As I expected, my second Ashtanga class was harder than the first. Physically, anyway. The initial adrenaline triggered by my fear long gone, I had only the muscles which were still sore from the last class to pull me through. My core strength seems to be the most difficult post-baby struggle. It's hard to explain, but it is as if part of my core is still disengaged. I try to engage it, but I just can't feel it anymore. Not the same way that I could feel it before. As I was struggling with headstand today I was thinking that it was like balancing a cooked noodle on one end.
But, oh, I am falling in love with Ashtanga. It's been so long it's like a new romance all over again. I'm just full of giddiness and warm fuzzy feelings. All the drama from the past is a distant memory. All I can see is our rosy future together. Yes, I know there will be pain and frustration when I am once again confronted with certain second series asanas, but I won't have to worry about that anytime soon. For the next few months (maybe more if I'm lucky!) I'll be skipping along the lovely primary series path. And maybe when the time comes for me to attempt second series once again I'll have the physical and psychological fortitude to approach it with grace, light, love and kindness.
It won't be a monogamous relationship. I'm still involved with postnatal yoga. Of course my love affair with Kundalini yoga, my longest yoga relationship to date, will continue. And there are so many other styles of yoga I've been meaning to experiment with.
I was joking with Liz P. last week that you can't throw a shoe in this town without hitting an Anusara teacher. I said this after running into my second former Ashtanga student who is now training to be an Anusara teacher. My only real experience with this style of yoga was probably about 4 years ago when I would go to my friend Kristina's classes - which were awesome. Some of my favorite people in the world are Anusara teachers and that's a pretty strong endorsement for me. If ya'll are into it, there must be something very right about it. So, that's definitely on my to-do list.
But for now I'm getting cozy with my old flame again. It's nice to be back.
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No wisdom here. Just throwing spaghetti against the wall.
1 comment:
Ha!
The love affair metaphor is perfect. Soon you will be re-engaged.
As I've gotten older I've learned that how I experience love now is very different from how I experienced it when I was younger...it gets better, but you don't have that same crazy all-or-nothing passion that can sometimes destroy everything in its path, even though it feels good.
I think there can be a lot of synergy between the Ashtanga and Anusara practices. I meet a lot of people who have either done both or are devoted to both. On an international scale. Interesting, huh?
I find Anusara to be very rigorous as well as spiritually uplifting, and technically sound. But you already knew that.
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