Week Four : Surya Namaskar

Class Seven

I missed this class and later caught up by watching the video.

Class Eight

I opt to take the pre-yoga class. It is full of headstands. What? This yoga instruction often brings me to the edges of my comfort zone. Fortunately, it is always a safe space free of judgment. I feel capable. Even when I have to teach on the fly because I have missed a class, I never feel the sharp needles of anxiety.

We lead off with the invocation, we teach each other one by one Suraya Namaskar. This is also known as Sun Salutation. This is the first of a series of poses the foundation of ashtanga is based on. My classmates inform me what I missed. This is so helpful. Because they have already absorbed the material at a level similar to me, they show me what stood out, and what was highlighted. We instruct each other in Suraya Namaskar. We discuss meditation. Later we dive deeper into the Niyamas. And class kind of speeds by. I have a feeling I am doing something wrong as these poses are challenging. I don’t feel I have a good hold on chattarunga. The instructor suggests we attend a Saturday training. And tells us we have a quiz….It was at this point I focused more on studying for the quiz than writing the blog.

I took notes, but between life, readings, and spring, I did not write in the blog. I didn’t want to. I felt very busy and it was not longer a novelty. So the “I will catch up” became a bit of a break. I decided to focus more on how yoga was affecting me than reporting every detail of the training process. And really, do you want to read a syllabus or a story? So I am making an executive decision to shake up my own format. Instead of a reporting exactly every step and lesson we did, I will now write in a more essay format on how yoga concepts affected me – did it make me question my behaviors, did it change me internally or externally, how did ancient writings and poses hold up in today’s world?