This morning we worked with the shoulder, chest and shoulder blades in both supine and prone positions. Geeta had us observing ourselves and others. We spent most of the morning looking at the shoulder blades and their position on the back body.
She had us lie in Supta Tadasana so that the floor could give us a sense of where each shoulder blade was. At first I could feel a slight difference between left and right, but not much. She had us do it again and for a long time. After a while I felt how the outer border of the left shoulder blade was on the floor while the right was not. Not only that, but my right trapezius was lifted toward the head and my right shoulder was rounded away from the floor.
Noticing these substantial left/right differences showed me the value of staying with an observation. It's not enough to take a quick glance, I have to stay with it in order to penetrate past the periphery. If I do, then the adjustments that need to be made become obvious.
Geeta showed many ways to adjust by having 5 or 6 students up on the stage and adjusting them in succession. We worked with partners in various ways to get the trapezius to descend and the shoulder blade to move into the back body. My partner was George from Australia. He lives in Hong Kong and just took over the Iyengar Yoga Studio of Hong Kong.
Poses we did today: Supta Tadasana and Supta Urdhva Hastasana with variations of both, prone savasana with variations, ardha bhekasana and bhekasana.
Portland is very nice. Free transportation by light rail, good food and clean streets. Everyone is friendly and all are very outdoorsy, if you know what I mean. Lots of people biking to work. That's all well and good, but what's lacking is any semblance of that city edge? By my definition it's not really even a city. I know Boston and New York where things are a little dirtier, a little tougher. There's nothing to be afraid of here.
I'll try to get some pictures of the convention center today and post soon.
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