Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Spontineity

India is a country full of Spontaneous people.  The last few days here has been quite the ride. From Spontaneous shopping  and dinner, a traditional Indian dance recital performed by a young polish woman, a trip to Mumbai,  puppy sitting,  to Nana just picking us for a quick chai...no business, just chai!

I am beginning to let my guard down.  I am a creature of habit.  I often choose to stay no to things.  Dinner on the weeknight,  quick coffee to chat,  lunch with a friend,  a mid-day yoga practice.  This is beginning to change. The more flexible my mind becomes from the yoga practice, from the interactions with these fun happy people, the more I seem to say yes to things.

Since my last entry, we have had pranayama with Geeta and a women's class.  Class with Prashant.  Many days we start off with a walk around the Agricultural College,  after class we typically buy fruit and grab a coconut for the water.  This routine is much different to the one I stick to at home.  I am usually by myself with the dogs for the first 3 hours. Practice, running the dogs, preparing my lunch.  Here it is really about the yoga and culture.

I even feel that the teaching is quite spontaneous as well.  Prashant will often take us out of a pose to have us come and listen.  Mostly great metaphors of yoga and life,  the spices in chai and the experience of coffee at Vaishale restaurant.  Geeta will sometimes spontaneously say we are all fools and she is a fool to try to teach us, followed by laughter.  If something is not going right in class she will change the flow a little bit. Make us do something over and over until we get it, until we really hear what she is saying. How to turn the abdomen, how to connect with our strength.

While is practice yesterday after Prashants class, she came in to for practice time herself.  When she came in you could really feel the energy shift.  Some were excited, some were nervous, some stared, some ever upped there practice.  I just did my inversions, did savasana and left.  I was not really sure what the protocol was. I just use my instinct and do it.  Like Dana says when I am getting dressed,  you just wear what you want, no one will notice!  I try the same approach in the practice room,  do not compare,  push yourself a little and just be sensitive to your own body and nervous system.  Be Spontaneous and listen.  To quote Prashant, "Yoga is the study of embodiment."

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