Slugging off the Mental Toxins?

I made it to the loft at 5:30 AM after a rough night's sleep. The temperature and humidity the past few nights have been high and though we installed a ceiling fan last year it didn't seem to help last night. I only hit the snooze button once though and found the way to Ganesha and my gear.

I sufficiently warmed up with 4 each of Surya Namaskara A and B. During these I noticed that my mind was really quite active, just not as quiet as it usually is. I wouldn’t say there was a dialog, but rather a series of statements. Throughout the practice these statements kept on, and they were not very positive. They were critical, self negating and some were very competitive. The strange thing about this was that they seemed very external and I had the impression that this was some sort of purge. Over the past 8 months of daily practice I’ve experienced a great deal of physical toxin release, some of it quite nasty. Other than the mental side effects of giving up booze and smoke, I have not had many noticeable mental changes take place. Well, there have been a few, but nothing as intense as the purge this morning. It was like my mind was just spewing out the negativity to make space for new mental processes. I wonder if anyone else has had this or something similar happen with Ashtanga?

So, other than these evil thoughts pouring through my head (which I’m sure influenced my practice a great deal) practice went pretty smoothly. Matthew adjusted me with Marichyasana A on both sides, which is really helping to release my back and shoulders. On my last exhale he brought my chin all the way down to my knee. Of course, when he released I lost about an inch of the bend, but even that is further than I had gone before. I ended with Navasana, making sure that I had enough time to finish and get to work by 8 AM.

On a real positive note, the Loft was packed today! There must have been 15 people there right at 6 AM and they kept coming as well. Many new faces. Note: I need to talk to T about getting a copy of the NY photos. I would really like to post some of those here.

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