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| Hey folks, some of you may recall I was planning on going to a Mysore session for the first time. Here's a little novel about my experience...
So Monday morning, with difficulty, I woke up early enough to go to the Mysore session. I planned to have nearly 2 hours there, so I figured I could easily go through the primary series until the point that my teacher chose for me to stop, and go through the finishing sequence.
It was nice and peaceful in the room, with only about 6 other students practicing. Some were clearly very advanced students and I think they were doing the intermediate series. Very cool stuff. I set myself up facing the wall so that I could focus on myself better... Not that I really spend much time watching others in (led) classes, but I haven't had the opportunity to see the intermediate series in action, so I was a bit intrigued. There was peaceful yoga-style music playing and so it didn't take me long to get my focus.
The studio has booklets that have the whole sequence of poses mapped out in images, so I flipped through that first and then asked my teacher how far I should go. He told me to go to navasana. I started the surya namaskaras and set the pace for my practice with my breathing, but I think I went much too slowly. It took me forever! I never worked up a sweat like I do in led classes. I think next time, I will up the pace just a bit. When I brought this up to the teacher at the end of my session, he said that I had been going too slowly, but that there was a "vibe" of slowness in the air that day, and that usually Mysore sessions are more energizing because there are more students and you can almost feel the energy zapping around the room. Can't wait to feel that!
So it all went smoothly, the teacher came to adjust things quietly in a few of my postures, but I think he was observing more as it was my first time there. He sat with me to demonstrate postures I hadn't done before (like janu sirsasana B and C, and marichyasana B and D - now that's what I call a pretzel). It was all good.
But I ran out of time and had to go to work so I couldn't just keep going, so I went straight from navasana to savasana, which I got to do for only a couple of minutes before I rushed off to work.
So I guess my first experience hasn't exactly won me over completely, but I am responsible for that myself. I did not like the pace that I set, and the fact that as a result I wasn't able to budget my time properly so I could do the finishing sequence. I think I spent too long in each of the poses too, not that there is such a thing as too long per se, but this is ashtanga after all, and things are still supposed to flow.
I was planning on going back on Tuesday morning, but I came down with some bug that had me all feverish and headachy and dizzy. I'm still dragging it today though my fever broke this morning and I'm hoping that spending the afternoon on the couch will have me feeling better enough to go to class this evening. I'm going to continue attending regular led classes because I find that I still have a lot to learn and to get out of these classes, but I can see how eventually they might prove limiting for someone who's practice has moved past the need to "breakdown" downdog every class. I'm not even close to being there myself...
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| Oh it never hurts to breakdown dog!
Well doing for going along to the Mysore session, at least it was an experience for you. I think that you will find that it comes with time, as your practice matures and changes.
Well done 
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| Congratulations for taking the plunge!;)
Mysore can be a little intimidating at first, and you may feel a little lost without the teacher leading and setting the pace. After you get used to it however, you will just rather follow your own breath and body. Then the flow starts to happen, and that to me is one of the most joyful and freeing aspects of ashtanga. Like dancing 
I am not sure about your shala and teacher, but my teacher empahsizes the flow much more than perfect alignment at the start. May not be everyone's experience, but that is how I learnt. Keep it up!  |
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| Hm, I would say that at my shala there is a lot of emphasis placed on alignment in the poses, which I am very happy about because I think I need that. I would chance a guess that judging by all the pictures of BKS Iyengar hanging around the studio among the ones Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and because of my teacher's active cooperation with the leading local authority in Iyengar (they are teaching an extensive course on the advances series in ashtanga together from both perspectives), that this is an ashtanga studio that has accepted some of the lessons of Iyengar and recognizes the importance of alignment. Not that there isn't emphasis put on the flow, but in beginner classes, the flow gets broken very often so that we can focus on our alignment in the poses. Not fun when the pose is utkatasana and we end up holding it for a very long time, .
I attended a the level 2 class taught by the head teacher again yesterday, and this would have to be the most thorough practice of the primary series that I did. It was also done with full vinyasa, which isn't the case in all the level 2 classes I've attended, usually we get the choice whether or not to do vinyasa between sides, but this time, we were guided through all of them. And we went a step further in the series than I had gone in my mysore session, as we did bhujapidasana (tough one! didn't get my chin to the ground, but I did end up perpendicular with it, so I was close!). Then we did a couple of things from the intermediate series, and the entire finishing sequence. It was great. Very stimulating pace. I think I will try to hold this class in my memory and try to take that same energy with me the next time I attend mysore and maybe I'll have a better flow.
Either way, I'm patient, I realize that it will take time before I can feel the flow when practicing without cues from the teacher, but I'm willing to wait and just keep trying.
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First Mysore session
