Day 3 Go Deeper

For my theme for this class I chose my shoulders, but I actually tried to concentrate on the whole neck-shoulder area. I'm not sure if it's because the class is really intense, or because I was simply paying more attention, but I noticed how much tension I put on my neck and shoulders. It will take a lot of work till I really learn to relax them. The good thing is that Ana always reminds you even in the most intense asanas to relax the neck and pull the shoulders down the ribs.

So, the class begins with Kapalabhati done in Shoelace pose. It's a little difficult to do shoelace at the begining without first warming up, but it feels also good to release the hips. I have done Kapalabhati before watching the Maha Sadhana I video from Dharma Mittra, so it wasn't something new. Then there were of course some abdominals, and boy did they make me sweat! But again it feels good, because I feel how they became more accessible after each time I do them. There was of course Dolphin, Agni Sara and a lot of lunges to open the front side of the hips and to prepare for backbends (the focus of this class). I really have to work on opening the front of my hips, and I feel that it will also help my right knee, which sometimes feels uncomfortable in Bridge or in lunges and dancer as a back leg. From the arm balances we did Bakasana, which I can happily hold for several seconds. Then follows Elephant trunk, which I do only on the stage 1. Ana uses horse stance with back traction to lenghten the back after all the lunges, cobras and dancer, and it feels very good. I did the beginner versions of the most advanced back bends - Bridge instead of Scorpion and Wheel instead of Scorpion Forearm balance. On the cobra push-ups with a roll my hands were already tired, but it still releases nicely the lower back. Then you go again with abdominals :-), again with the purpose of releasing the lower back. After some twist comes the long awaited Savasana. As they say, Ana is really very good at sequencing, and I really like listening to her voice and paying attention as she says. But I splitted the 2 hours and took a pause in between the 2 CDs, not because it was too intense, but because I started getting distracted *blush*. I also sometimes lost my ujjayi and was struggling to keep breathing at all (which shouldn't happen), but this only means I still have a lot to work on. :-)