Short Morning Practice

Another short practice this morning – still I was perfectly happy with it and it was enough to enliven my spirit into the working day.

It started with 50 Ujjiya breaths in Sirsasana (Headstand) with an extra 10 breaths in Parsva Sirsasana, my favourite variation.
Total 60 breaths which kept me balanced upside down on my head for 7 minutes.
Sirsasana is an easy but powerful pose to do when the body’s core energy is weak. Poised up there in a perfectly aligned balance, it requires very little muscle strength to hold. On days when my core energy is strong it’s a different pose and I play more with the energetics of the pose. Today I just got there and stayed, not much more to it than that.

After folding up into Childs Pose for a couple of minutes the plan was for Shoulderstand, but I needed something before that...what was it...some kind of back bend, or more correctly a front stretch. Supta Virasana with a block along my spine gave me what I needed – it stretched open my front body and congested chest, a necessary preparation for Shoulderstand this morning. I discovered that this pose is not quite so easy when done
a) at the beginning of a practice,
b) with early morning stiffness
c) in a cold room with a cold body, and
d) with a head cold.

After 25 breaths in Shoulderstand: Paschimottanasana, then Dog Pose and Uttanasana.
Although that was all I had time for this morning I didn’t succumb to feeling rushed. Each pose felt perfect and complete, and for such a limited practice, that too as a whole felt complete.

As the head cold persists, my yoga practice continues to be a sensitive response to my body’s needs.
The head cold shall pass and practice shall change.


Image: Emus on the side of the road in the Flinders Ranges last weekend.