Restorative

I was so exhausted this morning after three hours of practice/workshop last night, doing any kind of active practice today was absolutely out of the question. I was just fried.

So I laid on my back and did a half-hour of restorative yoga: Supta Padangustasana with a strap, hip openers, twists. I taught one class in the morning, but spent the rest of the day in my jammies, with a hot pot of chai tea by my side and two Death-by-chocolate cookies to nom on. And a good book. Bliss!

It was a great day, but not an especially productive one.

So it amuses me greatly to find that I've been gifted the 'Honest Scrap' award by The Humble Yogini. What fun! Thank you so much, Janaki for your kind words about my blog. This couldn't have come on a better day, since I have nothing practice-related to blog about! ;-)

I have tagged the following folks below.

However, in accordance with the Law of Kai, (Regarding Memes, section 5, article 6),
My Tagees have three (3) options:

1) You can be secretly pleased as punch and make no response whatsoever, completely ignoring the meme
2) You can be publicly pleased as punch and tell me you are in the comments, but then opt out of the meme
3) You can be actively pleased as punch and say, “Hell yeah, I love me a good meme!!!! Bring it on baby!”

In which case, here are the rules... You must brag about receiving the award. You must name 7 blogs you find brilliant and then list 10 honest things about yourself (In my response, I chose 10 things directly related to yoga, but you don't need to do that).

I would like award the Honest Scrap Award to these blogs, that I look forward to reading every day. Thanks for making my RSS Reader a happy place, folks:

Arturo: Ashtangi, CRONie, architect, and right now he's living and working in China! He inspires me with his interesting posts and beautiful photographs.

Yogini's Quest: Another travelling ashtangi,Tiffany is teaching English in Korea. Despite adjusting to a foreign culture, learning a new job and being woken at 6 a.m. with marriage proposals from the locals, she still manages to practice ashtanga regularly. You go, girl!

Queen of the East Village: I just love Boodiba. She lives in a cool city, she's hip, she's working on the third series of Ashtanga, and she blogs a LOT. I can always count on her to keep me entertained!

Michelle: Michelle is a mom and yoga teacher living in a small town in the Canadian Prairies. Her posts about home and family give me a warm feeling and remind me that relationships are more important than any material object, job or yoga pose.

Alfia: Lovely Alfia is a Washington D.C. Ashtangi with a great love for the practise. She has beautiful dropbacks, something I'm aspiring to. Her posts help me stay connected to the D.C. area (I lived there for six years before coming to this city).

Southern Yogi: A recent discovery, Flo blogs about Anusara yoga, yoga teacher training and the challenges and rewards of asana practice. I'm enjoying reading about her journey as it unfolds.

Silent K: A local friend who is facing great challenges in her life at the moment. This is her YTT/Yoga blog. I greatly appreciate her observations, notes and thoughts about yoga and life.

And last, but not least, here are 10 random Yoga Facts about me:

1) When I first started yoga, my most-hated-pose was Virabhadrasana II. I whined that it 'hurt my knees' and I wouldn't hold it for more than a breath or two.

2) The first time Teacher M brought me into handstand, I sobbed. Tears streamed up my forehead. Then I crumpled into a little puddle of misery on the floor.

3) Pigeon is my favourite ice hockey warmup stretch. I happily do it at centre ice before my games.

4) My hamstrings were so tight when I first started yoga, I could barely reach down and touch my knees.

5) I still have my first yoga mat. It's a navy blue Gaim sticky mat I bought through mail order, back in the days when you couldn't find yoga mats in stores. It came with two mint-green foam yoga blocks and a canvas strap.

6) At my last corporate job, I had a private office (actually, it was a storage closet...long story). I practised headstand against the wall when I was bored (which was often).

7) I was my mom's first yoga teacher!

8) I cracked a bone in my right foot practising handstand. I took a year-long hiatus from the pose after this bizarre injury, more out of mental stress than physical limitation.

9) I'm a secret fan of Anusara. I go to the occasional class and I often chant the Kularnava Tantra at the beginning of my classes.

10) I had an arch-nemesis in Yoga Teacher Training. We still hate one another. Yes, HATE.