What brings me to Memphis? Well, I came here to present my paper on procrastination at a philosophy conference at Rhodes College. I arrived here yesterday afternoon, and so far, I've just been doing what I would have done if I were anywhere else. Had some dinner at an Indian restaurant yesterday, then went to Whole Foods to stock up on provisions.
This morning, I did my practice in my hotel room. This morning's backbends were especially delicious. Especially the dropbacks. I have been gaining more control in dropping back over the past few weeks. I almost never just flop and crash to the ground these days (I don't want to say "never", because I might jinx myself). This morning, during my first two dropbacks, I actually succeeded in lowering myself slowly to the ground, touching my fingertips to the mat, and then coming back up. For the third dropback, I walked my hands to my heels, touched them, but did not succeed in getting into Chakrabandhasana by myself. I have yet to succeed in getting into Chakrabandhasana by myself thus far; a little assist by a capable teacher in this area (say, by someone like Kino) would have been very nice :-)
Speaking of assists... you know, maybe someday we will develop the technology to make instructional yoga dolls that do assists. Basically, you will have a life-size statue of your favorite yoga teacher, and then program the statue to give you assists when you get to postures that you find challenging. Can you imagine what it would be like to have, like, a life-sized Tim Miller Assist-Doll or Kino Assist-Doll standing around and assisting you at the appropriate moments? From an economic point of view, these Assist-Dolls will sell like the way yoga DVDs are sold today. So Kino, for instance, will sell her own line of Assist-Dolls just like she sells her DVDs now.
Wouldn't that be so kick-ass? And while we're at it, maybe somebody should also make a life-sized Sharath Assist-Doll as well? I'm sure they will sell like hot cakes--or like hot dosas! And then who would need to go to Mysore? Gee, I may be getting a little sacrilegious here. Well, if you're offended, try to pretend you never read these last two paragraphs.
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Before I arrived here in Memphis, I was thinking of possibly doing some touristy things; things like going to Graceland to see The King, for instance. But then I got here, and just felt like doing what I would normally do if I were at home. Maybe this is what Ashtanga does to you: It turns you into a boring person.
No, I have not gone to see The King.
[Image taken from here]
The truth is, I've never really been a big fan of Elvis's music. I don't know why; maybe it's a generational thing? But maybe I should go see The King, after all? It just seems wrong to come to Memphis and not do this. I don't know; we'll see.
Elvis has left the building, Nobel! :-D
ReplyDeleteAh yes, of course, he's checked out... :-)
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DeleteWelcome to Tennessee! I would definitely go to Graceland and to the Stax Museum.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy! You are making me think more seriously about going to Graceland. I'll see if I can squeeze this in sometime this afternoon :-)
DeleteYou mean Tirieng Mukhottanasana (can be spelled several different ways: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mastapiannis/414107251/), not Chakrabandhasana. Chakrabandhasana has the elbows/forearms on the ground (regardless of what's listed in Sweeney's book, which is wrong). And that's not what Sharath calls it. See 1:59 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPljBKe4ybg
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Frank. So I have been getting the nomenclature wrong the whole time :-)
DeleteIf this is so, then isn't Tirieng Mukhottanasana actually harder than Chakrabandhasana? On days when my shoulders are tighter, the elbows tend to come to the ground. Or maybe this is just my body.
I'm not exactly sure, since I haven't attempted Chakrabandhasana in a long time. But I think it would depend. I think Chakrabhandasana requires more flexibility in the shoulders but Tirieng Mukhottanasana requires more flexibility in the hip flexors. I actually think of that as just about the ultimate standing pose, whereas Chakrabandhasana is still more of a backbend. However, that could be because when I started being able to bind Tirieng Mukhottanasana, I was almost immediately encourged/admonished to bring my weight forward to balance on my own, so the standing aspect of the pose, and the need to really stretch the hip flexors and push the weight forward, have been paramount. I think putting the elbows on the ground allows you to relax the hip flexors a bit. This does not contradict your experience necessarily; could it be that on those days when you thought your shoulders were tighter that it was actually your hip flexors that were tighter (perhaps in addition to theshoulders, if not instead of them)?
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