Bali again 2011

Well I've been trying for ages to work out whether I can go to Dena Kingsberg's Bali workshop again this year at the beginning of October ... Possible timing conflicts with an Australian visit by my teacher, Maharaji. I still have no idea - the proposed September dates for that haven't even been sent in as far as I know! And no idea of which dates in September ?!?! Whatever, I absolutely must see him this year - that is my first priority!

However, I know that last year Dena's whole workshop got 'sold out' at some point so I've decided to go ahead and pay a non-refundable deposit for the Bali workshop, hoping that I'll be able to get to Bali too. I was quite scared to actually do that, but now that I have I'm really glad! I'm only going (or hoping to go!) for the first week, but it should be wonderful.

My practice is slowly getting back together after the short enforced layoff! Went to my friend Helen's on Sunday morning and we did our practice on her back deck amongst much tropical foliage! One of these days I'll remember to take a photo. Today I did a short lunchtime practice at the gym at Uni, and tomorrow it's back to class.

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Full moon and stuff

This morning I was driving to where I catch the inter-campus bus in to work - around 6.15am, and a big, beautifully full moon was still quite high in the sky ... Such a glorious sight - didn't have my camera with me but even if I did, I know you (well, me anyway!) just can't take a photo that recreates that sort of vista! The moon always looks so much smaller in a photo than it does with real eyes ... :)

I don't usually pay too much attention to moon days (bad girl!) but anyway, having just had a minor op to remove a mole from my arm, I've been told I can do any 'strenuous exercise' for 2 weeks?!?!!! We'll see - I'm going to leave it till my arm feels OK (at least the weekend), and then very slowly and carefully feel my way back into my practice! Hopefully I can do a heavily modified practice - leaving out anything that puts any weight or strain on my left arm ...

The cooler weather is finally arriving here. Been putting a little electric heater on first thing in the morning - and this weekend I'll get some wood into the house (using one arm?!!) and get the combustion stove going, or at least ready to go!

Spent a couple of days last week on a course - learning HTML5 and CSS3. It was great - there is so much more you/we can do nowadays. Can't wait for the opportunity to put some of it into practice ...

Holidays and 'the' wedding

A pink waterlily in my pool turned pond! This is the waterlily that I got a couple of weeks before the 'great Brisbane flood', during which the garden nursery it came from went 3m under water!! I tell it I saved its life - I may have said this somewhere before on this blog, but I don't think I've uploaded a picture of the waterlily before ...

It's been a while ... had a pretty busy Easter break, with my mother visiting. Started off with a big lunch party to cook and prepare for (with her help!) and then a nice few days following spent going to galleries, the movies (Potiche), and family lunches ... Have to say I didn't manage to do much yoga, but I guess it's OK to have a few days' break occasionally.  Doesn't seem to have done me any lasting damage <grin>

This is another long weekend here in Queensland - I've been having a nice lazy one, but have managed to do a few things, including assemble and coat/stain the new outdoor wooden table I got for my birthday (thanks Mum!). It looks really nice! Later this afternoon (Monday) I'm going to my friend Helen's ... 3 of us are  going to do our various yoga practices (me Ashtanga, the other two following one of Helen's yoga DVDs), and then relax with a glass of wine. Sounds like a really nice way to wind up the long weekend.

And I'm not going to be precious - of course I did watch quite a lot of "the wedding" on Friday night ... Enjoyed all the 'bonhomie' (sp?!) of everyone in the streets, and all that pomp & ceremony. Brought back memories of Charles and Diana's wedding. My then partner and I were arriving back from a trip to Miami (to see Maharaji). I remember driving back from Gatwick on a bus through these incredibly empty streets - everyone was either in the centre of London, or watching it on TV. It was quite eerie ... :)

Practice Spaces

It's quite surprising but somehow without me noticing it, I seem to have acquired a 5 or 6 day a week yoga practice! As opposed to a 3, occasionally 4 day practice only a few months ago. And all this under the quite difficult circumstances of my current working week - ie. being out of the house for over 11 hours a day.

Of course, this isn't 5 or 6 full practices. It's two 2-hour classes, and the rest are short half-hour lunchtime practices plus a vinyasa class I often take on Fridays (not sure if that really counts, but ...!) and frequently a Sunday morning practice with a friend ... But whatever - I am really pleased to discover this has happened without any discernible struggle or effort.

I thought about this after I read this post from kalbe on her A Breathing Practice blog. She also has to leave for work really early - too early to do a morning practice. So she rented some cheap office space in an old building near her office and turned it into her own personal practice studio ! I think she works in a small American town, as opposed to a city where this would just not be possible, but I am totally amazed at her dedication!!

