I had one of those big birthdays last week, the kind with a zero in it. My six brothers and sisters got me a gift certificate to Kripalu, a yoga center in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts . I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but I'm very excited about going there. And… Continue reading Miscellany
Author: Mollyavalon
Oh, shame on me
I haven't posted here in a week. I don't have a great deal to say except that my first yoga teacher, Margaret, was back in town over the weekend and I went to a two-hour class with her on Saturday. It was outstanding in many ways, not the least of which is that I am… Continue reading Oh, shame on me
Savasana
During home practice, whether I'm practicing alone or with friends, it never fails that something happens during Savasana. The phone rings. My husband decides to make lunch in the kitchen above us, clunking around and possibly singing to the dog. The dog comes downstairs and licks my face. The doorbell rings. This must be a… Continue reading Savasana
Benchmarks
Lately I've been very pleased to see how much better I am. This time last year I was really a mess. I couldn't bend my joints very well, all my yoga was pretty much just lying down, and I was exhausted. No gardening. I avoided the stairs. Anything that put weight on my joints was… Continue reading Benchmarks
Restorative class
Boy, today we had a wonderful class. It was all restorative. We started in Viparita Karani (legs up the wall), in which we did several variations - legs in Upavista Konasana (wide angle) and Baddha Konasana (cobbler), followed by moving off the bolster and putting it perpendicular to the wall and shoved back. Essentially it… Continue reading Restorative class
Good blog
I am always looking for good yoga blogs. Oddly enough, while there are many Ashtanga blogs, and even more about the most superficial aspects of yoga (clothes, for example), I haven't found very many Iyengar blogs. I just added the Yoga Column, an Iyengar blog, to the list on the right. The author, Sheila, has a very… Continue reading Good blog
Addressing a difficult pose
I was rooting around in my old posts for this blog and found one I saved as a draft in January and then forgot to post. So here it is. At the end of class yesterday a couple of other people doing YoMo and I talked about how it's going. (This was just what I… Continue reading Addressing a difficult pose
Little props
Sometimes I'm too lazy or forgetful to get things out of my yoga cabinet when I'm setting up for practice. So I am uncomfortable in some basic poses in a naggy way. When I do remember, I'm inordinately pleased with how much better I feel in Virasana (hero) when I roll washcloths up behind… Continue reading Little props
Being in the pose
I've noticed that when I practice alone I tend to start thinking about the next pose before I'm done with the current one. It's worse if I don't make myself a written list of what I plan to do. There I am in my Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog), thinking about whether I should… Continue reading Being in the pose
Ten breaths
I used to time my poses with my Palm, using a nifty little add-on called PocketDoan, which is a highly configurable timer. It has some perfect sounds on it, like chimes, bells, and wooden clackers, which are much nicer alerts than buzzers and beeps. I still use it for Savasana. But now in most poses… Continue reading Ten breaths
Practice Notes 