finding your ease

[Guest guest]

after getting more and more disillusioned with

how tired i seem to get about mid to two thirds of

the way thru the first series, i am finally trying to

implement a simple concept anne nowell has suggested

several times to me: find your ease in each posture. when

i can get that concept going, extending as fully

into a posture as i can but without using every other

muscle group in my body as 'extra' levers to force me

even farther, i find i don't get as exhausted. i'm

sure the first response most of the readers here will

have is 'no duh, get a clue goober.' i wish i had been

more attentive the first few times she tried to guide

me. anybody here recall the sanskrit term for finding

your ease? i think it starts with the letter s

[Guest guest]

sukha<br><br>I too, often "red-lined" at the

midpoint of (led) 1st series. My endurance is still not

the best, but has improved quite a bit. As it is now,

I'm still pushing my limits about the time of

kurmasana (as anyone can tell who listens to my

breathing).<br><br>The energy drain & safety valve is the

vinyasa.<br><br>I used to blow it by putting everything into the

lift jumpback and jumpthrough -- till I was spent

halfway through the forward bends. What to do? I began

pacing myself when necessary:<br><br>1) Instead of

lifting, just doing the easy roll forward into

chatauranga. This saves much energy, even if done only a few

times so as to get a small break.<br><br>2) Bail on the

jump-through a few times. Just come down to your knees and

swing your legs around, or some facsimile.<br><br>3) Be

mindful of your energy level and breathing (let the

breath Carry You Through) and just seek to keep it on an

even pace, rather than trying to keep up with the

Allisons and the Dennis'. Forget that; 1 hour 1st series

are possible but not immediately.<br><br>4) Remember

Sarge's comment from the movie "Tribes": "IT'S SUPPOSED

TO HURT!!" We'll not "hurt," but you get the idea.

Endurance increases only as it's pushed.

[Guest guest]

<<Endurance increases only as it's

pushed>><br>that's exactly what i was finding so frustrating, in the

past when i have been active in pursuing an aerobic

exercise regimen, be running, swimming or the exercise

bike, i would note steady progression in my endurance.

that progression usually came fairly quickly too. i

can certainly do more now than i could 4 months ago

but the inability to improve much on the fatigue side

was bothering me. i was considering adding in some

exercise bike time to try and 'help out' with the

endurance side of things. not too sure if it would carry

over since it's a completely different mode of muscle

use but the heart/lung system would hopefully get

more efficient.<br><br>in regards to pacing, i do it

as i can. the concern is that in attempting to

conserve, i don't achieve what i can or should in the

asana. once you start to pull back, it's easy to keep

pulling back...easing off between the 4th & 5th breaths,

relaxing the twist a bit in marichy c, sitting for too

long between reps of navasana, etc. it eventually gets

in your head, just the opposite of what i am trying

to do--empty my head of that stuff

[Guest guest]

"The energy drain & safety valve is the

vinyasa."<br><br>Yes - I agree entirely. Now. I used to get absolutely

exhausted through the sitting postures - and in fact booked

a couple of individual seesions with Jean Claude to

try and get to the bottom of it. He noticed that the

problem was in the vinyasas: after the jump-through I was

taking the right hand off the floor before the left with

a kind of sideways swinging motion, which he said

dissipated all the energy by making me unbalanced. Since

I've focused on keeping everything scrupulously

symmetrical the problem has disappeared.<br><br>On this

topic, it is very instructive once in a while to observe

all the little extra unnecessary movements and tics

("gestes parasites" in French) which develop around each

posture - and try to eliminate them. It is amazing how

many habitual adjustments and rituals are not really

necessary.<br><br>(Dave's "Thought for the day")<br><br>Have a good week

everybody!

[Guest guest]

Some more words on endurance. Try to just "bomb"

through a practice once. That doesn't mean doing it

willy-nilly and flouncing or rushing through poses just to

get done early. It means concentrating intensely and

not pausing through ANYTHING. Don't take that extra

breath to adjust your positioning. Hit the pose and dive

into the drishti. Sounds easier than doing? Maybe. But

that's the only way I realized that I could actually do

the first series in an hour and half and feel

completely refreshed and not like I had been "ridden hard

and put away wet."<br><br>You hit the nail on the

head when you noted that by "taking it easy" you start

to lose concentration and start easing up while in

the pose or pause in between poses. In fact in one

mysore class I took this summer I was "taking it easy"

because I hadn't practiced for a week. So when the

instructor kept pushing me into poses and I finally whined

"I'm taking it easy today..." He said, "fine, take it

easy, but do the pose." WOW! It was like a revelation.

He could see I was being lazy and was giving into my

own psychosis of "I'm tired" and he knew that that

was completely inappropriate. <br><br>You may also

want to attend to your breath. Sometimes breathing can

get out of control when you're tired and pushing

yourself, resulting in further exhaustion because you're

not breathing efficiently. Back to the concentration-

listen to how you're breathing. <br><br>G

[Guest guest]

As a somewhat new practioner (sp?)struggling

through the first series, I can make it through in one

hour and a half, but I also can make it last two and

one half hours. Some of the poses I can hold longer

than the 6-8 breaths and some it takes me 6-8 breaths

to just get into the posture. Some I have to relax

enough to allow my body to open to get in the posture.

Is there a reason to make it last a certain amount

of time? Is the aerobic aspect more benefical that

the slow breathing/stretching/relaxing aspect?

[Guest guest]

I don't think getting through the primary series

is a race. Just as long as you are linking breath

with movement. One afternoon it took me three hours to

get up to navasana - taking long long long breaths,

something like 30 seconds each inhalation and then 30

seconds each exhalation, but still taking 5 breaths per

posture/ side. Let me tell you how sore I was the next

day. Ouch. I was still doing astanga- concentration

while keeping a pace and the heat!<br><br>So, no need

to time yourself, but eventually you won't need

those "before" breaths to get into the pose and then

start the 5 breath counting. And, as someone else

posted, those pre-breath breaths may simply be bad habits

you don't need. You'll only know with more practice.

I didn't realize that I was perpetuating my own bad

habits of breathing and relaxing into poses before I

actually "did" the pose - I now move into the pose and

then use the 5 breaths to deepen the stretch. Still

too fast? Lengthen the breath and see what happens.

As a nice side effect of not taking those

before-breath breaths, my confidence in doing each pose

increased. <br><br>G

[Guest guest]

gabita,<br><br>so many of your messages are inspiring--thanks.<br><br>s&m