aches and pains and practice

the past year or two i’ve had this persistent pain in my shoulder.  Not enough to call it an injury, but enough to be quite irritating and make me want to get massage, try to massage my shoulder with a tennis ball or do other crazy things to stretch it out.  coming here i had really no expectations for what would happen.  maybe better maybe worse.  i’d also tried limiting my asana (posture) practice in different ways, not doing certain postures in second series that might aggravate it (nakrasana), or doing only primary series.

my first week here it was still there, annoying and niggling as usual.  then two weeks ago i realized that something had changed.  it is hardly there.  i usually want to constantly press my  behind my shoulder with a tennis ball or something hard to massage out the knots but that little urge wasn’t happening.  i wonder why?

what am i doing or not doing here that i do in my teaching life back home?  one thing is adjusting students, another is a lot of driving.  but i really don’t thing those are the links.  the past week or two i’ve been talking to other friends who have had similar experiences with different sore body parts.  my gut feeling in this is a small per is a link to less stress.  my life at home isn’t terribly stressful, but there are daily stresses about running a studio and teaching while being in school full time.  i think the heart of the reason are a couple characteristics about practicing in this shala, which is the center of the ashtanga universe.   even though our ashtanga guruji has passed, his energy is definitely still present, and lives on in sharath, his grandson and saraswati, his daughter.  guruji possessed a magnificent combination of sternness, strength, compassion, love and understanding that really i’ve encountered in only one other teacher.   he knew to push and make us do more, but for me personally never in a way that was injury provoking.  i have felt that through sharath.  his way of adjusting is so skilled and so light, that he can get us to do amazing things, especially in backbends.  perhaps my shoulder is loving the deep backbending that it gets here, because i don’t have a teacher at home.  Whatever it is, i’m very happy to have had the experience of practicing here this year, and over the years.  And what a gift to have studied with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois!