RAISING YOUR VIBRATION

This week, I am attending an intermediate intensive yoga gathering hosted by Desiree Rumbaugh and Andrew Rivin, right here in San Diego County (Encinitas, to be exact). It began yesterday (Monday), 9am sharp, with a few words from Desiree. The intensive is 5 hours of yoga each day for 4 days; broken down to 2 ½ hours in the morning and again in the afternoon.  Friday's session will be just the  morning.

Let me preface all this by saying that I have not done an intense practice like this for a long time (too long). Add to that my continuing saga of 'bumps' (you need to read previous post), and back pain from sitting too long in a car with poor lumbar support this past weekend (4 hours). All these things could have been my excuse to not attend, or to not participate fully. I decided to do the practice, see what happened, back off if/when needed. Briefly, let me say that the back never hurt during the practice, the bumps were not an issue (except the one on the knee during knee-down lunges), and the one time I felt the intensity was a long-timed pidgeon. So, I think it went pretty well.  Here are some details:

We began, as many of these yoga days do, with an active morning practice -- standing poses, backbends, inversions. Andrew started the day off with a nice warm-up, then Desiree stepped in.  There are approximately 60 people attending. I was amazed that they are from all over the country; even one student from Argentina. And, I know a lot of the people attending; maybe I couldn't say each one's name, but I have seen them repeatedly over the years at other trainings and workshops.  This fact made me feel right at home.

Desiree's emphasis for the day (we are following the five acts of Shiva - creation, sustainment, concealment, revealment, dissolution - over these five days), was 'creation'. In her beginning talk, she defined 'intermediate' for us -- the student who is not a beginner, has learned enough about his/her body to begin to 'create' a healthy practice. This 'intermediate' student is also the one who may get hurt more often than beginners or advanced practitioners; we are still learning, after all -- still creating. She went on to say that the new-to-yoga student is a bit more cautious, while the advanced student has been through the phase of 'intermediate', knows what will help/hurt them. Certainly there are 'advanced' practitioners in the room, and they will become known to us over the days.

So, what did we create?  In the morning, there was a foray into her 'one, two, three' phases of poses.  For example, when standing in Warrior I once the foundation is set - step one: shoulders up and back, step two: sides of the neck moving back, step three: extend up out of the stable foundation (there turned out to be other components of step three; many, in fact). But, the longer we are in a pose, the more opportunity we have to open, refine, stabilize, etc.

We had a luxurious 3-hour break for lunch -- many went to the beach during this time; I took the opportunity to visit the salad bar at Whole Foods and spent my time eating as I got to know my neighbor-on-the-mat better. She and her friend are here from Colorado. Then, I took myself to shop a bit, then back to the practice space to read and rest.

The afternoon began with an introduction to our lumbar curve, aided by multiple blankets.  We kept that emphasis throughout the afternoon. Learning how to control our desire to 'flop' deeply into a forward fold; instead retaining the lumbar curve and NOT folding so deeply.  Great afternoon practice of hip movement.

After a long drive home, a bowl of soup, a bit of computer time, I was ready to sleep.  Up early, preparing lunch, getting ready to go again -- to move deeper.

 Have a great Tuesday,