London and pincha

Had a great weekend in London, catching up with friends, hanging out with my man and going to mysore classes, happy days :-)  Marc was going to come home this weekend but they wanted him to work on Sunday, so I'm going to go to go to London instead, which means I will be in London 3 weekends in a row, including last weekend.   When in London I go to a mysore class, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, to maximise my access to teachers.  So Thursday is now primary day and Friday is off.    This means I am getting 3 shala practices and 3 at home practices.  I like my at home practices as much as the shala ones a it gives me a chance to integrate what I've learnt.  My teacher only teaches weekdays, so I end up going to 3 different teachers.  I got lot of help with pincha which was challenging me at the weekend.  It was at home that it has started to come together though.  I realised that I was feeling under pressure to get up and not fall on anyone at the shala.   This pressure was entirely my own manifestation,  although I am sure the people near me were grateful I did not fall on them!!! :-)  So my mission for this weekend is not to do the perfect pincha mayurasana in the shala but just to chill and do whatever I can.

So  re pincha, what I learnt that has helped.  Keep head down while coming up (from my teacher) walk in as much as possible.  I am then doing some prep as outlined in kinos second series dvd, lifting one leg up at a time as far over as possible.  I realised I was telling people, I couldn't walk in far enough or lift the first leg up as far as much as I needed to in order to come up with control.  When I heard myself, I realised that this was pushing some kind of button in me and instead of saying I couldn't, it was time to find out how .  The best tip was from my ever supportive partner, who sat and watched some you tube videos with me.  Now my partner is not a yoga teacher or a yogi but he has a lot of martial arts experience and has an amazing understanding of body mechanics, he has taught me a lot.  He suggested I stopped trying to get up for a bit and break it down, lift the first leg up and then work on getting second leg off the ground.  Such a great idea, thanks Marc :)  Firstly it took the pressure off, and I stopped flailing and kicking like a donkey!! Secondly I stopped moving from my back foot and more from my centre.  Thirdly when I did this I started to get the pelvis over the central point and then I can balance and bring the leg fully up with control and balance.  So I still need practice and I've been getting lots, but I have a method and it's working which is great.