Ashtanga Yoga Crète

I am still doing my world wide tour of Ashtanga ;-)

I travelled to Greece only to practice with Kristina Karitinou. This morning was the opening of the season and I was the only one student!

It was such a privilege to practice alone under her guidance.

My breathing was not that good, especially I always found it very hard during the Suraya Namaskara B, when inhaling going to Virabhadrasana I, most of the time I am out of breathe. But when you are the only one in the shala there is no way to hide, therefore I tried my level best to extend all breathe but was not fully successful.

She gave me a lot of tips, such as when going in Adho Mukha, instead of looking right away to my navel, taking an extra breath by looking forward to extend it and then exhaling toward the navel. It was nice.

Also while bending the knee she explains, each time I am bending my knee to janu shirshasana for instance, when I place the foot it should be on inhalation and while bending the knee should be done on exhalation. Easy on the paper, but thinking of doing it for all janu series and marichyasana series was not that easy.

She explained that when we bend the knee on the inhalation we are blocking it, therefore we hurt our knee, as while you exhale it is releasing all tensions that might rise toward the joint.

Adding extra breathing was not that easy but highly beneficial, all my movement were connecting through a proper breathing, which I should have done before because I knew it, but to be honest I am not doing it properly. So having special attention to it was really helpful but keeping the focus was really hard.

I will be in Greece until July 10th.... and will probably come back on September.

Very happy to follow the Ashtanga Yoga Path, each time I am digging it that path, each time I realise that I don't know anything.... it is always a reboot, no place for ego...

Have a good practice !

- Namaste -