Nah. It’s not about falling or hurting myself. My greatest fear in practice is working without my contact lenses and in ashtanga, wearing eyeglasses is simply unimaginable to me, what with all the jumps and inversions. With uncorrected vision, I only see blurred images with my right eye and with my left, I sometimes am able to identify people. That bad. And why would I have to practice without my lenses? I don’t know but I just dread that day.
And that day came last week. I had eye irritation that prevented me from wearing my contacts…but I felt I had to practice, even just at home. The urge was much stronger than my fear so I hit the mat.
Like what science says, one sense/body part/organ compensates the weakness of another. I think in this particular case, my sensory faculty compensated for my vision so much so that my arms became very present to me! All of a sudden the jump forward (see Jon‘s photos below) and jump through became more of an arm than a leg work…and I started feeling the shifting of weight as I did the routine.
So subtle this change my seem, but YT noticed during our session today that there were times I was able to hang my legs in jumps (tsamba moments!). You see, he taught me the preps for the straight leg jump through weeks ago (and that explains my weird vinyasa recently). “Do you feel your banddha stronger?” YT asked. “Er, what banddha? I just feel the shifting of weight to my arms now.”
Sometimes, what we fear is exactly what we need.
Om.
P.S. I chanced upon this blog on doing straight leg jump through blindfolded. I think I should stop wearing my contacts from now on. 😉 But watching the videos of Lino Miele and John Scott in this post makes me think, “Hmmm, must be moon day when YT taught me the preps. Does he really expect me to eventually be able to do straight leg jump through? In this lifetime?”
The Journey of a Yogini 
hi po.. as for me.. I can’t wear contacts. so i have to deal with wearing eyeglasses. minsan nga nag-fog sa sobrang pawis and i have to wipe it.. hehehe. was able to attend last sat’s class with teacher connie.. andun po ba kau? 🙂
Hi Liz! Yup, saw you last Saturday. Let’s try practicing without our lenses one of these days 😉
talaga po.. kau po ba ung nasa dulo to the left? baka po mahirapan ako without my glasses.. super labo.. tipong colors nalang. hay 🙂 hope to talk to you soon po! 😀
I can relate. I’m not that fluid all the time when I jump through but I do remember that I used to close my eyes when I’m about to jump. It worked fine with me.
I still haven’t practiced with you guys! Ack.
Ben! Paramdam ka naman sa YM, huwag lang sa blog, he he. Hope all is well with you 🙂
Liz, hope to practice with you again soon. I won’t be back until the last week of the month.