Day 30 & 31

Hello,

It's Jess. Coming to you live from my bed, where I sit with some backache in my lower latissimus dorsi muscle. Where is that you ask? Middle lower back. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I'm thinking it was the setu bandha sarvangasana (bridge pose) that I did on Friday evening. Cathy was being a bit of a drill Sargent about getting our chests into our chins and our anuses into the air... Damn you high anus!

This is a bit of a creeper pain. Didn't rear it's head til today.

Class this weekend had some ups and downs. I admitted my 'hatered' for some poses, never mentioning which ones... But also heard some confessions of the same from others. Even from John, the yoga sutras teacher. He said for him, it came down to his satisfying his ego, only doing the poses which he could do well and avoiding those he could not do well. He eventually go over that but apparently it not a quick and easy practice... I suppose the act of telling your ego to get over it means getting over your ego. Good grief. I'm not even sure when my ego is around so i'll need to figure that out first.

I'll talk more about the actual yoga in the next post, learned some good groin openers that were finger lickin' good :) must share! However, Must sleep now. Bye bye.

Day 29

Yesterday was the second session of classes at the Iyengar Yoga Institute.  I was dreading the commute all day long, and of course it's been raining which makes the Muni all the more fun to be on. But once I got there it was good.

Utkatasana

We started off with the two poses that I like to call the Annoying Poses... Urdhva Hastasana and Utkatasana. We learned some variations that actually made them something I could see myself enjoying during my home practice... If you remember Utkatasana is like the image to the right. The picture might be slightly off as you are supposed to raise your pelvis up and have your arms behind your ears. Your hands are together. The arms in this position are reaching up, pinky finger towards the ceiling and your chest and armpits are opening up to the space in front of you. Also, shoulders are not lifting up, so you need to make the conscious effort to pull the shoulder blades down the back.

Why it was not so bad in class:
After doing this a couple times, it was apparent that nobody's arms wanted to stay firm and behind the ears. Your body, it just doesn't want to do that. So we put belts around our arms, right below the elbows, put our hands together made our arms firm, THEN put them behind our ears. At that point someone else came behind us and tightened the belt. Your arms at that point are not moving as the belt blocks them from coming to the front of your ears. I might even say good times.


The class was good overall. Cathy also told us to think about the 8 limbs of yoga and how they relate to our practice. The first limb of yoga is ahimsa: to practice non-violence. This may seem easy but to get to the level of not hating anything is where we want to be. I'm thinking that means I (or we as people) should just understand situations that we would otherwise dislike or hate and go on, but not dwell in whatever passionate feelings we might have for them. SO. I am going to try to apply this to the annoying poses AND take it beyond the practice to the Muni + Rain situation I'm about to endure.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Day 25

Hello. It's been a while since the last post...

Daily practice has been going. but it has been rough. Since we last talked, I've taken a few classes which are always fun, with both Annette and Garrell. I also took a 3 hour workshop this last Saturday on Improving Your Home Practice. Considering my current struggles with obligation, this workshop came at the perfect time.

One of the major things I've learned here is that it does not have to be a struggle or daunting. It should be a routine of annoying poses that makes me feel inadequate because of physical limitation. Challenging myself is indeed something I need to continue with, but at this time the challenge is the routinized daily act of getting on the mat and getting some practice in that *always* makes me feel good.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle 

Repetition is important here. Get up everyday, shower, get on the mat. Studies have shown that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Though I've been practicing everyday (except for last thursday and yesterday |:), it's never at the same time of day. I'm going to do the 7am wake up, shower, get on the mat routine.  I may break up the practice - morning and when I get home from work do 20 minutes of inversions to calm my brain.

I have always thought to myself that if I consistently did anything that I would be great at that whatever. I feel this has proven true in my life. It's the motivation and discipline to practice that is the key to being excellent in the activities that I am practicing.

By the way, I did practice this morning. Also, though it seems like I said the word 'practice' 200 times, it was actually under 10.

Day 15

Handstand. Almost.

Achieving a handstand is one of my big goals. The reason for this is because the thing that is keeping me from actually getting up is fear. "See the fear and do it anyways." This is what Annette tells us in class. I'm intelligent enough to know that I'm not going to die if I should fail.  Good god if I did. It's like my right leg turns into a 200 lb weight. Or maybe it just is 200 lbs and I have Mega Bones®, made from 100% solid <insert-heaviest-material-here>. 

But really. It's my brain and it's a little scared of something that's really not that bad. I'll get over it one day. That will be a big day.

Day 13

Weather: Rain, wetness

Today's Overall Feeling: weirdness

Got some good things going on this morning. I seem to be gaining great balance in my core. Or at least it feels that way today. I'm able to hold my headstand, unsupported by the wall, for almost 3 minutes (for today). So exhilarating. <-- hear my thrills.  speaking to core strength, I was even able to hold a handstand for almost 1/2 a minute the other day. I did of course receive some assistance kicking up, but I'm secure with me so it's all good. :)

Today I'd like to talk about another pose that I find to be annoying. This one is a real killer but looks like it should not be: Utkatasana.

Annoying pose #2

In this pose you have to sit down as far as possible, be really stable on your feet, while your arms are in annoying pose #1, urdhva hastasana. The deal here is my legs, stomach, calves, butt, back, arms and face start to feel. Feel like they want to burst their way off my body, onto the floor in a bloody pile. This might seem rather dramatic to you, but really it's a good translation of my muscle speak. But I feel this and think. I bet somewhere in this world someone has never sat in a chair and this is what they do to emulate the action of sitting. And here I am having a mind meltdown because I'm to do this for a minute. Jess. Please.

I know as I keep doing these 'annoying' poses I will grow to love them, or at the very least, not mind them.  Also I should probably change my tune and call them 'challenging' poses. but really the feeling I get right before I know I'm going to do it is annoyance, so let's go with that for now ;) I'm new at this! Give me time!