Morning or Evening?

The past Ashtanga week was finished with a great group practice on Friday evening. There are some serious Ashtanga practicioners here in this area and sometimes we meet for practicing together. Such a practice took place on Friday evening, we were three women. My practice was so fantastic that I started asking myself if it had anything to do with practicing in the evening. Most of the times I practice in the morning immediately after getting up. I'm very used to the feeling of a morning practice. But practicing in the evening happens very rarely, so this is always a rather new experience. Of course in the evening we all are more flexible, this is a fact. But I don't think that this makes the big difference because I don't care so much if I'm flexible or not. Only the backbends make a real difference I think, they are so much more open in the evening that it's a pure joy.
Then I guess I feel lighter in the evenings. This may sound quite strange for most people, because how can one feel lighter at the end of a day full of food? The reason is I don't eat very much for lunch when I'm at work. Only some vegetables, potatoes and things like that. Usually I start getting hungry again at about 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. When the evening pratice starts at 7 p.m. I'm usually already starving. The consequence is that the body feels very very light. On the other hand we often have dinner very late, so in the morning after getting up I sometimes feel still full with yesterday's dinner, therefore rather no lightness in the morning. Perhaps I should change that and have dinner earlier.
The next issue is the calmness of the mind. Here also most people say that the mind is calmest in the morning immediately after getting up. Strangely I often make the opposite experience. It seems to me that it's easier to focus and concentrate in the evening.
And the most important point for me is the general flow of energy. During this Friday practice I had such a great flow, I could feel very intensely how the energy built up inside and how it flowed through the body, wonderful. At home I don't often feel the energy in this intensity.
Should I start thinking about practicing in the evenings? Hm. I don't know. Perhaps I should first try an evening practice alone at home. Because so far the evening practices were mostly in a group and in a different surrounding. Perhaps this is the main cause for the experienced differences and not the time of day. I'll check this out.
Today started the new Ashtanga week with a good practice, Primary plus Intermediate up to Ushtrasana. It was a little bit tedious and stiff but all in all an ok practice.

The past Ashtanga year

During the last days I had a look at this past Ashtanga year. My first impression was that there were no breakthroughs. No remarkable events like binding a certain pose or dropping back or something like that. Hm. Does this mean that there was no progress at all? No, certainly not. It just seems that the progress of the last year is difficult to measure. Of course I can say that certain poses have improved but I think this improvement is not very obvious. It's a pity that I don't have any before and after photos. Therefore for me it's mainly a matter of certain poses feeling better and deeper. These poses are for example Marichyasana A and D, Supta Kurmasana, Baddha Konasana, Upavishta Konasana and of course Urdhva Dhanurasana.
Another issue that has improved very much is my old hamstring problem. At the beginning of the year I omitted some poses of the series because of my hamstrings, other poses I practiced very reduced or changed. In September I visited my teacher in Berlin and he encouraged me to return to a normal practice step by step. Now I would say that the right hamstring has healed, concerning the asymmetric poses I practice the right side completely normal now. The left side is still annoying, but it's tolerable. I don't omit poses anymore, my biggest problem pose was Prasarita Padottanasana, I practice it very carefully now. Actually Upavishta Konasana which was also very difficult got a lot deeper during the last weeks. So I would say I'm on a good way concerning the hamstrings.
Have there been changes concerning the non physical aspects of the practice? Hm. This is even more difficult to measure. Of course the monkey mind is still there, is it ever going to cease? Perhaps the discipline has improved a bit, there are a lot of 6 day practice weeks now. Also the schedule of my practice has changed, I started practicing full primary during the whole week recently. I'm still not sure if I can keep this up on the long run, getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day is hard, but we'll see.
Another thing that was different in this year: I didn't eat meat. Ok, except for a few times. Has this changed my practice? Probably yes. Fact is that the body feels much lighter without it, so of course it has an influence on the practice.
Enough looking backwards, what about the future? I guess this year will be interesting also regarding Ashtanga. I'm going to spend some time in Bangalore, India, and hopefully get the chance to practice with an Indian Ashtanga teacher there. I don't want to set certain goals for this year. Dropping back would be nice, binding Supta Kurmasana also, but if this happens not, I won't care. I'm at a point now where appreciating a practice hasn't much to do with the physical level anymore. So I'll just go with the flow and we'll see what happens.
May you all have a satisfying Yoga year!