Day 3 - 8: Back to Mysore, Pure Yoga

27 Nov - 2 Dec

This week had been a good start, returning back to mysore practice with my teacher at a studio.

With some self-depreciating humor, I ever thought that my first reply would be, "Dear teacher, it took me 6 months to come to the studio."

Well, fortunately I didn't say that.

Of course, the arrangement had cost me $12 per day Grabhitch to Pure Asia Square, which I was finally willing to take because I had been late almost every single day for the last 2 weeks, spending $12 - $20 a day on grab, uber or taxi expenses -- very bad financial habits, I know - I didn't spend much or wine and dine lately, which would have cost me the same if not more, so I'm good with that.

It was worth it, asides battling the Z monster on way to my office after practice; I would doze off several times at work without even realizing. My supervisor must never learn about this. I brought a book to read but decided after the second day that it was wiser for me to get some shut eye instead.

Honestly, I don't know how people holding full-time day jobs cope with a daily 5 or 6 day Ashtanga mysore practice. I guess the only thing is to turn in earlier, which I had tried to, but I manage with about 5.5 hrs of rest a day nowadays.

I saw some familiar faces on the first day of practice. Regular, long time students of my teacher. There were some ladies whom I had met before and knew, there was a indian lad too that I remembered; he was practicing at the same spot as he did months ago. They were all practicing intermediate series. For me, I had only hoped to return to the physical and energetic condition that I was in before I stopped practicing at the studio, 6 - 7 months ago, stretching back to the Shiva days at Bugis.

My energy level was fine on the first practice. Strength was obviously lost. I could not do the transitions in utkatasana and virabhadrasana as I had in the past. Marichyasana D was no problem for me. I binded without assistance on all days, except one 1 or 2 occasions where I got some help to keep my elbow from sliding off the knee. Postures like triang mukha eka pada paschimottanasana and Marichysasana A were still my nemesis postures. I can't seem to develop good internal rotation of the thighs in these postures, tilting off to one side most of the time, aka. broken fence posture. I also had trouble grounding with my feet when standing up from dropbacks on a few days. I knew I needed more time and consistency to get to the point where I can work on newer things.

Day 2. When one of the female assistants spotted me for the last 3 backbends (I refer them to "chuck millers"), she could not support me in the last inch of coming back up which left me diving back into the sweat-laden mat ground that resonated a loud, dull and uninspiring "thud". My teacher immediately turned over and questioned in a stern voice, "what's going on here?!" He was just next to my mat, where I immediately apologized to my spotter and assured, "don't worry, I'm OK!" for causing my spotter the unwelcomed shock and embarrassment. I was literally, unhurt. LOL.

I wasn't not quite used to her assistance but she gave me a new tip to work on for opening the upper back by placing palms to the forehead first thing at the inhalation sequence of the drop back.

Across the next few days, I was doing okay but got out of gas in my jump through and backs. It was a sign that my body needs time to get stronger. After all, the frequency of my practice had decreased to 1 or 2 times a week since then and I had put on some weight. It takes time and I learned well to stop hating myself over such things, as compared to the younger, immature days in my yoga journey.

One thing I noticed about the class culture is more students rendering assistance and adjustments to each other. I think this trend had only started this year. I'm still getting used to this, as I got advice and adjustments out of kindness and compassion, albeit different from what I had received from my teacher-- more points of consideration and experimentation.

I'm taking a break today. It's been a long. long while since I practiced 4 straight days in the morning at 645am with a full work days.

For tomorrow, I should be clocking in a self-practice Sunday, making the total day of practice 5 out of 7 days.