Practice yoga 30 times in 30 days

hi. i’m at 25 classes in 32 days.

FAILURE!!!! O it burns. ;)

on the upside, i did my first handstand yesterday, and my first real crow! then I fell down laughing. on the downside, though, sometimes i have to cry during class and that’s made me at times wary over the last 2 weeks about actually going back to the studio, to go through it again. A lot of “what’s – going – on here?!” with the robot arms and the wax museum eyes.

But it’s worth it – rebuilding muscles that atrophied years ago; standing up straight without pinching my neck forward; clenching the jaw less; i’m more emotionally open (obviously); mentally clearer; more productive in general.

i’ve been keeping track of which class on which day, so i could start over at 10 classes in 12 days, but i’m about to start a 9-5 job, so that’s going to 86 my daily yoga schedule. :(

I’m sticking with yoga, though. i’ve raised some interesting questions of it and of myself through this practice, so continuing feels right. and wow there’s a whole lot of other people into this yoga thing, too, and that’s pretty great. ;-) [possible goal: find a way to make affectionate understatement consistently readable via the internet… hm.]

So here’s to you – as the Seattlite raises his second porcelain mug of fresh ground, french press, Organic, fair trade, locally roasted and sold 100% holy Lake Tawar, Sumatra java – yogis and yoginis: Keep Bendin!

let’s see – I didn’t make it to that Hatha 3 last Tuesday. I got sidetracked drinking excessively for my birthday, so i didn’t feel too broken up about it. And then Wednesday was a Hatha 2 with Melina, and then Thursday Basics with Barbara. Then i didn’t actually do any yoga Friday, Saturday or Sunday. We did two apartments Friday at work, then I just didn’t have the energy. I’m spraying apartments these days, so that was like 4 hours of dancing in wet paint with a gas mask.

So today, I did a Hatha and a Feldenkrais class. 2.5 hrs! Uncharacteristically, Feld. was all about holding Cobra for… basically the whole class. Which did make me “aware” – with big happy bunny rabbit ears – that if i used my core muscles to hold that position, and not my shoulders and back, that my middle back doesn’t feel pinched on the sides while i’m up there. It was great! I would not have discovered this if any of the other muscle groups involved in the pose had been working at the time. Thanks Feldenkrais!

Oh. Sadly, I messed up counting last week, so my actual count is… 14 classes in 18 days – WOW is time flying by!!

Feldenkrais again yesterday. At the end of class, lying down, it felt like my head was always falling gently back but never moving, supported by the floor that felt like steady warm air. I really couldn’t stop laughing.

Hatha 3 today.

Basics with Barbara again yesterday – she is an excellent teacher! – and 45 minutes of yoga at home today – mostly floor poses and sun salutations. Followed that up with 25 minutes of Linklater work, which is surprisingly beneficial for my neck and jaw tension. I’m going to work on doing Linklater all week this week. Fingers crossed for no unexpected time crunches!

Did that basics class with Maygen on Wednesday. Which was a toughy – she made us hold poses forever while she drill-searganted people around. So I took yesterday off yoga, and then did 2 classes today with Molly: a ‘Gentle’ class and a Hatha 2 class. 2 1/2 hours!

Pigeon is a little better. I haven’t been doing my Linklater, though, or much of my morning exercise routine. Why double up, I guess.

There is going to be a time when I’m really going to want to quit. And i’m not going to.

Hatha 2 w/ Barbara. hard class. back to basics tomorrow. Pigeons kill me!

yes, i live in a Hitchcock movie.

Tonight was a feldenkrais class for movement awareness. Not yoga technically – but it was taught at the yoga studio, so I’m counting it. It’s low impact, which i needed. Tonight we worked exclusively on paying close attention to how the muscles of the torso work. i found out i was putting way too much effort in to it. Life is not a performance, as a friend of mine keeps telling me.

The back is mostly better, so 8am tomorrow for Hatha 2! (no bridges.)

3 classes / 4 days

for the invitation! :) I’m already on 2/2. and I got a 2 month membership for cheap to boot – one of those “intro” deals. that should be enough time.

Complicating things – i pulled a muscle in my lower lombar region Thursday night working – lifting while heavily fatigued (I know, I know). It was ok this morning, but now i’ve gone and aggravated it with the yoga class i just took. So the instructor told me to rest for a day or 2, lay off the bridge-like poses, and work on cobra and locust.

So I’m off to a gimpy start.