Saturday - Take Rest (kind of)

Chicago. Woke at 7 AM but didn't get moving till around 7:30. Did a short Ganesh Puja using Bucky's altar. I bought a new set of rudraksha beads yesterday and offered them to Ganesh for blessing. I then cleaned my teeth and tongue (extremely important) well and sat down for pranayama.

In ashtanga practice Saturdays are days off. This has always bothered me until I began practicing Mysore style with Matthew everyday. For many reasons I work much more intensely in class than I did at home and a day of rest is no longer shunned. On Saturdays, I still like to work in some yogic manner and have found that pranayama is great for my body without putting any additional stress on my body.

I did pranayama for 40 minutes (8:05 to 8:45) and though my mind jumped around quite a bit I found that my breath was fairly easy to bring under control and that I was able to hold it much longer than I ever had before.

I began with a regular ujjayi breath. Then, using my thumb and second finger, blocked the left nostril while breathing out the right. I did this until the passage way was clear and the breath was flowing smoothly without restrictions. I think I took about 6 inhales. I then switched and did the same. When I did the switch I did so on an inhale into one nostril and then an exhale out the other.

Then blocking the left nostril, I inhaled through the right while moving my torso up (extending it) to get more of an inhale. I then returned my hand to the mudra (first finger to thumb) and held my breath while lowering the neck to block the air passage. I did this 7 - 10 times, folding in on the exhales and returning to at straight back on the inhales to get the maximum capacity of air in my lungs.

I returned to blocked breathing with no hold for 3 breaths and then switched nostrils. I closed with a good 10 minutes of ujjayi breath through both nostrils and continued the attempt to clear my mind.

I finished my pranayama and figured that would be it for the day, but when Bucky and AJ woke they wanted to do some Kundalini and I couldn't resist. We did an hour session designed to awaken the 10 bodies. I had not done this session before and REALLY enjoyed it. The emphasis was on the breath, primarily using breath of fire, and repetitive movements while breathing in
and out. I have a copy of the session we did and I will post it here later for reference. I may incorporate this into my Saturdays on a regular basis. Kundalini on top of 45 minutes of pranayama was very mind-blowing!