dusting the cobwebs away

Here is a bit of a practice update.

Kapotasana- last time I blogged about this, I was cutting out the additional prep that had snuck into home practice. I was doing 3 kapo hang backs, 3 kapo B's, then 3 kapo A and B standard.  Blimey!  That was mental and physical torture, it also disrupted the flow of my practice.  I gradually cut out the prep and had cut it out completely by March.  Woah, not much blogging going on from me, evidently.  What surprised me was that my body adapted. I was able to grab my heels without the prep and still do.  I guess it is similar to what happened when my practice was split, my body was used to primary as a warm up but with time it adapted.  Clever body.  I still repeat the pose if I don't get it first time, a maximum of 3 times.  Sometimes I get in on the first attempt, but this is mostly if I am in a Mysore class as it is warmer.  Kapotasana, remains a physically demanding pose for me, but there is definitely less drama about it.   Overall I guess I am becoming more flexible but it varies day to day, month to month and so I care less.  I just do it and move on.

My practice is getting longer, slowly.  I was given nakrasana a couple of weeks ago.  It is funny how much adding one pose can do.  Adding yet another strong asana to that section which requires physical and mental strength, has made me find more ease and less intensity.  Yes this is a strong practice but it's nice to find the softness and surrender to it's ebb and flow.  I am not talking about sloppyness here, the integrity has to be there and the strength but also some softness.  I hadn't explored this in intermediate before, it was something I felt in primary but intermediate requires so much of me, my practice was intense but now as it gets longer I am surrendering more, it's an interesting space.