However, when you wake up at 5am without the alarm, roll over, fall back to sleep and wake up again to find it's still only 5:30, you might as well practice. As it was supposed to be my Ashtanga rest day today I thought I'd do Vinyasa Krama instead. This month I switched Ashtanga to my morning practice slot so my VK practice has been a lot shorter, twenty minutes asana as prep for pranayama and meditation, this would be my first long Vinyasa Krama practice for a month (taking into account the recent 'injuries')
It was a joyous practice, more time spent in postures, long long breathes, a slower pace, inhabiting poses, wonderful, half way through a curious thought popped into my head...
Ashtanga is who I am, Vinyasa Krama who I'd like to be.
Now where the heck did that come from?
I've been thinking how Ashtanga appealed to me and, indeed, suited me in the beginning. I don't think any other form of yoga at the time would have grabbed me. I remembered, too, the impression Vinyasa Krama made on me last year when I first tried it, while working around a knee injury, there was a profound sense of peace, a calmness, it's how I felt this morning while I was practicing. I love Ashtanga, love the detox aspect, the routine, same postures, same sequence, reminds me of the Kata I used to practice in Aikido and later Iaido. I like the focus and there is a meditative quality, to my Primary at least, but not peace. Another thing, I find it hard to practice Pranayama and to Meditate after Ashtanga, unlike Vinyasa Krama.
Makes me wonder if I should be trying to force myself back into an Ashtanga practice, perhaps I've just moved on and should accept it. If I'm honest what I've missed most is the detox aspect of Ashtanga and I seem to remember sweating buckets when practicing the Vinyasa Krama triangle sequence. perhaps all I need is the occasional detox Krama.
Of course this is just me, clearly others find peace within the practice ( LATER: Just read this from Maya on the Tristana ) and perhaps if I hadn't come across Vinyasa Krama when I did, I would have too. Or perhaps it's something to do with which aspects of Ashtanga your drawn to in the first place. I'm certainly not suggesting Vinyasa Krama is in any way superior to Ashtanga, both come from Krishnamacharya. My Apologies, this conflict must be becoming more than a little tiresome by now.
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5 comments:
You seem to be struggling with what to practice but perhaps I may be wrong. Let go and practice whatever you feel is right at the moment. You have a vast amount to choose, because you have already done your homework. It does not have to have a name as long as you are practicing. Good luck. I enjoy the posts they have helped me in my own practice.
Thanks Anon. Yes, a little conflicted, luckily it hasn't stopped me getting up and practicing one or the other. Guess I'll just continue practicing both until it resolves itself, always sounds more dramatic and a bigger deal when written down in a blog. Glad you enjoy the post, I should get back to posting work in progress videos, too much text these days.
Hey, Grim, that's so cool you stopped by my tristana post. I always wonder if I'm making a capital F fool of myself when I write about yoga.
I see you're still trying to get your practice all neat and tidy, eh, with the right system, label, something? Give it up, man, life's a messy mess, haha.
Maya I wanted to comment, I read it quickly ( it was a long post) and wanted to come back to it but haven't had the chance yet.
I think I'm naturally messy and yet aspire to order. I'm just tired of being pulled in two directions, the VK as 3rd idea in the next post looks promising though.
Anon, been meaning to come back and thank you again for your comment all week. Your right I have done my homework. I still tend to think of myself as a beginner at all this but I guess I have explored Ramaswami's book quite throughly and it's bearing fruit. I have a lot of postures, subroutines and sequences under my belt that make sense, I tend to add the odd pose or subroutine here and there as prep or extension without thinking about it, even when I practice Ashtanga. Been practicing one of each of Primary, 2nd and 3rd series Ashtanga for the last two weeks, the rest Vinyasa Krama and it seems just about right balance.
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