Post Bali wrap-up

Back home now after a truly wonderful few days in Bali. My experiences last time (of being sick) had somewhat coloured my memory of Bali, and all those stupid worries I had about whether I was healthy enough to go and take on the intensities of a yoga workshop just made me scared to commit. I knew inside I was being pathetic (!) and, oh I am so glad I went. Bali is just a magical place. The people are so uncomplicated and happy. The way ceremony and their religion intertwines throughout their daily lives every day is just amazing ...

But - despite all of the beauties of Bali, this trip really was all about the yoga for me. Dena is such a wonderful teacher - the way she is just really clicks with me. (I think I've said it before, but she so reminds me of my favourite friend, Wendi!!) Another thing to look forward to when I move down to Ocean Shores is that she will be my yoga teacher down there ...

Anyway - I will have had 3 days at home before I go back to work tomorrow ... when I guess the normal day-to-day stuff will come back in and take over more of my consciousness - sadly! Going to a yoga class this evening ... it was a choice between choir practice (for the Messiah) and yoga, and I'm afraid yoga wins out over choir!!

Yoga in Bali - happy times

It's now the middle of the 6-day workshop with Dena ... Well actually it's past that - just 2 more practices to go. And it's been such a lovely experience ... So unlike last time I was here (2 years ago) when I was sick the whole time and could only manage to struggle to the yoga practices and spent most of the rest of the day in my room feeling sorry for myself!!

Yes I've had to be careful, and I still only have a pretty restricted practice, but I feel I have taken on so much this time round. On the asana side, what Dena has been (what word to use? Teaching? Demonstrating? Encouraging? Yes, that's the best maybe) encouraging has manifested in a complete overhaul of how I do the sun salutes. They were a pretty sorry sight before! Two of the things she has talked about a lot is "conscious samistithi" and (her analogy) making the lazy players in the team do the work. In other words, not relying on the bits that are already flexible to do all the work. Specifically in this case, forcing my thoracic spine in the upward dog bit of the sun salutes and vinyasas to do some bending rather than my lower back. And the 'conscious stamistithi' (which I'm not going to elaborate on here - would take too long! Suffice to say - earth, stretch, protect!) can be carried into so many poses, and in this case chataranga - or my attempt at it!

So, even though I still can't do chataranga properly, and the backbend in my upward dog is pretty much invisible to the naked eye (!) I am putting the elements of sun salutes together a whole lot better. Dena did say the difference between this time and last was pretty noticeable!!

Apart from that, among many other topics, she talked about yoga teachers, giving respect to the teachers who do the 'hard work' with their students in their daily practice, and not to get seduced by the glamour of 'workshop teachers' who had a few good tricks and stories for 5-6 days and then were off elsewhere!!

We have been singing some lovely chants each day - one which really resonated with me had the words 'sat chit ananda' in one line. Premies will know what I mean. We used to use that as a greeting many many years ago!

Internet is hit and miss here. All the cafes and restaurants have free wifi, but the wifi at the hotel is confined to the restaurant and reception areas. And this evening it was pretty much non-existent! So I'll have to post this at breakfast tomorrow morning! I'll upload some photos to the blog soon, but have been adding some to Facebook anyway!

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Location:Ubud, Bali

Almost there ...

Have been keeping it very quiet (blog-wise) but I have paid everything for the Bali trip, and it's now just 2 days till I fly off!

My practice is definitely getting stronger - managed to get through a led series of sun salutes at last weekend's class which always has more than 5 of each! But for a reality check - I am only now just about able to grab a finger in Marichyasana A for goodness sake! I guess that's what 12-14 months away from yoga does for you, but ... ! In fact, I'm not even really supposed to be doing that - Richard hasn't given me that pose back! But I am practicing certain missing poses 'on the side' so I can do a more straightforward practice in Bali.

Today's my last day at work. Tomorrow (my normal day off) I will be supervising the arrival of a large (4,000 gallon) water tank to replace one that rusted away ... Luckily there are going to be 4-5 people to do the 'manhandling' of it! It will have to be rolled part of the way as after that water tank was originally installed, a row of golden cane palms was planted in front of it. They have gotten huge! I've had a couple removed and the others thinned out. So there should be just enough room to roll the tank between the edge of the house and the palms!! Fun ... must remember to take a photo!

Tempting fate

I was tempting fate when I made my last post about all the 'progress'! I think it was actually the next day that I suddenly developed some kind of muscle strain in my back! In fact it is/was remarkably similar to what I had a year ago ... My osteopath tells me that it's muscles that attach to my diaphragm and the strain/whatever is caused by coughing!!! If only I could stop!!!

Again I am finding myself unable to do anything involving a forward bend ... not so much the going down as the coming back up - my back can feel really unsupported (and painful!) But it's worst at night. I've once again established a close relationship with Voltaran - after only a few weeks away from it!!!

So, I don't know how many times I've said/done this over the last few weeks - but I will make a final decision on going to Bali after I see my osteopath again this evening. I'm pretty sure I'm still going to go. I just don't know how I'll manage sun salutes etc etc. What a pain!!

I wasn't able to practice on the weekend - had visitors, but yesterday I tried again. Sun Salutes were difficult - I ended up have to kind of 'creep down' onto my hands & knees to get to the floor, and then on with the sun salute. (Only tried one!) I did manage to do padangusthasana although coming back up from it was difficult. The Prasaritas weren't so difficult - maybe the wide-angled stance helps ... Maybe when I do my lunchtime practice in the uni gym today things will have got a bit better!

Progress

Things are ticking over ... my shoulder injury is largely fixed (fingers crossed!) and I am back to doing 'normal' sun salutes and vinyasas. The only weight-bearing pose that still gives my shoulder a hint of a twinge is purvottanasana, so I'm leaving that out for the moment.

Mind you - I'm only talking about the effects of the shoulder injury (bursitis) being largely 'fixed'. The year or so of no yoga still shows in my practice (and what my teacher will let me do) ... Because it's only 3-4 weeks till the Bali workshop I decided to take things into my own hands and start practicing poses at home that officially I haven't been given back yet. Really, just in an attempt to be able to practice all (or most) poses up to Navasana while I'm at the workshop, which isn't a huge practice anyway ... I expect my teacher probably has an idea I'm doing this ... :)

Things are moving along on the home renovation front! Swimming pool/pond is gone, replaced by a lovely big deck area. New water tank should be delivered just before I leave for Bali. Just a few more tidying up type things to do and then I guess I'll have to get the real estate agents in ... (Scarey!!)

Melbourne trip photos

Looking out through the Art Gallery front entrance - and that's not actually rain on the glass doors, but a permanent water feature. Seems kind of appropriate for Melbourne!


Trompe d'oeuille at the Monet exhibition


Breakfast at a Melbourne coffee shop

Oh - and I did go to the Blackboard conference too - but the photos from that are either boring conference slides, or embarrasing conference dinner ones, neither of which will appear here!!

Bali workshop booked!

Yeay - I gathered my courage and booked my flight to Bali for Dena's workshop in October! I still don't know what shape my practice will be in by then - don't even know if I'll be able to do normal sun salutes but really hope I will have got over most of the shoulder problems by then!

It's funny - I was so scared to commit, but now that I have I'm really looking forward to it - duh!! I realised/was reminded that you can't live your life worrying about things that might or might not happen ... just have to step forward and 'carpe diem' ... it's the only one we've got!!

Off to Melbourne next week for the Blackboard conference (LMS software I am involved with at work). Will be catching up with some Melbourne friends while I'm down there which should be nice - also hoping to do a bit of shopping on the day before the conference <grin>.