guruji: A portrait of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of His Students. It's a fantastic book, I'll do a little review once I've finished it.
After the failed trip to Formentera the weekend before, I was chatting to my friend in Mallorca, trying to organise to see her. She had a friend coming over from Barcelona, and so it was the perfect time for me to visit. So I went online and tried to organise ferries to the island. For some reason, for non-residents of Spain, the ferries are extremely expensive. It is more expensive to catch the ferry than to fly, and cheaper to fly around europe than to just hop over the spit to the next island. So unfortunately I couldn't see my friend, but this gave me an opportunity to try to get to Formentera again.
The wind wasn't too strong, and I met some lovely Italians on the boat. We chatted for a while, and when we got there, they wanted to all hire a car to check out the island. I wanted some quiet time, so I decided instead to leave them, and go for a walk. I ended up on a beautiful quiet beach, with only a few old naked German men sunbathing. Hahaha. i found a spot on a log under a tree with nobody around and started to read the Guruji book. Well on came epiphany after epiphany. I really identified with a couple of the interviewees, especially David Swenson. I could see what attracted them to the practice, and why I felt attracted in the same way. From my spot I could see the island of Es Vedra right in front of me. I spent the whole day there enjoying the place, and that way really got a lot out of the energy of the island and the book.
Walking back into town, I met a Czech family, and they bought me a coffee at a local coffee shop. I caught the boat back with them, chatting the whole time with really interesting new people. It was just a fantastic day.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Formentera
A weekend plan to get to the island of
Formentera was thwarted by the over excited wind. Saturday I bailed, because it was howling a
gale, but then on Sunday I thought I had a chance. Bus in to town, and while waiting for the
ferry, I met a couple of Italian girls who were waiting for the same boat. They convinced me to catch a ferry with them
to Playa d’en Bossa, and we spent the day there, hanging out on the beach and
chit-chatting.
I managed to grab my right toe in Ardha Baddha
Padma Paschimottanasana which was cool.
I haven’t done that for a while, and it’s the first time I’ve grabbed it
outside of a led class.
In other news, my shoulder is still up near
my ear. I still look like a pirate! Arrrrrrrrrrr!! :)
Inversions
Inversions are part of our practice. In primary we have Salamba Sarvangasana and
the Sirsasanas. Initially these are
exciting to do, but the soon become part of the practice. Adding to my inversions experience is that
this house has an inversion table. Wow
are those things fun!! I just lie back,
and let the table do the rest. I can
feel my back opening up as I lie there.
One thing that doesn’t happen when I’m on
the table, is that I don’t get the rush of blood to the head that I get when I
try handstands. Whenever I try to throw
down a few handstands, I get a screaming rush of blood to the head, but it
doesn’t happen on the table, even though I end up in the same positions…
strange.
In other news, I have my lotus back. Well it’s partly back. I can get back into it, but can’t get the
arms through the legs yet. That’ll be
the next thing to come back, I’m sure.
More Roofy Madness
It’s been windy up on the roof, and I think
my neighbours are getting worried. It’s
fair to say that yoga isn’t big here in the countryside, and all my salutes to
the sun might be freaking them out. I
think they probably believe that I’m up there worshipping some deranged god or
something. Hee hee hee. Am I? I may well be. Are we praying when we do yoga? I know Guruji said “you do yoga, you think
god” but he was a devout man, and from a different time.
Perhaps we are praying to ourselves up
there. We are certainly devoting the
time we spend practicing to ourselves.
We are quietly working on our minds, and our bodies. To suggest it is praying isn’t far from the
truth.
Again I got Bujapidasana. Again I stayed up for a few seconds. Part of it is wrist flexibility. Because I can’t make that ninety degree angle
yet between my forearms and palms, it’s hard to stay up. I’m sure with a few more weeks of getting up
into Bujapidasana, I’ll get some extra flexibility that’ll help me out there.
The Shoulder
Waking up the day after kayaking, and my
left shoulder is hugging my ear!!
I have no idea how this happened, but I
look like a pirate! Arrrrrr! I don’t know how long it’s going to take to
go back down to where it’s supposed to be, but hopefully soon.
I’m doing yoga on the roof now! It’s yoga with a view! I can see the countryside around me, and all
the way to the town of Sant Antoni. I also
managed my first ever Bujapidasana!
Wow. It’s been so long that I’ve
wanted that pose. I managed it for about
three seconds before falling back down. In actual fact, getting Bujapidasana is just
technique, not an increase in strength or anything like that. All I needed to do was bring my legs into the
middle and cross my ankles. Then there
was enough space for me to stay up on my palms.
My legs still aren’t up near my shoulders like they should be, but that’s
going to take some further hip opening first.
Kayaking
The next few posts are again a collection that I haven't managed to put up due to my lack of internet access. I have five to post this time.
Today I went kayaking near the island of Es
Vedra. It’s a fantastic rock that juts
out of the ocean near here. It looks
like the iron islands from Game of Thrones. We went on a sunset cruise, and although the
sunset had a few clouds in it, it was beautiful all the same.
The water was crystal clear. The rocks underneath were beautiful too, but
out of reach with the jellyfish populations as they are. The water was freezing!
More yoga in the bedroom, same as before, a
little stiff in the hips, but still able to do most things. I’d love to get my lotus back, but we can’t
rush these things.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
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