side bakasana

This is a great pose to enter out of ardha matsyendrasana (half lord of the fishes) since your body is already twisted and your arms are in, basically, the right place. Marichyasana C is also a good pose to enter from.

It's more challenging than bakasana or even koundinyasana, where the legs are split. Having the legs stacked adds a challenge to the balance and strength. If you're having trouble getting your feet to rise, think about dropping the head lower. This almost has a "see-saw" effect, lifting your legs and feet as the head falls. Your inside arm, which is carrying the weight, acts as the fulcrum.

namaste,
tim

injury and intention

I'm injured. My left hamstring feels like it's ground up. Overused.
I've felt it coming on for weeks now, but I kept pushing. Some days it felt fine. Some days it felt better after practice. Some days it was worse before, during and after asana.
Finally, it gave. The pain was too much. My body was no longer giving me gentle hints to stop, it was screaming at me.
I was crushed. How would I be able to practice without using my hamstring? I couldn't even do a sun salutation.
Then denise reminded me that there is asana for everyone. She told me to practice like an 80-year-old man. I didn't go that far, but I understood.
I started on the mat with cat and cow. Then right into up dog, down dog. From down dog, I went into plank and either held it, or did push ups, or side plank, or nakrasana, or an arm balance, and then back into down dog. To keep warming up, I did various warrior dances.
For standing poses, I focused on side angles, crescents, squats, warriors 1 and 2 and balances that don't stretch the hamstring (tree and its variations, eagle, squat balances).
For seated, I basically followed ashtanga second series. Instead of krounchasana, I did baddha konasana. For leg behind the head poses, pigeon and stacking the legs, ankles on knees. Instead of tittibhasana, I did more crescents, same for horse.
The specifics aren't that important, though it may help someone in a similar position with an injury, and I would welcome and suggestions for other alternatives.
What is importnat is that my intention shifted from advancing my practice to just practicing. I'm not saying that I only think about "getting better" at asana when I get on the mat, but I do have this desire to push myself deeper and do more poses. But this time, I was just grateful to be on the mat. Grateful to have any asana practice. And I realized it's all about the intention, not about the poses. I knew this, but the injury helped remind me.
It felt so right to finally listen to my body.

Namaste,
Tim

hedonist bhoga

am i doing it because it feels good to me or because it is opening up into infinite space? i thought i was awakening, and i suppose i am to start to realize this, but so far its been all about the awakening, as if im doing it, and it is so ecstatic that i am orgasming all the time, except when i start to come down, except when someone pulls out because its not always so wonderful to be on the other side of someones orgasm that is doing it because it feels so good they forget about the other being, even if we are becoming one, we were becoming me. i thought i was opening into love, and i guess i am as i sense the difference, but alot of my love was love for myself, loving the way someone makes me feel, what they do for me. i dint know i was doing it. i felt what i thought was love.
its hard to see the possibilties of life sometimes, we can only see what we have already known. i couldnt understand why people were a little confused by me, turned away from me, they must just not get me i thought, and they may not, but i just didnt get it either. not that ive got it now.
but im beginning to feel the difference.
and can sense how far i have to go.
deep gratitude for the awakening, each door as it opens.