Practice Yoga

I have been continuing to do my morning yoga stretches on the bed to keep my hip loose enough, it helps me wake up and I also do some stretches in the shower to keep me supple for ‘head of a cow’ type asanas. However I haven’t actually got the mat out for many months let alone have a vinyasa flow type practice (unless you count the cat – cow stretch I do on the bed each day!)

Anyway I want to restart my proper Yoga practice, and thanks to the reminder from A_Wanderer I’ve got the boot up the backside I needed :)

My hip stiffness is gone now, I still feel a bit sore though and I believe it is in the ligament which is in the hip region. I’ve been doing a lot of Siddhasana while watching tv, even on the sofa or any time I might want to sit in a cross-legged seated position on a floor. I feel it gives me a really good stretch. I have also been doing a series of stretches on the bed every morning before I get out of bed. I feel they are doing something, and doing lots of good. My hips both felt a little sore this morning when I performed the stretches but it felt like a ‘good’ soreness if that makes sense.

I’m going to work on opening my hips. I think this may be the problem I have with the joint stiffness, and the fact that my pelvis has been unbalanced (right hip appears lower when laying down – I had help from my anatomy teacher finding this out),

Any advice from seasoned Yogis would be appreciated! I have stiffness and soreness when I attempt to turn out my right leg, it’s in the muscle right below the hip bone on the outer thigh. It could even be in the femoral ligaments? anyway advice would be great!

I’m pleased with myself because, after being ‘too busy’ for far too long I fitted in a session this morning. I was a little stiff, but if I continue daily I am sure I will start to loosen up again. My flexibility and range of movement is pretty good, just the joints feel like they are clicking when I make them move into certain postures. I can’t quite raise my legs to absolutely vertical but hopefully that will come.

My parents have paid for me to do an Anatomy and Physiology level 3 ITEC course, this will set me on my way toward one day teaching Yoga. Hopefully if I enjoy it and do well in the exam next year I will take it further.

but I went last wednesday, and it was good. Really hot weather, no one else felt like doing much so we had a lazy lesson. I sure missed my sun salutations.

Still not started a daily practice. Must do this. Please kick my backside once in a while, someone!

I forced myself to go to the class again. The teacher is so sweet, she makes me feel how important it is to do this for myself, like a date with myself and precious time spent within.

I really want to do this daily, just recreate the class – rather than do what I was doing before (working through the Light on Yoga book) as I am not really ready and felt defeated when I was doing that.

How am I going to be able to eventually teach if I don’t even practice?!

The kids being off school for the holidays meant I didn’t make myself practice. My fault, I admit it.

I must improve on this, start again from scratch.

Decided since I own Iyengar’s Light On Yoga and it has Courses listed in the back, that I would start right at the beginning on ‘Weeks 1 and 2’, and try to commit to a daily practice.

Well, yesterday I did it in the afternoon, did not have time for relaxation in corpse pose at the end, plus my spine felt knotted out of shape from performing a very strong stretch in the full version of the Plough, complete with interlocked fingers behind and intense stretch, rotating wrists so thumbs were beneath! This morning my abdominals at the sides above my waist really felt sore, and the vertebra at the top of my back/shoulders felt painful from pressing onto the floor, the skin felt slightly bruised.

Today I did a quick run through, only took about 6 to 8 minutes, without the book or my notes to refer to, just from memory. I wanted to keep the stretch fresh, so that my body didn’t recover so much that it hurt again when I get to spend more time. Again, no relaxation, but it felt good to go through the poses. I really should dig out a really soft large cushion or blanket and fold enough to support my spine in that position. I was doing it on bare carpet, hadn’t even got my mat out.

Anyway, another problem I have is that my legs are long, it feels really awkward to do some of the standing postures, triangle etc, I have to make all sorts of adjustments to leg distance as going by Iyengar’s instruction my legs are just too close together for reaching the floor with my hand flat, I have to widen them considerably! Oh well, sometimes we need to make adjustments to suit our own bodies I suppose. It’s not even like they are that long, I am 5’9” but of classical proportions, no extra long or short dimensions on this body (except maybe the tailbone length hair?!!)

It turned out great, feeling more flexibility in certain areas, my mother was surprised to see I do the starting pranayama in siddhasana (sp?) because she actually thought I was doing the lotus with my knees fully on the ground. Well, I always meditate in this position, and while I can do the Lotus I cannot get my knees fully stretched into it comfortably just yet, so I use Siddhasana as I find that simple.

Anyway she got us to do Nauli again, last time we did it I had really aching abdominal organs the next night so I shall expect that again tomorrow!

The upshot of it all is that I found myself feeling how simply I can continue this at home, even thinking about setting the alarm an hour earlier – I adore my sleep, and 7am is hard enough for me but I always feel good waking to do meditate and start my day so maybe I should adjust gradually and before long I may actually have a home Yoga practice again at last!