some yoga is better than none

My early morning habits completely disappeared overnight. I knew I wasn't going to the shala, and managed to sleep in til 10, for the first time in over a month. As a result, no time to practice before I had to leave for my acupuncture appointment. So I practiced when I got home this afternoon. I did some more research online about my injury, and I am pretty sure that I can't do anything weight bearing on my foot (so no surya's no standing sequence, etc) while it heals. Thus I had a highly modified practice.

I tried to put my feldenkrais skills to use..and visualized a couple sun salutations and worked on breathing..then I did the seated sequence up to navasana, minus vinyasas (and purvattanasana). I might have to modify mari B and D to lose the half lotus on the right (to protect my ankle), though mari A seems to put the most pressure on my right ankle. I will have to figure that one out. My mari D is pretty laughable right now; it was interesting to try it, both with and without the lotus. I could manage two of the five navasanas, only one of which had sort of straight legs.

The advantage of home practice is that it gives me time for exploration, I can repeat, modify or use props if needed and add/omit postures. The focused breath and energy of shala practice is sacrificed, though, as was the feeling of the primary series. Without all the vinyasas and sun salutations and standing poses, it was a very different animal, much less dynamic. Still, it felt very freeing to practice at home today.

Then I went on to a modified closing sequence, practicing poses that I knew already, and omitting anything that would aggravate my foot. I love shoulderstand, for the energy I can often feel in my chest and spine in this posture, and sorely miss practicing it at the shala. I discovered that pindasana is a major bandha developer. I am using a blanket for this part of the sequence, so I balanced in padmasana for the first time-- though I think my back was not very straight, as I couldn't straighten my arms.

I am also trying to work on my breath, as my teacher told me to, while this heals...made for an interesting padmasana today (how does one keep up that sort of breathing throughout the practice, let alone, for the 10 breaths of the posture?).

I feel much better to be able to practice at all. Some yoga is better than none..