Yoga Practice Musings

Ever since I got lymphoma 2 years ago, had to spend time in hospital and had to give up yoga for 6 months, I have struggled to get my practice back to anywhere near what it was before.

I guess I can point to various reasons, or excuses! Like there've been quite a few times when I've got sick and haven't been able to practice for weeks at a time. Like I seem to have put on a bit of weight which is proving very hard to move off again, sigh! Like how I moved jobs this year which also meant moving campuses. A great new job and I'm very happy in it. But, apart from the extended amount of travel it's involved, at the old campus I had a great set-up to practice (by myself or with others) at lunchtime. That has been very much harder to organise here at St Lucia.

But, whatever the reason, my practice, and I guess my body, is very different to what it was B4! One of my hips has seized up and just won't 'open'! I have no hope of doing bakasana (OK, I probably only got that once before, but still!) And I'm even finding it hard to bind in Marichyasana A and B ... (hardly/never did in the other two so I won't be mentioning them!) And just general weakness, lack of flexibility issues ...

So anyway, when I went to class last weekend I was musing on this to myself (I felt it was a particularly weak practice on my part!) And then as I was leaving, this amazing thing happened. My teacher saw me going, stopped what he was doing and came over and told me he felt my practice was really moving ahead!! My mouth dropped open in utter surprise ... he carried on in this vein for a little while and then said goodbye and went back to helping someone!

There's obviously something else going on that I have no idea about! I guess I/we focus and stress on certain things but a 3rd party can stand back and see a completely different picture. I still don't quite know what he was talking about, but I do know he has inspired my practice this week, and let me feel that it's OK to be weak in areas that I was strong(er) in before. At least for the moment!!

Great news on health front!

Had my 12-monthly CT scan today and it came back clear! More details are on my Lymphoma blog.

I am very happy this evening!!!

Holidays ...

My Colourful Washing line! I wear lots of colourful clothes - and when I hang things out on the washing line I love the way they look! I even make sure they look good on the line - try not to hang two things the same colour next to each other! All for my own benefit of course, but ... :)

That was down in Bowral actually, my Mum's house. I'm back home now after spending a few days down there. Lots of eating (as if I needed that!), good wine, family and good books (among other things)! Not a huge amount of yoga - it is very hard to get warm/flexible enough down there in winter! - but some ...

Now I'm sitting in front of the fire at home, with Jedda curled up in a ball beside me. Very cosy! Tomorrow I must get onto a website for an ex-workmate, which she's already paid me for. And then back to work on Monday ...

an unwanted bath

an unwanted bath
Originally uploaded by tlong

My Google homepage has (among other things) a list of photos of cats recently uploaded to Flickr. Just look at this one - I couldn't resist posting it here. Never seen a cat and a rat together like that!

And talking of cats (and cat-owners) - guess who was climbing up a ladder in the middle of the night trying to entice a very naughty pussycat down from a tree! Yes, it was me!! Jedda pussycat (or kittycat as she's not 9 months old yet) only goes outside on the weekends, and never at nights. But I had to go out to visit a website client and then onto yoga at about 2pm yesterday and of course she was nowhere to be seen. And when I got home around 6.45pm, ditto! I kept calling her, to no avail.

Finally at about 10pm when I went onto the back verandah to call her yet again I heard pathetic squeakiing (she's good at that!) in the distance, and eventually after much wandering through the undergrowth with a torch, I realised she was above my head and spotted her! But would she come down? No, of course not! I brought a ladder around and climbed up a bit (only halfway) but it was never going to be high enough and she wasn't going anywhere. I gave up for a while and when I came back again she had of course gotten herself down quite happily and was still 'busy' outside! Very naughty pussycat!!

This post is full of cat-stuff - in case anyone cared, I managed to fix my MySQL issues, upload the CMS website, fix a few email problems and my client is happy! And I have ordered a new Macbook Pro - Yesss!!

(And of course, yoga was wonderful, as always!)

mySQL hell!

