I thought I'd dedicate this post to a book I'm simultaneously reading on top of the yoga stuff (title as above).  The essence of the book describes this intrinsic feeling we all have about our bodies: that it indeed has a mind of its own, and more than a vehicle for the brain to cruise on, is deeply interwoven with our neuro frameworks.  This science has been explained in more divisive approaches by explaining the brain, the nervous system and then the anatomical body itself; but only now is the science of "body maps" emerging to answer those questions we had trouble with in the past like:
* how is it that a samurai seems to handle his sword as an extension of his body?
* why do amputees get phantom limb syndrome?
* how do you touch your nose perfectly with your finger in a pitch dark room?
* how does reiki really work and how do healers see auras?
* why do golfers get "the yips" (a twitching syndrome that only affects their perfect swing and nothing else that has to do with that part of the body under other circumstances, unrelated to 'choking').
* why do our hips store anger? why after a tough workout do some people cry? (release of the 'pain body').
Its all been fascinating stuff to understand along side a deeper introduction to the body and all this conditioning that I'm going through.  For instance, Lance Schuler is 52, he operates his body with more mobility and understanding than most 25 year old athletes.  It's not only been a 30 year career in yoga which has conditioned his body but an upbringing around a spiritually-intelligent Judo teacher father, an athletic, disciplined youth in sports and military which has given him the foundation in his mind and neuro pathways which prepared his body for easy adaptation of yoga in its physical and psychological challenges.  There's an interesting example in the book about this: mothers from Mali apparently rub their infant's legs vigorously daily, some times hanging them upside down dangling from the feet, as they view crooked legs as extremely ugly.  Most Mali babies have the motor skills of other 2/3 year olds at only 6/7 months, running around like toddlers.  On the flipside, orphans (paricularly from poor Eastern Block nations) are often subjugated to 3-4 in a crib and usually spend the first year (if not adopted) in there with little time outside.  Though very socially-oriented, when conducting average motor-skills tests on these perfectly healthy orphaned childen as young adults, many of them can not stand on one leg or walk a straight beam without toppling over.  Early conditioning at infancy is highly important for the development of those body maps related to your motor skills and ability to understand movement and connections in the body.  Now, yoga works through this but depending on how you were brought up; that's how much harder you have to work.  Especially when starting at 30.  (Perhaps breaking my femur at 18 months was a good thing, giving me bodily awareness and making me learn to walk twice.  And thank god for those dance classes....I just should have kept it up!).
Highlights of Today:
* Learning about the bizarre Hyoid Bone: the only bone that is unattached to any other bone in our body...it floats in our larynx area attached to our thyroid glands and surrounding muscles!  Not only responsible for the human ability to vary speech but it is suspected to assist in Jalandhara Bandha.
*Doing a Menstruation sequence and seeing among 48 female students, only 3 of them were on hormone contraceptives; amazing statistic in modern society (and also, most of them were on the moon cycle).  I said the question that should have been asked in China was not "how many of you are on the pill?" but "how many of you have had an abortion?" (a little cynical but true for China...).  Interesting insight into how hormone contraceptives are viewed as harming health.
*Learning about Lance's life and traveling the road less traveled...understanding where character comes from.

And one more to be thankful for: Kapalabhati Pranayama is going to improve my diving breathing!