The Claudia Sutras: My Current Practice

I agree with Lysbeth's saying that yoga is like a big "tool box" from which you pick and choose to attain the final goal of peace and universal intelligence, or union -if you go by the other root of the yoga word-. 

Lysebeth's Yoga Toolbox probably looked like this

Here is what I grab from the toolbox to do my daily practice:

Early morning practice

1.- Wake up to coffee.  I relate to Sharat's: No Coffee No Prana.  See the end of this post for Sharath's Coffee philosophy. Or maybe I just like coffee.  

I let my body have about 40 minutes to an hour between wake up and to the point of getting on the mat.  The later I get on the mat the warmer the body is, but I know I need to practice early. 

2.- Publish post.  Writing has become part of my practice.  I love talking about yoga as you can guess.

3.- Asana consists of  primary series at home and primary plus intermediate to LaghuVajrasana when at the shala (which is what John has me do and I do as the teach says). When at home I am keeping it short for thee reasons:

(a) I really took it to heart when Sharath said that "To advance in your practice you must perfect what you already have". He said that while in conference last January, when talking about "greed". 

(b) Because I want to keep some energy for the drop-back and intensive back bend work, which is the task at hand for me.  The current challenge.

(c) I also want to leave some energy for the other limbs. I find that a full long practice (over 2 hours) can leave me totally wiped out.

p.s.: none of that is happening today as I am enjoying ladies holidays and I LOVE those rest days!

Work

Then comes work during the day.

Afternoon Practice

4.- Pranayama:

a) I Start by chanting Vakratunda mantra to Ganesh to remove obstacles:

Vakratunda Mahakaaya

Koti Surya Samaprabha

Nirvighnam Kuru Mey Deva

Sarva Kaaryeshu Sarvada

Meaning:

To Ganesh with his mighty body and large trunk, who has the magnificence of millions of suns, I pray to you to remove obstacles from the practice I am about to perform.

b) Kapalbhati - I am now up to 40 expulsions per session which means that practice is coming along.

c) Nadhi Sodana with retentions - I have a post to come on this.  Frankly Nadi Sodhana is one of the most incredible pranayama exercises I have practiced, it is powerful, it clears the mind, it just prepares the stage for the rest of the practice.  There are two types, with and without retention, posts soon.

5.- Pratyahara:

Pratyahara mudra

That subtle limb. I find pratyahara fascinating in that in the attempt to withdraw the senses, and while practicing the mudra for it you suddenly connect with the internal sounds of the body.

6.- Focusing:

Then comes focusing, let's face it, nobody sits to meditate, we sit to focus.  Meditation "happens" if we were to merge with the object of the focusing.  If we were lucky to stay focused for a long time without memory or fantasy interrupting.  

As you know, I keep it very real when it comes to this limb of yoga 'a-la-Krishnamacharya-Ramaswami' and the only valid responses to the question, how was your dharana (focusing) practice? Are:

a) I was able to focus on my chosen object sometimes but my mind wandered

b) I was able to focus all the time

There could be a c) I merged with the object of my focus.  Would that not be nice?! then I would be meditating! Working on it for now.

Evening Practice

7.- The Yamas and Niyamas The do's and don'ts of yoga have a way to enter life throughout the day.  But at night they come into focus as reflexion.  I tend to look at places where maybe I did not act from the highest point, where I could have done it better, where I lied to myself, where I did not keep my word, where I may have stolen, maybe energy, maybe time.  It is a daily practice of observation.

8.- Reading.  Currenly I am reading a variety of things: notes from Ramaswami's workshop, notes from Yoga Thailand Teacher Training, The Yoga Sutras (this version which I find very accessible), The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Lysebeth's Pranayama, Bukowski, etc.  The books rotate, change, come back.

Finally I usually ask James to ask me questions about my day, to clarify points and listen to me. I am such a girl! We half joke about it, but I feel loved that way. 

He laughs and asks me how 'I feel'.  I tell him that I need to back up and start the story at the beginning.  Then we laugh again.  God bless him for listening.

See Also:

Learn Kapalbhati

Keeping it Real: 8 Things to Know About the 8 Limbs

Toolbox picture from here, oh and yes, it was meee that added the yoga word there