Second last day at Purple Valley

My body is not feeling that sore anymore, but a little tired. I usually get to the Shala before the rest of the 7:45 group and Michael told me to start immediately when he saw me come in today. For the last 2 days, I have been working alone, without Candice and Sarah. I went through my practice and while doing Mareechyasana I realised I had left out 3 asanas, Prasaritha Padothanasana, Purvatanasana and Janu Sarushasana C. Damn!!!
When I got to Supta Kurmasana, Michael assisted me to bind my hands behind my back and get my feet over my head as best as possible. He then led me through the rest of the series. I did the backbend 5 times today and then he assisted me with the start of going into the backbend from standing. Today was the last time we would practice Mysore style. Tomorrow is full moon and Michael will take us through a led class tomorrow morning at 6:45. PJ, like most Indian people, does things taking the stars into account and in Mysore, there will be no class on full moon and new moon days.

Since we had another afternoon session today, I did not go outside today to explore... I will still have lots of time going to Markets when in Mysuru. I spent some time cooking in the sun, swimming, and practicing on the slackline. Yesterday I had finally been able to stand up onto it and stay up for 4 to 5 seconds before falling off. Today I took 1 or 2 steps. Just like in yoga... progress slowly slowly :-)

The afternoon session with Michael started with a Q & A session as usual. The most interesting question I remember was what the chants at the beginning and end of practice meant. The first is literally bowing to the lotus feet of the past gurus and Patanjali who wrote down the yoga scriptures. The chant at the end asks that the rulers rule with justice, that knowledge be available to everyone etc.
We then worked on backbends. We did a short series of asanas so that we were nice and warm and then he started by telling us to lie on our stomach and keep the straightened legs on the floor as we lifted the upper torso. Then lift the torso and the legs, keeping the legs together and straight. Then we grabbed the ankles and lifted up again but keeping the knees together. He then asked us where we felt that. Then we did the same thing again this time allowing us to open the knees, which is the same as the Bikram backbend in prone position. He then asked us again where we felt that and everybody said the back!!! So his point is that the legs are so important in the backbend and when we walk hands and feet together, we should walk the hands towards the feet and not the feet to the hands. When people say they don't like Ashtanga, because their spine hurts but they feel nothing in the legs, it is because they are not using the legs properly.
We talked about the spine having its greatest mobility in the lower back (because the ribs are attached to the Thoracic spine) but that we should not just rely on that. We then worked on opening the shoulders and the upper spine. First we stood on our knees and grabbed our feet from behind while bending back. Then we placed the hands against the wall with our knees on the floor and arched the back and held that for about a minute. Then we did the stretch I would normally consider a tricep stretch but he showed us how to stretch the shoulders by lifting the gaze and pushing the head against the arm. Then we worked with partners as in the picture on the left and lastly we did handstands against the wall, but the hands placed some distance from the wall and then dropping the bum and legs against the wall, the back arching towards the wall.
We finished with the finishing series and then some meditation.

Dinner had a festive spirit to it, because we all knew it would be our last dinner together as most people will be going home or going elsewhere in India. After that we put on some music and Iman did some belly dancing for us...