No Sleep Till...

The post title makes more sense if you know I've been practicing with Mike D for the past 3 day Ooo! Look at me Ashtanga celebrity watching, SNAP!

The alarm went off at 3:30 this morning. I hit snooze for a while before climbing out of the loft. The room that I’m staying in is on the fifth floor and about 5’ x 8’ with a large window that takes up an entire wall. Save the area where the door opens and closes, they’ve built a loft about 5’8” high. The loft holds a full size futon with about 4’ worth of clearance to the ceiling. I can just barely sit up in the loft without hitting my head. I have to duck when I’m walking under the loft. There’s just enough room for a chair, table and lamp, and a small dresser. The room is painted a light blue and someone has used glow in the dark paint to make stars and peace signs. How sweet! The glow in the dark topper is the large glow in the dark “Jesus” that is written on the ceiling right above the pillow. It’s a different kind of place, this Krishna joint.

Anyway, I got my crap together and grabbed a cab. I made it to midtown with time to spare. I got a small coffee and sat in a little deli for a few moments. When I arrived at the loft I set up in the front row, saving a space for Matthew. For some reason I felt a bit of pressure to let go of my front row real estate. I just had a twinge that I should let someone else get up into the heat of it but I figure since I’m the one nuts enough to be getting here early I get to choose where I want to practice. I’ve been enjoying the proximity to Guruji and to Matthew. As with anything, Ashtanga is what you put into it. I want to have the front row and center Guruji experience and I’m putting in the energy to make that happen. If there were someone else in the spot tomorrow it wouldn’t be a big deal. I‘d just move to the next open spot as close to the front as I can get. Yes, there is a certain aspect of attachment / ambition to this, I’ll admit it, but sometimes you have to expend some energy to be in a position to receive the gifts the universe has to offer. Think of the energy it takes to get to Mysore, and why do we go?

Practice was a bit rough for me this morning. The brain was active and the breath was stuttering a bit on the long chutarunga. There were no adjustments today, but Guruji did hold onto me as he moved to help someone in the second row. I was in Prasarita B and as he touched me I felt the energy go right through my legs and into the ground. Great Prana is there! As stated the mind was quite active with some real backwards thoughts like, “why am I doing this to myself?” and “I was OK when I was doing aikido, but I’m not sure about this ashtanga stuff!” These are very aberrant thoughts for me and not common at all. I will often doubt my ability but rarely the practice itself. I suppose these represent something I need to get out of my mind. More purging! So, yes, it was a tough practice today and yes, I am glad tomorrow is a moon day. I’ll gladly take the break and look forward to my practice Thursday.

This afternoon Matthew and me are going to see the Brian Jones movie. Matthew surprised me by wanting to go, so I waited to see it with him. This evening I am going into Brooklyn to see SS and KW. Should be a good time although I need to figure out the whole subway to Brooklyn thing.