Astanga

I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning, rolled over, pulled the sheet over my head, went back to sleep until 8. I was tired. I needed to catch up, I guess. But I did practice after I got up.

First, let's reflect on the irony: I had to dig my space heater out of storage and heat the apartment for my practice this morning. It's June, for pete's sake! When is it going to warm up? It got down to 8C last night and the high today will only be 15 or so. Two weeks from now, I'm going to look back at this post with my eyes popping out, as I boil in a heat index of 35C. Unless it's a cool summer and please, I *dont'* want that! I like my heat! (I like boiling!)

I did the full Primary today. I felt a bit stiff and strangely tight in the hips. Shoulderstand felt wonky (it either feels wonky or feels great - there seems to be no 'in between'). It gives me a better appreciation of my practices over the weekend. They were *good*, really good! Given that the house was cold, I'm impressed.

A couple of notes:
-Over the past week or so, I've moved from simply holding Bhuja Pindasana as an arm balance to tucking my feet under and putting my forehead on the floor. This is a pose I 'lost' during my break from Astanga, but it's back.
- The bind in Supta Kurmasana was easy today. I did something a bit different: in Kurmasana, I scootched my shoulders a bit further under my knees. That made it easy for me to bring my fingers together behind my back. I should note, though, that it probably wouldn't have been helpful if I hadn't had my shouders tucked behind my knees to begin with. Anyway, this pose is feeling better.

Headstand deserves its own paragraph. Over the weekend, I was practising Sirsasana against the wall because I didn't want to fall over and break anything at the house. I wondered if I might be uncomfortable doing this pose in the middle of the room again after having that sense of 'safety' with the wall.

Quite the opposite! Back at the apartment, I came into the pose comfortably sans wall, held it with a good amount of control for 10 breaths and even lowered into half-bend, then back up again! First time I've done this away from the wall in about a year. I'm gettin' my groove back!

I think that working against the wall for a couple of days was actually useful because it helped me gain confidence coming in and out of the half-bend.

One of my five readers, Michelle, asked about my salads. Here is a photo of today's lunch salad. Baby spinach, zucchini squash, mushroom, avocado, cherry tomatoes and red pepper, all topped by Bolthouse Farm's yogurt honey mustard dressing: