Week 25 continued - Jenny

I couldn't go on to the next sequence.  So I've been doing the same week 25 sequence for the past two weeks.  I am actually getting somewhere.  This ability to center the head of the femur in the hip socket is becoming an easier and swifter process for me.  I am surprised at how much my knee comes towards midline when I center the hip joint.  I feel all tiny - all balled up tight.  I used to have a Doberman.  She had long legs and a long body but she would fold up like a bat when she sat on the couch.  That's what it feels like.  I guess that must have something to do with my anatomy because I see so many people whose knees are way out to the sides when they sit in lotus.  Or maybe this is just how it begins.  Maybe over time my knees will extend away from midline.  Who knows?  Either way, it feels great.  It feels like nothing - and isn't that the end point of every pose?  Not that there is an end point of any pose, but you know what I mean.

I've learned to prop and move, prop and move (like "stick and move" in some sports) to keep the practice going.  It's refreshing to get to a point where I can get through the sequence in some sort of normal time frame.  This is an invigorating sequence - there is a lot of moving from front to back bends and vice versa.  I have to remind myself to be safe.  But one thing I'll say - it's invigorating.

One thing I'd like to point out about the sequencing: it seemed so completely weird to me to go from Camel (Ustrasana) to Chair (Utkatasana).  But I must say I love what it does for my Utkatasana.  My instincts tell me to work my way out of the backbend of Camel.  So I work for such a straight back in the Chair Pose.  The spine feels like it does in Down Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) - reached way long.  I like it.  Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) comes right after, and that's kind of scary, so I just take my time.  But I see how he's giving Chair as the intermediate.  We now work out of backbends in a safer way, but I think he was working for a safe way to get out of the backbend - it was just the safe way of the 60's.