Dani's Yoga Update N. 3

We have just finished our first full week of practice (with no moon days or other interruptions). It began on Sunday with a led class, and ended today with another led class. The led class runs in two sessions (one at 5 am, one at 6.30), and today I am told that Guruji taught the second session. Peter was lucky enough to be there and hopefully will write something about it. Inbetween led classes, all other days are Mysore classes, where people practice at their own pace. This week, Sharath has expanded my practice to include all of Primary Series and about a third of Intermediate. It's a long practice!! At first, I thought that the backbend adjustment (see my previous yoga update) would be easier after doing all 8 backbending poses of Intermediate in a row, but it turns out that by that stage, my back has sort of had enough and doesn't want to play anymore. I stagger into the finishing room, trying to catch my breath and hoping there's a spot to fall into.
Practice session have tended to alternate between feeling easy and hard; if there's a day when I'm focused, everything flows, my breath stays steady, I can lift and jump back smoothly, the difficult poses are accessible etc, then I can be almost sure that the next day everything will hurt, I will be conveniently distracted by whoever's around me, my breath will feel like it's all in fits and starts, I'm stiff as a board and lumbering around my mat like an elephant. So it goes.
On Monday is the celebration of Guruji's 92nd birthday. In honour of this we are having 4 days off practice starting from tomorrow. We are off to the jungle! There will be lots to tell, no doubt, when we get back.