PeacockFeather

Moon Days

November 10, 2006 by peacockfeather

What to do on a moon day? Go to the beach of course. I was a bit hesitant to do asana on a moon day, but could not resist. The Fire Island waves were big, choppy and erratic, no doubt due to the high energy. So the question is, should one practice on a moon day or not? According to Manju, one should not as the energy is high, and if one gets injured, such injury will take quite some time to heal. I have been practicing asana for seven years now, having transitioned into Ashtanga Yoga about a year ago. So, for six years I never knew about Moon Days, and certainly practiced through them. Luckily, I never had an injury. Ignorance is bliss. I’ve had a single injury in my asana practice, was in Hanumanasana due to an aggressive and inappropriate assist by a teacher. As an Ashtangi I certainly welcome Moon Days as rest. I find that taking time off from practice is an interesting issue. I push myself hard in the practice, I’m doing supplementals to the Second Series, waiting to be given the gift of the first asana of the Third Series. In my case, taking a few days off is actually a good thing, as I come back much stronger, and the flexibility comes back pretty quickly. And I know this is a no no, an Ashtangi should not take more than a single day off. So, what about Saturdays? According to Manju, many Indians massage ghee and oil over their bodies on Saturdays, so they do not practice. But here in the US we generally do not honor such tradition, so indeed, according to Manju, we should practice on Saturdays, provided that such are not Moon Days. Through experience, I have come to the conclusion that if you get a bunch of Yogis together, it’s just a question of time before they start doing asana. It’s just the natural thing to do, right? I once told my Yoga teacher that friends and I went one evening to Cielo night club and did asana on the dance floor. He looked at me with crossed eyes in the sternest way, I shrunk, big time. But I must say, it was pretty wild doing asana on the dance floor, break dancers would come over and strut their stuff. They are very competitive. They were impressed with what my Yogi friends and I did, vice versa. At one point friends and I were into watching breakdancing DVDs, amazed at the similarities between asana and the break. Thing is, breaking is hyper active, where the asana is gracefully slow, poetry in motion. I think that doing asana on a dance floor with the breakers on a Full Moon is a sure recipe for disaster. But on a beach with Yogi friends, I’ll do the natural thing that a Yogi does