Back to Basics

As 2014 starts we're in a deep freeze of polar air.  The first few days after the celebration of the new year have passed, letting the holiday season settle a bit, and yoga classes are starting up again.

I think I can see the direction my practice will take in the coming months.  After a couple of years of seeking new challenges and exploring the limits of what I can do, the new direction is to circle back around and focus on some basics again, but in a deeper way.

Two classes I had this week showed me this path.  The first was the Yoga I class that I'll be taking for the next 18 weeks as part of my teacher training program.  Yoga I is typically the first class that new students take, and I remember the class I started in.  I'm fortunate to be in the class of Suzie Hurley, a master teacher at all levels who is the founder of the yoga studio where I practice and is the teacher of most of the teachers.  Suzie sold the studio two years ago and retired from the teacher training program, but still teaches several classes.   Experiencing yoga I again, I realize that I will get more out of it this time than I did when I took it as my initiation into yoga practice.  There are many layers of nuance and precision to the poses that a beginning student simply can't get to, and a strong 90 minute practice will be as challenging as any class.

This morning, due to the frigid overnight temperature which broke a record dating to the 19th century, I was the only one who showed up at 7 am to Anna Karkovska-McGlew's class at Dupont Circle.  Anna knows me pretty well since in addition to this Tuesday morning class, I take a class from her at Willow Street.  She is an expert in anatomy and problem solving.  I took advantage of the one on one time to have her look more deeply at several of my idiosyncracies - such as the pull I get in certain poses on the inside of my right leg above the knee, cramping that occurs regularly in some standing lateral poses, and my lack of much lumbar curve.  I left the session with a much better understanding of the causes of the issues and how best to work on them.  Some of these have been lurking for a couple of years, and who knows how much longer it would have taken for me to figure them out?  Thanks to the Arctic Vortex paying us a visit, I got a significant number of my chronic issues explained, and have the tools to work with them, and eventually past them.