Week 14 - Ariana

All that talk about continuing with the week 12 sequence for a while until I felt steady in it... I was totally inspired today to do the next sequence for week 14 instead of repeating the last one. I saw that it starts with headstand and I really wanted to do that.

My practice felt different today. I just wanted to get into the poses and not read Mr. Iyengar's instructions at all. I was focused on lines of force in the body in each pose. What moves up, down, in, out, and to the sides. In all of the poses there are forces that move in direct opposition to each other in order to create balance and stability or steadiness and ease. Stira Sukham Asanam.

I had a cool experience while in the Savasana Pranayama. Suddenly on the inhalation retention I felt prana or energy being held in the body. Then I started playing with it and concentrating the prana in certain areas of the body with mental concentration. So I directed it to different energy centers in the body that I have read about. I don't know much about chakras other than where they are located. I directed it first to the third eye or ajna chakra then to the root chakra. Then I sent it through all the chakras from the bottom up. As I did that I visualized the colors corresponding to each one. It was a spontaneous experiment. It happened when I let go and stopped trying to control the breath so much. Even though pranayama is about gaining control of the breath I felt it had to be balanced with an element of letting go. I let the inhales and exhales come and go like waves. I caught the wave on the inhalation retention and then let it go again. While I was retaining it I was playing with the prana. I might have to try that again.

After I let go I realized that the body has its own wisdom. The challenge is letting the mind be subservient to it and trusting it - to drop out of the mind and the illusion that we can control everything. Sometimes we have to give in to the wave of fate and see what is presented to us before we try to create something.