Reading Reflection
We're almost done with How Yoga Works, and we're continuing to learn more and more sutras! It really is interesting reading the sutras and seeing the reasoning and beliefs behind yoga and the things that could be helpful or harmful to your life and your practice of yoga. I've enjoyed How Yoga Works, too. It's a simple read, as others have said, but that's part of what makes it enjoyable for me, along with the fact that I haven't read many books like this. It's a bit of a different pace from other books I've been reading for BIC, my major and minor, and the other books I typically read in my free time. It makes me look forward to the other books for this class that I've yet to read, including the Bhagavad Gita, since I've only ever heard other people mention it before.
The new set of sutras (2:10-17) this time took me a little while to understand. The gist of it that I got was that good and bad karma exist, with the klesas being at the root of karma and causing karma to happen. Virtue causes good karma, and therefore causes pleasure in "type of birth, span of life, and life experience [of an individual]". Vice causes bad karma, and therefore causes pain. Basically, when you do bad things, your life and inner self are negatively affected, so you need to avoid causes yourself and others this unnecessary suffering, which is what Friday gets into during some of her conversations with the Captain. I don't necessarily believe in good and bad karma, but I can definitely see that your choices and actions have consequences, consequences that you have to live with whether they're good or bad, and that doing good can honestly help others or simply make you feel better about yourself.
Class Reflection
Class has been going really well! I really do like the mix of learning and practicing. I haven't had too difficult a time with the poses, though there's been a couple of days where I was a little sore afterwards, but it wasn't unbearable at all. Plus, like the title mentions, I'm finally able to pop my back and feel a little more limber and stretched than before. Before, my back felt a little too tightly strung so it wasn't comfortable to try popping my back. I'm getting better at some poses, too, I'm proud to say. With the blocks, the downward facing dogs are going a lot more smoothly.
Using the blocks and bolsters for some poses has proven really helpful, especially for my shorter arms. I also like that we're steadily working our way towards the harder poses without pushing it too much. I didn't do the headstand on Tuesday, but I do want to try it at least once during the semester. I'm a bit worried about some of the other more complex poses that we're going to get into, but I haven't minded anything else we've done too much, and at least we're gradually working our way into them. I like the amount of stretching and working out that I get from yoga. I get kind of sweaty and warmed up, but not to the point where I can't stand it. Yoga still succeeds in keeping me in a sort of focused blur as well. I'm almost never thinking about other classes or things I need to do while I'm moving from pose to pose.
Have to say, I'm glad I take my eye pillow home with me, with two or three others in the class already having there's ruined or taken, I guess by people that have other classes in that room. Well, guess who is going to be getting lots of bad seeds planted?
Outside of Class
In my other yoga class, our instructor told us one of the legends or tales behind the warrior poses, the story of Lord Shiva and his bride Sati. The story is meant to be symbolic and can be viewed as "Shiva representing the higher self doing battle with the arrogant ego (Daksha, Sati's father) in the name of love and the heart (Sati)."
I actually really enjoyed the mythical tie-in to the origins of the poses, since I really like mythology in general. Even if they're just stories, I think it would be fun to learn more about the origins of the poses (the actual stories and the mythical tales). It's part of the reason I'm kind of looking forward to the Bhagavad Gita.
It's been cool having the two yoga classes blend together. For the most part, I've been doing the same poses in both classes, with some differences. We did sun salutations last week, and this week we're working on hip rotation and bending, which involves the warrior poses, the triangle pose, lunges, and other ones similar to those. We just started the tree pose, and this yoga class has actually helped me prepare for it balance-wise, so I wasn't falling all over the place. My balance still needs work, though I tend to do better on more solid surfaces. Sometimes, after yoga, I'll be standing or leaning on something in my room, or the kitchen, or somewhere and I'll pick one of my feet up and put it on my leg or curl it around just because. I'll be done with both yoga classes after this semester, and I'll be graduating, too, but I do want to try to keep practicing yoga, if only for the fact that it does seem to make me feel better.
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