Yeeks… camel droppings, pigeon droppings… nope I am not talking about poo poo from animals.
Dropbacks in yoga. Some of us are obsessed with droppings. But I am not… why? Cos I am more obsessed with my headstand. yes, that pose which has yet to “arrived” for me…
However, my droppings are here… *grin*
I was late for class yesterday. Yes, I even thought about not going as I awoke late. As usual I have something to blame – singapore’s hot weather. I could not sleep the night before. I went to bed at 2am ( I am a night owl… can’t sleep unless it is 2am and beyond… henceforth, I never did make it for any of Matthew Sweeney’s Mysore classes… pity… ) but could not sleep even after 2 hours of tossing and turning. I was perspiring and “food” for mossies… I think I almost scratched my leg’s skin off… When I finally fell asleep, it was already 5am. And I awoke at 10:45am and rushed like a mad woman to class at 11:45am. I was in fact late for 5 minutes and missed the meditation. I am not a big fan of meditation but I like it when teachers share their thoughts and insights with us before each class. It kinda sets a theme and mood for the class. Which makes classes like these very enjoyable and I learn more about myself during the class.
We did the camel droppings. Go into camel with your hands supporting at your hips. As you bend back, try to push your hips forward. Open your heart and throat. And BREATHE. Once you are back enough, hold your ankles with your hands. Do this for 2 times to open your back and get ready for droppings. hehe…
Then this time, stretch your left hand up. Your right hand again supporting at the hip, back bend again. This time work your right hand after holding your ankle towards the knee of the right leg. The stretch your left hand down as far as you can to touch the floor if possible. Then move up again and repeat with the other side.
This was a first for me! I can finally touch the floor! I actually did not know I could do it. I was like almost touching and yet was afraid or rather unsure if I could go any further. However, my teacher saw and encouraged me to go ahead and touch the floor. It was great, with his encouragement, I was like “teacher believe I can do it, I am sure I can do it!” and sure enough I just went ahead and did it! Fantastic!
Then without a doubt in my mind, i went ahead and did the other side without any prompting or hesitation.
Hey, it all boils down to your confidence and your believe that you can do it! Amazing! Yoga is such a great exercise to raise your self confidence and your awareness!
Next stop the real deal… dropbacks. We have been doing alot of preparation work for droppings each time with help of each other and having great tips from our teacher. This time my teacher taught us a technique he learnt from Matthew Sweeney. Matthew was saying that practicing dropbacks using the wall is no use. The best way to train is to stand close to the wall and then do your back bend slow and as far low as you can and then reach out your hands to touch the wall and then come back up again. Practice this way to help build the strength and probably the confidence.
I am not sure if this was the reason but I did the drop back right after I practice this method. This time round, I did by doing the backbend slow with my hands in namaste. Backbend abit, breathe, come back up abit and then breathe and do down abit further. I kept doing this until I could see the floor. ( remember to keep your shoulders back and throat and chest open ). and then I just stretch out and touch the floor. Of course I did this with someone still watching my back and will help if for any reasons. But I must say this was the first time I did it with confidence and no hesitation.
Hmm.. I think I am ready! weee!
Om~
