may twelfth

amazing things happen to day 16 ashtanginis!feel like I'm getting somewhere on headstands,as in I still can't lift up but am starting to find my balance and lose some fear,felt much more comfortable in the forward stretches, and here's the real one- marichi D right sight binded(with Guruji of course).and i got a good!felt more stable on uthita hasta padangusthasana and could stay longer on prasarita padattonasanas.

And to think I was contemplating not going11(not laziness,have exams next week)

may tenth

Practised with anna today.awesome she is.

Missed my practice (Saturday,Friday=Moon Day,Thursday couldn't go to shaala but did some sun salutations at home),glad to be back.

Need to breathe and get through this week, and the next..

may sixth

time does fly..i like that analogy,time flying,i guess when we think of flight we think of movement and thus time flies...

day ten went by,without a hitch.i can foresee a potential hitch tomorrow though-can't make am@shaala as am going to Heathrow to meet moondizzy.And have classes till 1800 and then meeting Ms P for lunch.so its either a 5 am short practice at home or a late night practice?5 am looks unlikely as a)don't like practicing with a time limit b)had a rather large,rather late dinner!

But don't want to skip Day 11 as Day 12 is a moon day and Day 13 is a Saturday!

but why i really came to my movement page is to talk about my revision strategy.Quite honestly,from the past few days, I won't say that its working. Spending way too much time on the go. But don't really know how to change it.For example tomorow- Heathrow,PIL revision class, then Trademarks revision class till 1800,meeting Ms P for dinner,home. When shall I revise? Even those few hours @university are spent having lunch,printing,queueing,bumping into people.I suppose just being on a timetable makes me unable to relax.And when I'm not relaxed, my brain doesn't process information, it just looks to what I need to do next.

So what can I do? The best I can I suppose.And take as much time as possible to stay at home,undistracted. Friday I'll have the whole day and then I'm taking the evening off-seeing Judi Dench and then dinner +perhaps dancing. Hope the evening plans won't distract me in the day-I will try my best not to let it. Have a class on Saturday,can't avoid,but Sunday and Monday should be okay to be at home.Tuesday whole day is gone in classes and some of Wednesday. I guess its back to doing the best I can,as I can't see a way to skip classes.

Ideally if I could calm my mind I could speak to people and not let it bother me, and I could read before + after + in between classes.Lets hope and pray that I can do so:)

Came back to edit this post for a bit of shaala gossip.Okay here goes.I am just a fly-on-the-wall observer by the way.In the shaala I just seem to be non judgmental and just observe.Not saying this to cover my back(lol) but I guess I still very young and new to the shaala (its been about a year and 5 months now but I'm still the youngest) and I am new to the West as well! Like I've mentioned in other posts, being from the East makes it completely normal for me to trust and follow my teacher and to be grateful for his instruction and not to question him.

So I've been noticing how mad people get when they have to queue for a spot( non yogis, the shaala is small and there are limited spaces, so if it is full you'll have to wait till someones finished then you can start your practice) and do people get mad. they compete with each other like crazy for the spot, its dog eat dog.Some people complain loudly about the whole system.

The shaala is always busy.I went on Sunday around 0830 and on Monday(Bank holiday) around 0900 and it was busy both days.Today (a Wednesday) I went at 0900 and it was still busy.So there's no getting around it!To be honest I feel a bit amused but I suppose I have that luxury,being a  student and having nowhere to go.I feel so grateful to practice at AYL, that I'm happy to wait for hours just to have a small practice.Maybe thats just because I'm used to that Eastern attitude.

Anyway,Sirsana really is different with Guruji.With him I feel like I;m flying somehow.My legs just go up and its just FUN! The other couple of times I did it with Denise and Louise, man it was WORK! I even started dreading it!

Savasana-I need to sort that out seriously.My brain goes- Aashna don't sleep.Other side of brain goes-sleep a bit...just a bit.I never fall asleep but drift into this weird about to sleep mode.

may first

day 5 has gone by without any hassles....yes many things are new.Every time I start and stop my ashtanga practise I notice that there are new areas of my body that hurt, and new areas that don't.Favourite poses become tough and the ass-busters become well,relatively okay.

have been having trouble not being stressed out even while doing yoga!today's stresses were the too many hours I spend not on the internet, but worrying about the prospect of being anoyed by people on the internet- to explain, I'm very emotional and sometimes something someone wrote to me on gmail or facebook will upset me immensely.I know this happens for everyone, but it particularly bothers me when I'm in the zone to study and then suddenly something goes bam and my whole mood is gone.anyway, it stayed with me through, but afterwards going to tesco and seeing the sunshine in the front yard, and snap, and it was gone.Removed the gmail and fb links from my bookmarks bar, and plan to go online for half an hour every day.Either in the morning or the evening, and never during a study break.

