Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Yin

It dawned cloudy and cool this morning, nixing my plans for another fun outdoor yoga practice. Instead, I came home after work, slept for two hours and did some reading. The nap really hit the spot; I've been feeling really tired this week. I actually enjoyed the grey day - it was soft and quiet and I could feel myself downshifting. After the bustle of camping preparations and the stress of the trip itself, it felt good to be lazy.

Since I was feeling mellow in the afternoon, I did an hour of Yin Yoga. It's been a while since I practised Yin and I was a Twitchy Distraction Machine in the poses. I used the Sarah Powers DVD with the abbreviated instruction (each sequence has an option for muting much of the 'lecture' dialogue, offering only entrance/exit instructions for the poses). There was a lot of silence. At times it felt heavy.

I was left to contemplate the sensations in my body. At first, it was all noise, but I quickly zeroed in on the tight areas. I was holding tightness and tension in ways I never imagined. The longer I stayed in a pose, the more the layers peeled away. I used my breath to release the tightness. It felt good. By the time I finished the hour, I felt myself settling into a groove.

As I was finishing up, the dog joined me on the mat and did Adho Muhka Svanasana. :-D

The shoulder pain is gone or, at least, it's morphed. I spent a half hour on my Acuball last night, focusing on the area of the rhomboids and trapezius. By morning, it felt much better, but the knot of pain had moved upwards, into my neck. I used the Acuball again this afternoon and I'll spend some time with it this evening. I'm willing to bet the pain has dissipated entirely by tomorrow morning. I love that ball! Worth every penny - it has saved me a fortune in massage bills.

Tomorrow, I'm going to take a break from home practice and go to a class. I think I'll try an evening Jivamukti class and make a special request for no anointments.

This will leave my afternoon free for a matinee. Harry Potter, hooray!

3 comments:

Arturo said...

hi Kai
i think HP is playing here too. i have the choice of English with Chinese subtitles, or Chinese. it would be a new experience for me if i go ahead and check it out.
hugs
Arturo

Michelle said...

Anointments? Explain. And then why would you not want them? Just trying to learn.

Kaivalya said...

@Arturo
Having seen it, my recommendation is to first see it in English, then go see it again in Chinese. It's worth a second viewing, and I'll bet the Chinese voice-overs are *hilarious* What fun! I'm jealous! :-D

@Michelle
The last time I went to this particular class, the instructor spread a strong-smelling lotion on our backs in the first downward facing dog, and massaged our foreheads/'third eye' with a aromatic oil during Savasana. I 'went with the flow' the first time, but in future classes, I'm going to opt out of the anointments.
I have sensitive skin and a sensitive nose. I found the lotion both irritating and distracting. The oily stuff on my face made me uncomfortable during Savasana. I'm sure this is just a matter of preference, but these 'props' didn't work for me.