Today’s session started easy enough. We learnt from Hindi/Sanskrit terms to the different asanas (poses) within the sun salutations we covered in the previous session.
Then we moved onto the learning the Anusara* Invocation. I kinda like it. It blocks out normal life and helps me to focus on the session. The “lyrics” and melody are pretty awesome. It’s hard not to like it.
Om Namah Shivaya Gurave
Saccidananda Murtaye
Nisprapancaya Shantaya
Niralambaya Tejase
Om
That loosely translates to:
I bow to the presence of God within
Our true and highest teacher
That lives in and around us as
Being, consciousness and bliss.
It is ever-present and radiates peace
Lighting the way to transformation.
Om
I can’t seem to find a mp3 of the invocation. But there are loads of variations on Youtube you can look up.
Anyway after that we started doing a what seemed like numerous sun salutations and side way bends - For a whole hour an a half! We all tried really hard focusing on our alignment and breathing. The level of concentration was pretty intense and I was fading a little towards the end.
I need to work on a couple of things. My hamstrings are really tight which is affecting my ability to press my heels down on the ground in a down dog, as well as sitting upright for the forward bends. The other thing is I have a tendency of opening my chest/ribs up all the time. I need to keep it tight and close to the core. It’s kinda hard while doing poses where hands are together above the head. I gotta make a mental note of it.
I think I need to take a few more sessions on the side to get myself conditioned.
Basically I was pretty rubbish today. But I’ll work on it.
*Anusara is another school of yoga. Founded recently by a chap called John Friend. Judging by his company site. I think he’s doing alright.
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