We arrived at the studio a little before 8am and it was cold and I was jittery! Pretzel turned the heat on full blast and taught us how to prepare for meditation. Our first step to was to wrap the ace bandages around our heads. It felt as funny as I expected. I was surprised that she spent alot of time telling us different ways to position ourselves with pillows and blankets and encouraged us to wrap ourselves in our shawls and blankets. She said to make sure we were comfortable because "meditation isn't about suffering," which was nice to hear because for some reason, this wasn't obvious to me.
Then she walked us through "yogic breath," which has four phases - inhalation, exhalation, retention of the inhalation, and retention of the exhalation. She taught two ways - one where the breath starts in your abdomen and rises up to your ribs, lungs and collar bones and then back down and also from side to side. Pretzel often pictures a wave coming in, cresting and then going back down. I liked the visual and having something peaceful to focus on seemed like it could be helpful. She also said for beginners we can count 1-2-3, 3-2-1 as we meditate and that eventually we would "quiet our minds" and wouldn't need the numbers. Apparently she is now able to slip into a meditative state pretty easily and called it "yummy." :)
Pretzel explained an interesting technique where you go to each part of your body and "look for yourself" and recognize that you cannot be found in your physical body - that your true self doesn't exist anywhere that you can point to. I really liked the idea that your essence and spirit is something separate from your physical body. A very simple thought, but also a really profound one.
After trying the various techniques, I quickly realized that lying down made it way too tempting for me to fall asleep. Afterward 20 minutes she asked if we had been able to escape our minds at all and I didn't feel like I got anywhere close to that! Our homework was to meditate at least ten minutes a day, so there would be plenty of time to work on it! After the meditation, we did an hour and fifteen minute class. We then parted ways for a two hour break and were warned to eat light.
After trying the various techniques, I quickly realized that lying down made it way too tempting for me to fall asleep. Afterward 20 minutes she asked if we had been able to escape our minds at all and I didn't feel like I got anywhere close to that! Our homework was to meditate at least ten minutes a day, so there would be plenty of time to work on it! After the meditation, we did an hour and fifteen minute class. We then parted ways for a two hour break and were warned to eat light.
When we returned, Pretzel started walking us through the first chakra - the Muladara Chakra, which refers to your base or "root" and the poses are associated with a strong foundation. We then assessed everyone's posture using a plum line. She explained to us how we might be able to notice subtleties with people's bodies, posture, and balance that may make certain adjustments helpful for them. My body was surprisingly aligned which was pretty cool to know!
Then we dove into some asanas (postures). Some of the asanas related to the Muladara chakra are: half moon, eagle, triangle pose, and tadasana, or mountain pose. We did each posture half of us at a time so the other half could watch and look for corrections to suggest and adjustments to make physically. Then one by one everyone analyze and corrected our poses which was pretty cool to get such focused guidance. My favorite posture of the day was Half moon - Ardha Chandrasana - against the wall with 3 people adjusting different parts of me - including my head!
We ended day 1 early 4 since it was Superbowl Sunday and everyone was eager to watch the 49ers! I went home and vegged out on the couch for Superbowl party for one. :)
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