The Sniffley Sadhana
Summer Sadhana 2012, the fourth annual 10 days of early morning practice, has been a bumpy ride. Every day presented a new obstacle: one student had a family medical emergency; another’s dental surgery date moved ahead from July to two days before we started. There was a temporary crown that came out; a fall on […]
Sadhana Days 7 to 10
Sunday, Day 7, was our day of rest. I slept in until 7 a.m. It was glorious. Since then, we’ve been working through the practice for a second time. The basic pattern for Monday and Tuesday has been the same. On Monday, we experimented with removing the Warrior poses and Parsvottanasana from the standing pose […]
Sadhana: the practice for day six
One of the interesting things about this lotus is that it was photographed in New Jersey.Day five, Friday, was a day for experimental standing poses. In this case, what happens if you create a shoulder brace out of a long strap, hold the ends of the strap, and do your standing poses without taking weight […]
Sadhana: practice for day five
If you’re going to commit to a yoga practice, one that is “cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time,” as Sutra 1.14 specifies, then there’s a question you have to answer. If your body isn’t ready for arm balance, headstand and shoulder stand every day, what do you do while waiting for it to […]
Sadhana: the practice for day three
Tuesday, day two, was shoulder stand variations and forward bends. It was interesting to see which standing poses were echoed in the variations. For some reason I had never seen quite so clearly before how Eka Pada Sarvangasana (shoulder stand with one leg descending) relates to Parsvottanasana (intense side stretch pose) – with a concave […]
Sadhana: the practice for day two
The first day of Sadhana went off without a hitch. In fact, from where I sat, it felt comfortable and familiar. I know I wasn’t the only one. On her way out the door, Rosaria said: “It feels like we just picked up where we left off last year.” Savasana was short, and for reasons […]