My first AYRI practice...

Sharath gave me a 6:30 slot. I arrived at 6:15 to be sure I was not late and he told me I was too early. My very first sun salutation I did 'ekum hands up, dve exhale fold foreward...' and then Guruji pushed down on my lower back. So. I was adjusted during my first breath. Later, Sharath adjusted me in urdhva muka paschimottanasana making my nose touch my legs and I did dropbacks with Saraswatti. I was suprised by the amount of help I got. I was expecting to not be adjusted at all. I was also suprised that towards the second half of my practice the room was only half full. I was able to do supta hasta padangusthasana and then going to the side without worrying about touching anyone. When I left I would say there were 40 people there.

Now the downside. My right ankle is still swollen (see my last blog where I recount how I fell into a 7' deep sewer trench). My landlady looked at it last night and told me she would take me to her "American trained" doctor to have it x-rayed on Friday if the swelling has not gone down. It has been a week since the injury and it is still swollen. I am icing it while elevated each night. Pointing my toe does not hurt but any lateral move does and it hurts in half lotus on the right. Renting a motor scooter helped this passed week... When I push back on my shin bone, my tibia is not visibly shifting backwards at the ankle joint so I am hoping my anterior talo-fibular ligament is not torn. I wonder if I have a hairline fracture of my fibula.

I did the whole primary this morning but I have to say that if I had not come all the way to Mysore I would not have. I am not one to normally take risks with my body. I got to Marichyasana D on that side and my fibula hurt getting into lotus. But I did not want to be stopped there for the rest of my time here... when I normally can do it. Well, we will see Friday. If I broke something that will be that, I guess.

Cholera, Diphtheria, Hell?

I went out in a rickshaw to find an internet cafe to email my parents - so that they would not worry. I had several small adventures on the way but on the way back I managed to fall into a sewer, losing my glasses, a shoe, wrenching my ankle and almost losing my passport, money and credit cards in my fanny pack.

But this was good because getting out required a feat of upper body strength that I did not know I had! This was probably motivated by my feet dangling, my head at street level with traffic going by and having no idea of how deep it was below me... perhaps, I considered, reaching all the way down to my unseemly death. Itripped, and when I finally landed, instead of being on the ground, I was doing an iron-cross pose in a sewer... I screamed and drew a crowd. Apparently men stand around at night in Mysore. This blonde woman in the sewer was interesting. Many things were said in Kananda-ish. It was 10pm on a moonless night. I was the entertainment. After my amazing feat of strength to get out, with the help of a kind gentleman with matches and a stick, my glasses and shoe were retrieved.

The rickshaw driver who pulled up a foot away from my head and watched the whole thing asked me if I wanted a ride and then told me - through a translator - that he would charge 3 times the meter. Then the translator wanted 5 rupees as well. I said "no why would I do that?" and I limped away with them staring at me in disbelief. I limped in a huff... very slowly... a block away to where my reputation had not been.... sullied... and I got a rickshaw driver who wanted 10 rupees over the meter. I think he unfortunately saw the limp. I agreed to this and he returned me to my apartment where, after bathing, I used that 32 oz of Isopropil Alcohol that I had brought in two zip locked bags. The bottle said it was not to be used over large areas of the body, but, I decided that had the writer known he would have added, "unless you have fallen into a sewer in Southern India". Then I put antibiotic/antiseptic cream, band-aides and anti-fungus/anti-ringworm cream on my hands and feet and thigh which all had scratches. All of this first aide I had thought I was probably paranoid to bring.... My right foot swelled up so I elevated and iced my foot (my apartment fortunately has a refrigerator). No yoga for a couple days. Hopefully Monday I will be good as new...

In Mysore...

I arrived at the Green hotel at 3 am this morning. Since then I have done a mysore class at Sheshadri's shala and rented a two bed-room apartment near AYRI. Perhaps when I start AYRI on June 1, I was look into getting a roomate. In the meantime, I was very impressed with Sheshadri. He kept asking me if he were being too hard on me and he wasn't. [I am pretty squashable - it is strength that I have an issue with]. As always, I need help to get into Supta Kurmasana fully. He made me do dropbacks very quickly and then he put me on his back to really get my back to bend (and stretch) at the same time... very interesting. I am trying to decide if I ought to go up to eka pada tomorrow as M at home had me doing. Once at AYRI I will just be doing primary after all. After class he wanted to know how long I have been practicing and with who.

.... 1 .... lift off

In about five hours I will be on the plane. Yesterday I ran around getting my parrot to my friend's M's house and doing last minute things like getting a padlock for my hotel room and a 220v electrical adapter for my laptop. The parrot was muttering "I thought... I thought.... what was that!?" Indicating that all of this was a surprise to him and not what he had been planning. Fortunately he has stayed at her house before for the weekend and began preening and singing scales contentedly and laughing to himself when placed in his spot in front of the window where he can watch the backyard (an active place with a 2 foot wide tortoise, several iguanas, an aviary of doves, a cat and a dog... really the equivalent of parrot TV).

Then I went to a barbecue on the beach with some of my yoga friends. It was a beautiful cloudless day and the water was 80F (27c). I met a woman there who had lived in India twice for 8 months each time studying yoga and naturopathy in Delhi. And of course my yoga friends are all excited and want to know all about the trip. I did not mention the blog. I guess I have to realize that this is public and if one of them finds it, they all will. I am holding on to the hope that something will happen that is so interesting I will not want to discuss it with everyone I know. But the Ashtanga community is small... Anyway, I am off to get my decaf coffee and face the last packing things (toothbrush, etc). I wonder if there is decaf in Mysore...

2 days till India

The pre-India dreams are in full force.

