Journey into Second Series- Nadi Shodhana

-photo of Erin Carey from the Zany Umbrella Circus: hanumanasana while suspended in red ribbon

Today was a first- I practiced 2nd Series from David Swenson's book. For some time I have hesitated. Traditionally in Mysore you should be able to bind in Marichyasana D, Supta Kurmasana, and be able to stand up from a backbend to move on to 2nd series. According to Swenson's book however, he advises that if you can practice 1st series in its entirety with full breath, making appropriate modifications for your body, then you may be ready to move on. I can't bind in Mari D or Supta Kurmasana, but I can stand up from a backbend and practice 1st series in its entirety with focus and breath. Further, when I only practice 1st series, I miss deeper backbends.

1 week later: I've ordered Kino Macgregor's 2nd Series DVD. The first time I practiced 2nd series from DS's book, I thought you had to adjust your hand positions in headstand while staying up the whole time. The 2nd time I read the instructions (and fancy that being useful) and realized that it is permissible to come down between the variations. Much better. The lotus on my left/hurt knee side is slowly slowly improving. Some poses are impossible right now (2 feet behind the head), so mostly I work on getting one foot behind the head. It's not quite there but I can feel the possibility.

Sunday (today)- first time practicing with Kino MacGregor's 2nd series DVD. Some things are much clearer, especially the transitions, but I can see years of work here. Not that primary isn't years of work either! Kino stops the standing pose sequence earlier than Swenson indicates in his book. Those tittibasana variations are completely insane! I need to figure out how to schedule my week. If I practice six days a week, Saturdays off, how often do i do Primary versus 2nd series? Perhaps I'll start doing 2nd series once a week for now, on Sundays. I can't realistically do a full practice every single day, some days get cut short, but I always do something. And sometimes I like to play with PranaVayu (another style) and tinker with my own sequences, but I can do that in the afternoons. For now I'm experimenting with ashtanga 6 days a week, from now until the David Garrigues workshop at the end of the year. Then I'll reevaluate and see how I feel and where all this is going.

Rebuild/Renew: Teacher Training with David Swenson and Shelley Washington

In July of 2011 I went to Burlington, Vermont for a week of teacher training with David Swenson and Shelley Washington. During that week, our class was taught the physical adjustments for every pose in the primary series of Ashtanga yoga, as well as timing and breath counts. I was fortunate to go with my teacher, Sue Pentland from New England Yoga. We worked together the last two days, teaching and assisting each other while getting help and advice from David and Shelley. I was already familiar with David Swenson’s down to earth expertise and humor from a prior workshop. His wife and partner Shelley Washington was a welcome surprise, bringing a dancer’s view of the practice and often providing insights into how one pose prepares the body for another.

The mysore classes at YogaVermont were enlightening as well, and if you’re ever in Burlington, do try to get a class with Kathy McNames or Scott York. Kathy’s assists were deep and thoughtful, and her advice to me will resonate for a long time. She watched me trying to get my feet at hip width for a dropback, and she told me that when you’re washing dishes, you just wash the dishes. You don’t have to keep trying really hard to get the dishes cleaner. David Swenson gave related advice, that I also failed to truly hear in time. He said that ashtanga yoga is a tool, like a knife. You can use it as a tool, or you can use it as a weapon. Through no fault of theirs, I over-practiced, doing mysore classes at YogaVermont everyday, which I should have foregone by the end of the week as our training involved more and more practice. I wanted to learn a bit of 2nd series, so I went to a thursday night mixed primary/2nd series class, which felt great and probably would have been fine if I didn't also go to mysore class on friday morning, followed by a day of teaching, assisting, and practicing about 2/3 of primary series. By Saturday my left knee, already predisposed to delicacy from running on pavement with my dog this summer, was no longer interested in lotus. I got through the weekend okay, breathing and modifying as necesssary, but when I got home everything tightened up. I took a break from practicing (and oh how I hate that), but now that I'm back, recovery is slow. It's like I'm new. In many ways I am new, I am renewed, my entire chauturanga/vinyasa has been analyzed and improved, and I have to solidify and reinforce new habits of breath and movement. But when even janu sirsasana makes my knee squeal, it's hard to maintain the internal focus to breathe through a seated sequence with so many modifications.

The goal now is to take it slow and rebuild from the ground up. Acknowledge that my own ego/stubbornness has brought me to this place, and thoroughly learn this lesson. Also acknowledge the gift, this must be what most people feel like when they come to this practice, this ashtanga practice, for the first time or the first year or longer. In the long run, this will make me a better teacher. Inhale head up, exhale fold. It's really quite simple. Just wash the dishes, they are clean enough.