Not sure that I'd be doing anything like that! I started off using empty offices at lunchtime (I've always been a mostly lunchtime practitioner). Then when I changed jobs and campuses, the best I could come up with was using my boss's office when she went to the uni gym at lunchtime. I also signed up for the gym in the hope that I might be able to use some space there to do yoga. At first it wasn't really possible (although there was the Friday lunchtime vinyasa class), but things have changed at the gym and now I can use a smaller staff gym to practice in. This means I don't have to hang around waiting to see if/when R goes to the gym, and can choose when to go etc.

Anyway, I think this has all helped my yoga practice develop ... which I'm very pleased about!

Friday morning yoga

I had Friday off as a flex day ... so I was able to go to the only morning class at my shala. It felt so nice to be at a class in the morning - I almost always practice at lunchtime, or go to evening classes. It was a lovely change. Well, probably just the fact of having a day off work, and being 'on holiday' fed into the happy feelings ... Whatever - I had a lovely day!

Had a bit of a chat with R my yoga teacher and have now got another 'project' to concentrate on. I really need to build up strength in my arms and shoulders. I still can't hold chataranga dandasana, my arms just collapse at a certain point. And until I have that arm/shoulder strength, I also won't be able to hold dhanurasana, or headstand. Which I really want to do!! I have been trying to build up it up, and am going to do a few additional things at home to strengthen those recalcitrant arms! I need to develop those strong swimmers' arms/shoulders ... :)

On Saturday afternoon I went to a video afternoon at Amaroo and heard about how Maharaji is wanting to come to Amaroo again this September. And how we can make it happen. Very nice and inspiring ...

Today (Sunday) a friend Helen came round and we did a led Ashtanga practice with my new DVD of Mark Darby. It was the first time I'd practiced with this DVD - I really like it. He reminds you so much to be with the breath. Highly recommended ... :)

I've also enjoyed being able to do a few things in the garden, as the weather finally seems to be cooling into an Autumn. It felt very nice. I haven't looked at the veggie garden though - I mean, I have and it's a total mess! But I haven't tried to do anything with it ... just stuck to smaller easier tasks to start off with!!

Great Weekend!

Had such a great long weekend down in Ocean Shores/Byron Bay region. My friend Vic and I walked on the beach, went swimming in the surf (all with a dog!), cooked dinner one night, and then went out to dinner with friends in Byron another night. We lazed around talking, reading the weekend newspapers, and generally having a great relaxing time.

And then on Sunday morning I got up early and drove to Byron to go to Dena's Sunday morning class. When I saw her I thanked her again for letting me come, and she said (smiling), you may regret it! The class that morning was led Primary, with full vinyasa, coming to samistithi between each of the seated poses. It was certainly full-on, and I came to really appreciate the one breath (or was it just an exhale?!) standing in samistithi before moving into sun salute and the next pose ...! As Dena was practicing along with us she wasn't giving 'individual' attention, but as well as counting she was constantly talking us through different aspects of each pose, which was great. Now if only I can remember more than a bit of that!!

Yoga Perceptions

It's funny ... this week has been a really bad one for yoga practice. Since my Saturday class I haven't managed to do any of my normal lunch-time practices, as the room I've been using wasn't 'available' (ie. the owner of the room had stopped going out at lunch!) So when I went to class last night (Wednesday) it was my first practice for 4 days, and I was expecting that my stamina at least, would be affected.

Somehow in these circumstances I kind of imagine a big sign hanging over me, saying 'she has obviously not been practicing properly'!! Ridiculous I know ... and let's not even get into why I should imagine that the teacher(s) are micro-managing me to the extent that this small 'lapse' would be obvious to them! (I'm not going to deny that, rightly or wrongly I do care what my teachers think about my practice in general!!)

And then out of the blue, I was just moving into Parsvottanasana when R came up to me and said "your poses have really been improving, and and in this one you should have a wider stance to bring it up to the same level as the others ... !"

I was floored! Not that I'm repeating this coz I think my practice is great or anything - god I still don't seem to be able to bind in MariC let alone D! But it just goes to show that what goes on in my head is not necessarily the 'true' picture, or what is actually happening ... !

Today I went to the uni gym and did a standing sequence practice there (followed by a few of the seated poses I really need to work on, specially before Sunday). I went with a workfriend, and she ended up wanting to do yoga too, and follow me! So I had to talk her through it a bit which is a bit strange - takes you away from the rhythm of following the breath. But it was good to do some semblance of daily practice again, and good to find a place where I can definitely practice - as long as I don't mind practicing in a room full of machines and people using them!!