ashtanga yoga and practicing musical chords

Friday mysore practice is traditionally primary series.I am not a musician ,but often wish I was.When I was a child hearing other children who took piano lessons practice or as a mom hearing my daughter effortlessly practice her chords before her piano lesson or recital,a wave of wistfulness sometimes overcame me.I longed for a practice of sorts that I could always come home to ,but look at with different vision as I acquired new skills and perceptions.Granted ,I have had many learning opportunities that were similar to practicing piano chords,but nothing really felt like my own practice .I did not have a practice that I could put my imprint on,something that would mold and grow with me.
This morning as I was practicing primary series ,I had brief moment of quiet comfort,like this practice was my returning to an old friend who knew me and accepted me on my terms with all the quirkiness that is me. I also had the feeling like I was moving through a practice that I had become familiar with,a place I struggled less against myself.There are also days,I love practicing near an advanced practitioner almost like listening carefully to a more advanced piece of music,imagining how practicing my chords may one day lead me to my own creation of such graceful movement.Sometimes the mysore room feels like a symphony.Perhaps it is arrogant of me to say that this ashtanga practice has given me an instrument and chords to practice.The instrument of my breath, my body, my movements,my sensations.
As I move forward in the intermediate series,it is comforting to return to the chords of primary.I am realizing that just as in music these chords contain everything that is infinitely possible in the creation of new music,so too, the sequence,poses and method of primary give me the tools for infinite possibilities.There is wisdom,beauty and comfort to be found in such a practice....


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