Bikram Yoga, Day 19
Yup, still going, haven’t missed a day.
There’s just not a lot to really write about every day on that topic. The one thing I am glad is that I did hold out and find a yoga that follows a strict sequence. The amount of minor, ongoing posture tweaks and things to remember is so detailed that it seems crazy to think of going into a class that mixes things up every day.
Like I’ve said before, I think most people go to yoga to de-stress and chill out, but since I arrive with no stress and pretty chill, I need more.
It’s kind of funny how much the sweat helps the practice. In one pose, you need to remember while facing toward the floor, to squeeze your shoulder blades together for the duration of the posture. I’m certain that at one point I was not doing that, because the one time I finally did, when I lifted my back up, it was like a waterfall of sweat flowing down the length of my back, having pooled up in the concave bit I created in the posture.
A lot of what I do now is corrections. My left arm doesn’t extend as far as my right, after a biking accident when i was in sixth grade. So, I’m not symmetrical in the postures, necessarily. When the pose has me grabbing a foot and holding it up with my right hand, my spine is straight. Not so when the pose is reversed on the left. Another case is the bow pose, I believe, where you hold you right ankle in your right hand, kick back, as your extended left hand pushes forward. So, your leg is kicking your arm back, while your arm is charging your body forward, stretching you both ways. On the left side, I can’t twist my gimpy hand around properly, so initially I just did a different grip. but, after talking to some of the teahcers there, I’m so close, we’re trying to make it happen. So, now, I am able to grab the knob of my ankle with my left hand, but there’s not much there to grab onto. But over time, that should enable me to grab it properly. I’m actually optimistic that yoga will break down some of that scar tissue and bring more flexibility to the picture.
Well, there certainly can’t be LESS flexibility. It’s amazing some of the stuff my body refuses to do after 30-odd years of letting it do whatever it wants.
Today, I read David Lynch’s book on creativity and meditation. Meditation is truly the next frontier for me after yoga (well, now that yoga is ongoing, I’m not waiting to master it or anything silly). I have a Wayne Dyer book here on Japa meditation that even comes with a guided meditation on CD (which I transferred to my iPod today), so that’s on the queue for this week. I’ve already come out, now it’s time to go in.
