First led class since... oh dear!, Thailand!

On Thursday as my three day Pure Yoga experience ended I thanked John for letting me practice with him for the short time the shala was clsoed, and he asked me if I was coming on Friday for the led class.  I explained how the pass expired, but he said, "come as my guest", "Come"!.  (Led classes are the ones where the instructor leads the class with the proper Sanskrit count and everyone follows, as opposed to Mysore class where everyone does their own thing)

Can you guess that I was actually also grateful my pass ended on Thursday?  I was not really looking forward to a led class,  but as the universe has its ways, I said "yes! thank you!",  I mean, what an opportunity!, regardless of my feelings... never mind them!.

(Pix by Absolute Ahstanga Yoga  depicts of a led class with Pattabhi Jois in the front, at the AYRI in Mysore)

So I did show up at 6:30 on Friday.  I usually do not like when blog posts speak of something the writer didn't want to do, ended up doing, and turned out to be a blessing in disguise so I will spare you that part, but I will share that I learned a few things:

1- Coming up from all the sited positions, (the ardha badha, trianga, the  janus),  we breathe while still holding to the foot in front, then we breathe out, while still holding, THEN we breathe in and do the jump back... hmm... did not have that one.

2-  I usually dislike  my chaturanga because my back curves in a wierd way, I had received direction from many teachers but I think he nailed it Friday when he said, go all the way to the floor with the sternum.  This made sense as I now understand why people tend to keep their butt up in the air a little, otherwise we would go flat on the floor.

3- The ending Mysore style, where we come to standing to chant the closing, had not done that in ages.

Some curious things included:

• The fact that the 6:30 led class had a lot of people in it!, about 15, and that most of them were men, only a few women.  The 8:00 AM class was beyond full, I would say about 18 people were waiting, and most of them were women.

• The people at the reception at Pure are very nice, the woman signing me in told me she cannot let me in anymore without a pass (which I can totally understand!),  and I said to her that John did indeed invite me, that I cannot lie cause I am a yogi... that good old "asteya" principle!  (I like to think of that one as: "asteyaway from what does not belong to you).

I feel such deep gratitude to all yoga teachers, and to the fact that many of them live in the town I live in.


I am curious, when was the last time you took a led class? and how do you feel about them?