Practicin' with the Peeps

Mysore this morning, but without Volleyball Guy. He's doing some kind of training thing, so didn't make an appearance. The diehards, though, were all there: Sanskrit Scholar, British Director, Chanting Man and Returning Guy. We all traded down dog adjustments at the beginning, and then Sanskrit Scholar and Chanting Man offered a few adjustments to the rest of us as we went along.

It was an interesting hybrid of self-practice and Mysore. Less rigorous than when Volleyball Guy is there, nice and warm because of the group, and yet more of the internal quality of self-practice. Humans really are social creatures--I almost said "herd animals"--we sure do like to do things together. So this morning was fun, we laughed a good bit--a few times it reminded me of when the adults would be off somewhere else and the kids would play.

When I started off, I decided that when I got to Marichy D I'd use a strap for the bind, like I did yesterday at home. But once I got there, I decided to save the strap trick for home practice--it can be a little treat I save just for when I'm practicing on my own.

As reported yesterday, the bakasana-to-chaturanga transition after utkatasana is coming along well. It was actually fun to do today. I also had much better balance in eka pada bakasana after virabhadrasana B. It's taken me quite a while to realize that the arms are at more of an angle when you set up for EKB than when you set up for plain old bakasana. I kept trying to hold my arms straight and just tuck my right knee into my armpit and balance from there--but apparently physical reality just doesn't work that way. Happy I paid a bit of attention to how Sanskrit Scholar did that pose last week. Funny how poses can just seem impossible when you do them the wrong way ;-)