In brief, in this one a small, wizen man - who at some point I find out is a doctor - leaves hints, parables and clues that bring me to a gathering where (I am surprised) he is speaking. Discerning more clues gets me into a very large palace with many rooms. Later I am on an island with many large fantastic sculptures of subjects like Atlas holding up the world. They look like they are made of sand.... but I touch one and it is mud. How are they held together? Is this monsoon mud? In previous dreams I recognize people who upon waking I do not know.

So, I have been good. For the last couple weeks I have been doing a couple pre-mysore things everyday so I still have things to do but it is do-able. Today I try to find waterproof monsoon shoes....

3 days till Mysore...

Tonight I had dinner with two of my friends from yoga teacher training. E, who is psychic, told me what was going to happen in Mysore. So I thought I had better document it. I will meet a guy who is probably from England or New Zealand who looks like he is of Indian descent, with slightly long hair wearing faded orange pants and serving tea. Also, I will have an amazing heart opening where everything that has happened to me will suddenly make sense and fall into place... and this will probably happen during a practice. Mostly my trip will be about the later not the former.

4 days until India...

Hmmm. What should I bring to read? Is Hatha Yoga Pratipika too ambitious (and heavy)? Today I managed to get my friend M to take my bird for the duration of the trip. She worked at an avian vet for 15 years, has 6 iguanas, a two foot wide tortoise wandering in the yard, a dog, a cat, an aviary of doves.... My parrot will be happy there. He does not like to be boarded and this has been weighing on me. It is beginning to dawn on me that I will not have enough evenings left to see each friend who would expect to see me right before I go. I've been having dreams about floods, immersion and familiar people who I don't know.

Now that work is done I've been sitting here watching what I think is Cirque du Soleil... with my foot behind my neck.... how appropriate.

5 days Till Mysore...

Practice went well this morning. My studio is not doing Mysore classes right now but my teacher is letting a few of us in to practice. There was actually music this morning (we felt naughty). Someone had done a mix that started with Guruji doing the opening chant and then various quiet songs like "Blackbird." Then, suddenly, in the middle of all that there was Lulu in her mod 1967 voice singing "To Sir with Love" at which point I exclaimed, "to sir with love!" and everyone laughed. I feel like music can make the practice do-able when my mind is unable to focus... but of course it is an escape rather than a support for deepening the moving meditation...etc etc.

As usual I was able to bind in supta kurmasana but I needed help (from a helpful mat neighbor who kindly offered) with getting the feet behind the head - which once there I can hold for 5 breaths - and on a good day push up from it and jump back. This is the last sticky wicket of primary for me. I use to not care. But for a few years now I have thought, 'well, I will go to Mysore when I can do the whole primary without help.' So, since I am going in 5 days... I am going.... unprepared (horrors)! There are certain things I could do as a teenager (headstand, split, dropbacks, tic-tocs...). I have gotten these again except I still only come up after doing a dropback on a... good day. But - because everything I have done in my youth seems do-able - I feel it will come in time.

However, I could not do supta kurmasana at 13. My best friend could (funny how the 13 year old mind works). I remember trying in yoga class to do yoganidrasana for a few weeks and I could bind but could not get that right leg behind the head. So - I could not do it at that most young and limber age. So getting it now without help would be a major step... at 46 years old. I have heard that technically you can cross your feet in front of your head and bind to "do" the primary series. So technically I can do primary... but I got stuck on dwi pada when I was moved onto second so I have to deal with it. My right hip is not open enough to do it without really pushing back on my leg. Bizarrely, I have gotten into yoganidrasana - in the evening - without help 0nce about 6 months ago. I was a little thinner around the belly....

Which brings me to my short arms and legs issue. I am 5' 2". All of the shortness is in my arms and legs. So, for example, I will sit and talk with people who are 5'8" and they do not know I am short until we stand up. So most other people have the distance from the hip to the knee be 3 to 3 inches longer in relation to the length of their spine. While I do bind in Marichyasana D, if I extend my back upwards before the twist, my arm will come off the top of the knee of my short leg. Also, I am told I should have my hip down in D. Once again I could do this if my leg were longer but my arm comes off the bind at the top when I put my hip down. Also, when I jump back my foot always hits the floor as I try to fit my body in the area that my short arms allow. Is this going to really go away with more highly evolved bandhas? Is there an advanced teacher with a long body and short arms and legs?

6 Days till India....

Today the visa arrived so I am definitely going. I have been running around trying to arrange my life so I can be away until July 1. I also know I am going because the strange dreams are beginning... which tends to happen when I am about to have an influential experience.

My practice has been in a little bit of a holding pattern. The studio where I have been taking Mysore classes for the last two years has introduced me to several excellent teachers. Amusingly, M had me going up to eka pada in second. Then I took two months off during my divorce and when I came back primary was all I could handle. Then D (an authorized Jois teacher) came for a few weeks and moved me on to kopotasana. Then when he was gone M had me stopping after supta kurmasana and moving directly to pashasana and stopping at eka pada again. Then T came to teach the mysore for a month (also authorized) and wanted to know why I was doing that. I told him because I could only get into supta kurmasana bound with both feet behind my head if I had help so M had me going up to that and then moving on... So he said that I should do primary until I did not have a problem with supta kurmasana. Then he helped me into supta kurmasana and said it was fine and he did not know what the problem was. Then he went off to teach for a few weeks in another country (I got out of supta kurmasana before he did that). Anyay, so, what my practice is and where I am - is a little of a mystery to me. Thankfully, I am going to AYRI where I will do the primary series and probably not have anyone notice my practice! When I come back I will be at a new studio with yet another authorized teacher (G) for Mysore. I think my issue is that I am imbalanced towards flexibility so that I can bind in things but upper body strength is still a big challenge... another blogging Ashtangi has suggested I do handstands for 1.5 minutes and 5 minute headstands. This is helping...