The universe is trying to tell me to breathe. Returning to Richard Agar Ward’s class today as a little treat to myself to help me through the last week of the challenge, we spent a half hour practicing viloma pranayama with an image of a embedded circles to represent the expansion of the breath. To prepare for pranayama, we spent an hour practicing downward dog with and without ropes (while on ropes Richard pulled my arms a foot longer forward); sirsasana, supported sarvangasana and halasana. By the time we came to sit, I felt more open in the back thoracic and alert in my mind.
This juxtaposed with Mark’s class on Tuesday, also heavy on pranayama, was an entirely different experience. The simplicity and repetition of the Iyengar class enabled me to focus more easily on the sensations in the body and the breath itself because I felt grounded. While after Mark’s class i felt spacey bordering on unwell, after Today’s class I felt grounded and relaxed. So often in a yoga class, less is more.