Mandala

So, last night was my first Mandala. Mandala is a sanscrit word meaning circle.

This was, by far, the "flowiest" class I've ever taken, and I love it. Meghan Burns taught the class, which was wonderfully sequenced.

We started with a "hip joint" mandala, in which we brought our knee up in three-legged dog, up and around, "lubricating" the hip joint.

Oh, another glorious start, from cat cow, bringing your right arm up, back and around, leaning back on your hips for a moment of child's pose, then coming back forward again. Then threading the kneedle.

anahanasana

The particularities of the sun we saluted, the slow movement of our arms down to Om.

An up and down movement of the arms in chair pose that reminded me of breath of joy.

Crescent lunge for a straight-forward, intense start, followed up by humble warrior. (My own favorite sequence is, after three Sun A's, two regular Sun-B's and then humble).

More reverse warrior to side angle

crescent lunge back to......*ah*, that lunge on one side where you keep your chest parallel to the flow and sort-of fly with your arms.

(why, for the love of me, although I can follow and recognize this direction in class, do I always forget the name of this pose?)

And then, the finale, a Shiva-Rea-style mandala. A cross between warrior II and a horse's stance, we swept our arms up and around, back and forth moving to your movement, and your flow. Familiar terms from a distant YTTP past, carrying all their lingering truths.

Megan's emphasis was on water, fluid, I picked up that the class was patterned on waves (and even a brief sojourn into surfing will teach you one thing: waves come in three.