Don't give up!

You can do Supta Kurmasana but you are giving up too fast..... Iain Grysak, February 2017.

Therefore I am still stuck to here. So I got frustrated of course, if I was not then I won't be really me ;-) because I noticed that some of the students (at least 3) can not grab in Supta Kurmasana but still they practice all the series.

Bagus told me yesterday, and trust me this guy is a real wise man, as per the rule of the Ashtanga since I have really started and committed to my practice on April 2016 I am still consider as a complete beginner, so being stuck in one asana for less than a year or more is completely normal.

Therefore I am a "young" practictioner which I kind of like it because I still feel that I am too old for so many things, so seeing this from this side make me happy.... in fact!

Then instead of whining about myself "why I can not move forward, why am I the only one, why I feel like shit" etc, etc.....  which is completely pathetic, I started compiling the "now" and the "then" of my practice.

And in fact I really improved, more than I can even imagine. And starting from Marichyasana D both side, without any help, without any doubt, without any pain should have a ring a bell to my brain instead of complaining why I stop here?

My jump back and jump front are getting better and better, my Shirshana is completely stable for 25 breaths and half shirshasana is completely under control as a couple of month ago I was not able to hold it more than 5 breathes.

My body structure is also changing, there is more space between my rib cage and my hips but still I need to work on the upper body, the opening is really bad and the shoulders are still stiff.

So from an holistic point of view my upper body need to be more relaxe and to be more relaxe I should be able to let go all the bad things, bad memories, injuries etc that I am dealing with, it is my next step. I am closing up because I am not ready to accept the present moment without comparing it to before, to what I did, what I should have done, what I want to do, it is always past or future but never in the present. I don't live in the present moment and I keep thinking of things that happened 2 or 3 years ago, it is crazy right???

Therefore as the Ashtanga Yoga is all about trust and let it go and especially when you are doing the backbend how can I go further if I don't remove the layers covering my mind?

Basically this is the conversation I had with myself and also with Iain yesterday and I was quite happy to be able to speak about it during our session with other students.

And Iain told me "Now you are practicing yoga, now you are in the deepest part of the Yoga and it is not easy".

So true.