8th June 2021 - meditation
Today was fairly pressured and busy and I didn’t make time to practice. But meditating for a few moments before important zoom calls made a difference. I paid attention to my breath for five minutes. I thought about the ground beneath my feet and the chair supporting my body. I noticed the quality of the air on my skin and the sensation of the breath in my nostrils as I inhaled and exhaled. I stayed still. I tried to remain present.
7th June 2021 - monday
I love the freshness of a new beginning: New Year’s Day, the first day of each month, Mondays. They encourage me to re-focus. This morning I did the full primary series and felt strong for having had a few days of more gentle yoga. The swifts did their laps, I did my sequence of poses and practices.
6th June 2021 - monkey bars
Today I made use of a friend’s child’s climbing frame for some different ‘yoga’. Hanging off the monkey bars, I felt my spine release. I could flex and move my body differently hanging there. This is something I love about swimming, the freedom to move in unusual ways, weightless and supported. On the climbing frame, it’s a different kind of freedom. There, instead of weightlessness, I could play with gravity - lengthening and decompressing.
5th June 2021 - hot sun
Yoga outside on the roof under the beating mid-day sun because I got up late. I flagged after the standing series, but still felt better for having done it.
4th June 2021 - weather
Silvery curtains of rain, persisting all day, meant that I had to do my yoga practice inside. Subdued by the weather I did gentle floor rolling yoga instead of more brisk Astanga. I spent a long time doing ‘windscreen-wiper knees’ - an excellent remedy for lower back tension and pain.
3rd June 2021 - creaky
2 days of Ashtanga, a gentle run, and a lot of swimming in the Hampstead Heath ponds and I can suddenly feel muscles that I haven’t been aware of for a long time. I was so achey today that just moving around the flat felt uncomfortable. But I know habit formation requires consistency so I did slow motion yoga and skipped the sun salutations. On days like this, yoga is for easing and lengthening. And for creating time and space to look at the sky, notice the swifts, breathe more consciously.
2nd June 2021 - AM
Practicing astanga yoga on a clear early morning, before the sun has risen above the rooftops, gives me a special type of clarity. I am lifted by each inhalation and soothed by each exhalation. My breath and movements are synchronised, so I don’t have to think. The swifts chatter as they fly by, circling the block in airforce formation.
1st June 2021 - hairdryer
June has begun with an overnight heatwave.
May was cold and wet. Lashing, driving rain on the windows and chill winds made it a good month for reading on the sofa with a hot water bottle and cup of tea.
Now it is 25 degrees and I feel like a tortoise emerging from hibernation.
I have been doing haphazard yoga when my body craves. But now feels like the time to start a daily practice.
My day is upside down so I missed the window of exercise enthusiasm that I usually have first thing in the morning. I practiced in the blazing midday sun on my exposed rooftop surrounded by the ventilation unit from the restaurant below. I felt white and soft and out of my element, like a grub that has been under a log for a while.
But once I got started immersed in the practice, I began to feel good. The routine is playful, freeing, and familiar. I enjoyed sweating and moving in the sunshine. Unfurling. Breathing consciously and clearly.
The more I practiced, the more I was in my body rather than my head. Thoughts came and went, and felt a bit less important than usual.
The strong wind was too warm to be refreshing. Like a hairdryer it buffeted my body, whipping loose strands of hair and drying sweat without cooling me. I was surprised that I enjoyed this oven as much as I did. I must be missing a fiery Tapas element in my life.
June Tapas: yoga every day & a few reflections here.