I'm two days into a five day mysore practice block (although I'm actually only going to four of the days as I've got a Crisis volunteering shift on Saturday), and I'm using the time to try and really learn the seated sequence properly. I'm doing okay with standing, I'm pretty much at a point where I don't need to double check the paper or wall hanging too much, but with seated I still get extremely muddled at points, and I also am still probably quite early days with certain poses.
Things do seem to be improving, though, and I'm definitely doing better than I was - it's just remembering what comes when, and thinking about breathing through things. Despite best efforts, I do struggle a bit with seeing everyone else work through their series at breakneck pace comparable to me (I'm so slow and almost always the last, even with people who come in a while after me). I know that's not the point - and although I'm impressed with their work, I don't think 'oh god, I can't do that' - and that's something I definitely need to work on.
Sarah said today that I needed to work on focus, which worrying about the speed of my practice is part of. Case in point, I was distracted by the guy next to me, who lives elsewhere and although clearly knew lots of poses, was zooming a bit, not really grounding down into his body so much, missing out vinyasas and then getting lost in the seated sequence (so I gave him my piece of paper, which helped). She said that with me wanting to teach, she knows I want to be the best teacher possible, and that if she's going to give me a reference that I need to keep working on that (I mean, she is giving me a reference, I'm waiting on receiving it, she's just trying to get me to improve!).
She asked me to try a silent practice tomorrow, not ask any questions and really have an intention to use the ujayi breath the whole way through, and to take extra breaths when things are hard so I'm not gasping for air at the end. She said she would tell this to anyone, but since I am a friendly, chatty soul and easily distracted, I'm pretty sure that's why! I know that part of the slowness of my practice is the lack of flow to it, which is particularly bad once I hit seated postures. It's also partly a confidence thing. So I'm happy to try it - after all, when you practice at home you practice in silence, so I should be able to do it in the classroom.
A cool thing today was finding a different way to hold my feet in upavishta konasana - I've previously been holding my toes with my 'two-peace fingers' (as David Swenson would say) but Sarah wanted me to turn my feet out flat and press into the balls, while lifting through the chest. I found that if I held the sides of my feet this was much easier to achieve, and Sarah was so pleased she took a photo of me doing it (am scared to see it, but will be nice to have a photo of me doing yoga - is hard to get hold of these!).
Talking about silent practice, I'm currently working my way through an online yoga nidra foundation course by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli. I love yoga nidra (although my teacher Caroline would say I am a wriggler and find it hard to release into it). You can take this course with Yoga Campus in person, but I decided to take it online as that means I can learn at my own pace (there's a lot of information in it) and also can download and retain the yoga nidras for when I want them. There's something lovely about reading about the origins of the form in your bed and then relaxing down for half an hour, barely having moved a muscle.