Day 3 - Hip Openers ... The gate to our emotions

I will start with a quote: "If you want to change something in life, just change your mind" - Bhagavad Gita.

It is said that we carry a lot of emotions in our hips; issues of the day, repressed emotions.  So when you do a hip opening class often times you can feel a slight or intense release of emotion during or after class.  I've experienced this to be true.  I remember being in a class led by Keith at Moksha and he sang to us at the end of class and it actually moved me to tears.  

This morning was a hip opening class, which was a really nice change from the Ashtanga Primary Series of the last two days - for body and mind.  It had been a bit of a rough start to the morning and I thought perhaps I might have a difficult time given how emotional I had been on Monday.  However, I managed to get through class just fine and it was a very enjoyable class.

Julia always said how FOCUSED we were during hip opening classes . . . my response was we were in pain.

We had our first anatomy and physiology class led by Julia today.  We worked on breaking down some of the postures starting at the beginning of the Primary Series.  We are learning each of the 66 postures in the series with regards to how to transition into and out of them, proper count, the muscles that we use, where we should be gazing (drishte), engaging our bandhas (muscles in the abdominal and pelvis region that protect, lift and allow to move more deeply into postures), proper alignment and modifications.  It's going to be a hefty class.  We do it in groups so it makes it very enjoyable and we position and reposition each other.  We are also learning the Sanskrit words for all the postures, which we will need to know for our exam and our assessments

We start where we are

Brooke getting Lindsay into a deeper Prasarita Padottanasana A

Julia assisting Rose into full expression of Supta Kurmasana

Helen, Ellie, Faye (and I think Shanti the dog)

Line adjusting Elaine more deeply into Paschimottanasana A

Me in Bhujapidasana

A typical anatomy of alignment and asanas class - how we learned each posture and proper alignment

Satara in Kurmasana

Later in the early evening we did partner yoga with Kranti at the ocean side shala.  It was a class that was based on learning to trust your partner while they pull you in intense stretches so that you can learn to trust them in certain postures.  The stretches were intense but felt amazing.  Kranti is quite puzzled by more locked upper/mid back and how tight my lungs are.  More massage is necessary.  At the end of class we worked in a group of five and took turns stretching each other from all four corners, then lifting each other up and swinging.  It was a really fun class and a great way to end our day.

Lindsay and Satara who is incredibly bendy

Anand and Victoria

The snack after was samosas with cashews . . . I dug out the innards and left the crust since it's gluten/wheat . . . it was so deliciious.  I sooooo wanted to eat the whole thing but I'm finding I'm getting a TON of gluten contamination here, which I expected because I'm experiencing all my "gluteny" symptoms  Oh well, nothing I can do but embrace it and hope I adjust.  

Spent my evening chatting with some of the girls.  It was lovely.

Until tomorrow.

Namaste

J