Day 104 Intention ~ Slow Down
I remember the first class I ever took with my teacher, Marni Task. At the time, I was pretty new to hot power vinyasa. Sure, I had done vinyasa in a room temperature setting, I had also practiced hot yoga, but Bikram, not in a flowing vinyasa. I found that I would often struggle to find ujjayi breath in these hot classes and would stumble and bumble my way through the poses as fast as I could.
She came up to me and told me to slow down. And, guess what, it changed my practice. To this day I think of that when I am moving a little bit slower in class than the 20 year olds around me or when I am teaching and I see a student rushing through chatturanga, and upward facing dog.
When you slow it down, you can feel your breath, heck, you can feel the pose. I have heard comments from different people who think moving more slowly is easier or more "beginner". Holding the poses longer is not easier in my book...I feel that it builds more strength and allows you to go deeper.
It is beginner friendly because that newer student has a chance to get into the pose with more time, they also get to feel it in their bodies and make adjustments in alignment if needed. They get to find union between their breath and their body...connection...yoga.
Today, 4 years after that first class, Marni reminded me (and the whole class) to slow it down again. This time coming out of savasana pose. As we all started to wiggle our fingers and toes ready to roll up and om...ready to move on to the rest of our day, she reminded us to slow it down, to move as if you are just learning how to use those muscles again. It was a nice reminder for that moment and for the rest of my day.
Til tomorrow...
Shanti,
Marcia