As for the king of asanas, I seem to have a fear of balancing rightly!I seem to go over, bending my rib cage out so that it looks back-bendy. Trying hard to remedy, but some kind of fear keeps me from reaching to the other side.Have been feeling strange upside down lately.Upside down was my favourite,spent a lot of my childhood upside down- now it seems a bit strange,like I have to get used to it.And the fact that I can't breathe doesn't help!Must spend more time hanging from monkey bars!

Gorgeous and sunny outside...have a lovely day yogis..

twenty eight april

self practise today.yes, the '5 more minutes' after switching off the 5 am alarm.you know how your body feels after the first day of practise, all it wants it rest and recovery and fluids.

but need to combat this feeling- its just the first few days (5 I think) and then my body toughens up.instead of despairing at my 5 am miss (well I despaired a little, and also am still working up the guts to ask Hamish if I can come at 10 am when I miss 6 am,surely the shaala is not so busy then?) I got on the mat at home and did my whole practice except Marichi D and Sirsasana.

With regards to awareness, mine hasn't been amazing recently but I'm not worrying about it.Nor am I worryin about Mula Bandha(also am still finishing moonday). Even during Savasana mind will wander, well,race actually.But I've found the thing to do is not worry and keep going with my practise.

I want to apply the lessons I learn in yoga to my life- so for my studies, just keep going, don't worry if mind wanders, just do it..

Noticed my bleeding foot afterwards-deja vu of the time the same happened at AYL, and I took the mat home to wash, fell asleep on the long bus ride home, and left the mat on the bus being disorientated and waking up at just my stop.I was so embarassed to tell Guruji!But he was cool, he said now someone else can use it:)

Need to put my bandage on, and get my irie on :)

twenty seventh april

according to movement, the last time I did a session at the shala was on 15th December. So congratulations to me for getting back on the mat :)

I'm just reminded of the excruciating pain we put ourselves through! All the forward bending poses, ouch on the legs. Oo today in the king of asanas, while going up, and again coming down, I felt a vicious pain in my lower back. Didn't warm myself up enough? Didn't stay long enough in Navasana (I didn't cheat Navasana, was tempted to stop at 4, but I didn't, couldn't lift myself up though).

And my favourite scratch on the upside of foot while trying to to do the jump-through is back!

All in all, a good practice, good sweat, feelin' fine :)

The evening after- had to nap today in the evening-up at 9 pm and some crazy body aches and dhydration going on,aah the first day back...

Sharath Ragaswamy coming to London!No way I can miss this!

Was thinking about taking up the 30 day challenge but I'm sure I've done more before..so just as long as I'm in London wil suffice

Between yoga and Madeleine Peyroux (listening to Careless Love now) I feel so happy to be alive.

21 days to exams. I can do this.

one song for everyone

wouldn't it be nice, if we all knew one song, and could sing along?

the idea came to be during Trilok Gurty's encore at the Jazz Cafe- he played a tune that many were singing along to, pretty and melodic.It's so nice when people share like that..

good show.not mind blowing,but I REALLY enjoyed the last song he played (encore time). It makes sense to not madly love everything for me though, firstly I've become more critical (hey I went to see Hervie Hancock live!!) and also I can't take all his albums. But I am a big fan of his, no doubt, and I enjoyed. Just didn't go into the trance like state I sometimes do. Enjoyed him speaking though, very articulate, funny, audience engaging.

Bought a Songlines magazine + now listening to Songlines Top of the Worls. Fun!

Recovering from yesterday's eye operation still.

Off to listen to the apprentice now :)Trilok Gurtu – Ten Fifty Two

(download spotify if ur in the UK or anywhere else they have it.Trilok Gurtu – Have We Lost Our Dream?

Trust me, you won't regret it..)

Trilok played a track based upon an event in the Bhagavad Gita and another called Glimpses..about the Lord we never get to glimpse yet try so hard..