First backbends (in a while) in the New, Osaka Home Shala

First look at the new Osaka home shala in action.

Thank you to Abi for the mini clip on wide angle lens for my mobile

Looks like I could do with Kristina or Niko to take that right shoulder down and in a little here

I was asked if the video below was full speed, yep, all of these are. I tend to breathe relatively slowly and employ kumbhaka (breath retention) following Krishnamacharya's instructions in Yoga Makaranda (1938)

My dear friend, and fellow blogger, Michelle (Ashtangi Angel) is doing a workshop on overcoming fear in practice, after seeing the preview for the flyer I didn't feel I could hold off revisiting backbends any longer (my back's been playing up ever since moving house, all those boxes of books).

8 November at 13:00–16:00 in UTC

First drop backs in the new shala

Can't decide if I'm amused or horrified to see I've slipped back into lifting heels while dropping back and turning my feet right out to come back up, had got rid of both those habits. Notice I don't say 'bad' habits, lifting the heels is encouraged in Iyengar yoga I believe and Sharath, I seem to remember, turns his feet out as much if not more than I do here, or used to.

I was practicing 2nd at Kristina's in Crete but in pain for pretty much the full 2 months I was there. Practice didn't seem to make the back pain any worse, in fact I'd feel better afterwards until the getting up the following morning at least. I've only practiced Ashtanga a handful of times since I left Rethymno at the end of August. One of those times was a delightful Primary next to Michelle of the "Overcoming fear in Ashtanga" workshop above.

this post is also a chance to try out the new phone, a slinky Nexus 5 (almost impossible to use my old Samsung here in Japan), and also to see how well uploading and blogging in general is here in Osaka on our brand spanking new mobile router. Have to say the mobile router is impressive, I'd had my doubts but a VERY quick upload.

Kapo is coming back, felt comfortable enough but nowhere near as deep as it was (See picture at top of the blog, ankles will come back sooner or later but they felt a long way off this morning). It seemed to be going so well as I was dropping back (first picture) but hands seemed to drift out and I didn't feel inclined to push it and walk in....hmmmm, perhaps I should pop back to the UK a week earlier to catch Michelle's workshop am I fearing or a healthy dose of common sense, can be tricky to tell the difference.

And here's the video, nice camera on the phone, the light wasn't great in the downstairs shala but came out pretty well.

And finally a slow Sury Namaskar's with short kumbhakas to show off a different angle of the shala.

Nice to practice Ashtanga downstairs. Since I arrived in Japan I've been looking more carefully at Sri Sribhashyam book Emergence of Yoga, going through each of the general practices( In the upstairs shala) in the order they're presented ( there are 58 examples of general practice plus the life saving practices featured in the Documentary about Sri Sribhashyam's father Krishnamacharya , Breath of Gods, as well as a number of pranayama practices and insights into Krishnamacharya's own practice). I've been exploring the book over the last year but but it's interesting to go through it practice by practice and see how Sri Sribhashyam introduces Kumbhaka's, a focus on different vital points and longer stays as well as more challenging asana. The structure reminds me of the guidelines to practice presented by Ramaswami. Ramswami encourages us to learn the long sequences presented in his book The Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga to gain insights into the relationship between asana but once we've become familiar with the sequence, the goal is to choose appropriate asana each day along with those key asana we are encouraged to practice each day. Sri Sribhashyam's Emergence to Yoga feels a little like applied Vinyasa Krama, how one might go about teaching and practicing Vinyasa Krama with the added inclusion of the focus on vital points not mention by Ramaswami. There are differences but they seem outweighed by the similarities.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois was on to something with his 1% theory 109% practice, it's one thing reading these books but they only really seem to make sense when we put them into practice. It was the same with Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda, you need to practice his approach to asana day in day out for a year or so at least and even then your only getting a glimmer of an understanding. We know this from our practice of Ashtanga of course. I remember seeing an add for a shala where it said you should try Ashtanga for ten years before deciding whether it's for you or not, was amused at the time, could imagine going up to the desk and asking for my nine years of shala fee's back with a "nope not for me" . But they have a point, I've been practicing Ashtanga for seven years now and shudder a little when I look back on old posts just as I will another seven years from now looking at the nonsense I write now.

MY REVIEW HERE http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/04/emergence-of-yoga-by-krishnamacharyas.html

The upstairs home shala

******

Curious where I choose to practice ashtanga and where Vinyasa Krama, what's that all about.

Ashtanga shala

Vinyasa Krama Shala

One final thought that

This came to me yesterday and I can't get out of my head at the moment...

Surrender is perhaps the least passive of acts, why am I so slow to catch on, it's active, a choice, an act of trust, an offering (up).

And a handful of photo's I've shared on fb this week.