Spent most of the weekend fighting with MySQL and phpMyAdmin! They have won so far! I'm trying to do something very basic and obviously missing something, but it's pretty frustrating! All I want to do is move a CMS-MS (that's CMS Made Simple!) website I've been developing for a client from the test area on my website, to the area on the same host where I host websites. And can I do it ... ?!?!!! No!! I have moved the files of course, but it's the database that I'm having problems with. And restrictions with usernames ... sigh! I'm sure when I finally manage to do this it'll all seem really easy, but right now it doesn't! This is the first CMS site I've done, so I guess there's bound to be a bit of a learning curve - just wish it'd straighten out now!

Did manage to escape this mental turmoil and go to yoga class on Saturday afternoon ... which was really nice! I'm still struggling to find space in my day / workspace to practice during the week. But I managed to practice in the gym last week, which although somewhat odd, was OK! There I was squished in between various gym machines and people lifting weights ... :) I've asked around at my workplace and the consensus is that it's most unlikely there are any empty offices that I can use, so this is the best alternative I can come up with!

I passed!

I've been putting off posting. This blog is part of ashtangi.net, and this week (last Sunday) the Guruji of Ashtanga Yoga passed away.

I've kind of been at an impasse, not quite knowing what to say about it all but feeling that I needed to. I feel a bit on the edge/side of the Ashtanga community. I never had the opportunity to study with him - the one time he came to Australia and I was signed up to attend his classes I came down with a bad case of Giardia and had to cancel.

But, although I can't say I'm a very 'good' practitioner, Ashtanga Yoga has been a big part of my life for about 9 years. Since I started practicing it I've learnt and developed so much, and have had no desire to do any other kind of yoga - ashtanga just 'got me'! So I'm really grateful to Pattabhi Jois for teaching this practice to Westerners, and bringing it to the West. And I feel confident he can rest in peace, knowing he's left it in safe hands with his grandson Sharath having pretty much taken over in the past couple of years.

...

Now I've said that, I can go back to my previous post, and the title of this one! Yes, I did it! I took the ITIL exam again on Tuesday and I passed! Got 77% ... I was so thrilled and excited - it meant much more than if I'd passed the original exam! Probably partly because of the extra effort I had to put into studying all the concepts/theories/terminology again and somehow fixing it all in my head! I spent most of the weekend doing that, plus reading the manuals on the bus to and from work each day for the previous week! What a relief all of that's over!!

Now I've got a peaceful weekend ahead of me - and I'll dedicate my yoga practice this weekend to the memory of Guruji Pattabhi Jois.

ITIL certification course

Last week was exhausting! It was a short week - the Monday had been a public holiday. But Wednesday to Friday I was on a 3-day course - ITIL Foundation certification. Basically this is all about processes that are (or should be) used within the IT industry, and in my new department (ITS) they like all staff to get certification. It's all theory and really hard to cram into your head! I was completely wiped out by it. We had an official exam on the Friday afternoon ... We'd done 2 trials (previous exam papers) and I passed both of them. But I failed the official one! I was so upset on Friday evening. I knew it was stupid but I'd put an awful lot of effort into it, and the fact that I'd passed the two trial ones easily - it was infuriating! I've decided I'm going to have to do the exam again - and if/when I pass, then I can let it all drop out of my mind and probably won't remember much of it at all.

Sigh ... I don't know why I've got so wound up about this - everyone at work dreads this course and there was lots of eye-rolling when I said I was going to it. I guess I'm not actually used to failing(!), and having put so much effort into trying to understand the concepts, and learn which processes went with which service - failing really got to me! I had to make a big effort not to have it cloud my whole weekend - ridiculous I know!

Feeling better now - it's Sunday afternoon and I've just been planting some potatoes in the veggie garden I dug over a week or two ago. I went to yoga yesterday afternoon - bit of a slog coz I was feeling weak and stiff, but I'm very glad I went (as usual!) Tomorrow morning bright and early (6am) I'm off to the hospital to have an IV-IG infusion. I need to get a CT scan organisied for the next month or so. If I don't catch my doctor (when he comes up to the ward to do his rounds) then I'll have to make an appointment to see him and get the forms. This (CT scan) is my yearly check-up ... :) Feeling fine about it now but I know I won't be sleeping too well the night or two beforehand. Ah well - cross that bridge when I come to it!