Well, that was a perfectly awful day! Even the parts of the day that tried to be fabulous fell completely flat. I overslept, wasted the morning surfing around on the 'net (but finally extracted myself from the computer and went for a walk). I taught a noon class. In the afternoon, I broke my favourite bowl while brewing tea (thank goodness I didn't break the teapot too!). Taught another class. Dourly noted that the temperature, which was supposed to be a summery 25C was actually 15C (we're having a horribly cold summer here so far and I'm not happy about it). Spent much of the day indoors. It was cloudy. Grump!
I did the full Primary Series in the afternoon. I was very distracted for the full 90 minutes and my mind was churning. My body was stiff and my lower back was cranky. It was a bit better once I warmed up with the sun salutations, but nothing felt quite right. I did all the poses, just not very well. Not a great practice.
I'm taking my Sirsasana back to the wall, this time to work on alignment issues. I did a video of Sirsasana yesterday (which will not be posted here - the camera really *does* add 10 lbs! ug) and in viewing it, discovered that my legs are not straight. The problem is, I'm not coming into the pose fully, probably because I'm afraid of falling over backwards.
I experimented with the pose today using the wall. I kept moving my legs back, back, back (!) well past the midline toward the wall until my back actually started to arch. I discovered that I had to make an extraordinary effort in order to even touch my feet to the wall (I set up my hands about 10 cm from the wall). My fear of falling over is unfounded; I wasn't even close to falling over. I just need to build some confidence and I'll be fine.
I also photographed my Bakasana. Though it's not part of the Primary Series, I do it each day. Lately, I've noticed that I can come into the pose more comfortably (though I can't yet jump into it). I've been working on placing my knees behind my armpits (rather than balancing my shins on my triceps). In the photo, the pose actually looks great! My arms could be straighter and my knees could be further up towards my armpits, but I've made substantial progress.
3 comments:
Me thinks you are a wee bit hard on yourself.
If is makes you feel any better, our weather is horrid as well. It promises to warm up in the days ahead though. We'll see about that.
We need those bad practice days to fully appreciate the fabulous practice days! :)
@alfia: You're absolutely right! Plus, having the occasional 'bad practice day' is a natural side effect of practising every day and that's not such a bad thing, right? ;-)
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