Astanga

I’ve been struck with incredible insomnia this week, which is *not* normal for me.

I’m a good sleeper! I’m usually able to lay down and slumber within minutes. I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere. I used to sleep so deeply in Astronomy lectures during university that I would dream, vividly, Classmates would have to wake me when the lecture ended. I took naps in the university library regularly. While travelling through Europe, I slept in busy train stations, on the decks of ferries, in parks. The location didn’t matter - if I could be horizontal, I could sleep.

I like to sleep! :-) And I’m good at it!

But this week, all my normal sleeping patterns have shifted. Through much of the week, I was getting the bare minimum hours of rest each night (except for the night I took a pill, but that left me with a wicked pharmaceutical hangover, yuck). Every night, I’m struggling to fall asleep and I’ve been waking in the middle of the night.

My teachers want me to cook - well, it looks like I’m simmering! And my nervous system is having a Pitta Party! Wise Ashtangi friends have pointed out that backbending is the likely culprit. And I’m not even close to Second Series yet...argh.

I bought some sublingual melatonin on Boodi’s recommendation and I’ll try that tonight. To be honest, I’m so completely loopy exhausted right now, I doubt sleep will be an issue tonight.

Last night, I came home at the respectable hour of 10 p.m., but I didn’t even try to go to bed until midnight. Then I laid in my bed, glaring at the ceiling until almost 2 a.m. At 5 a.m. sharp, I was wide awake and ready to rumble! On three hours sleep! I could NOT sleep in, even though I desperately wanted to.

So I got up and practised. I had planned to do a home practice of Primary on the Moon Day, but I wasn’t motivated, so I did it today. I don’t always feel comfortable experimenting and futzing around with poses in the Shala. I wanted to work out a few things in Marichyasana B and D, play with Bakasana/Padmasana jumpbacks and work on my backbending.

I’ve been troubled by the placement of my ankle lately in Mari B/D. As much as I try to keep that joint straight, I know I’m over-stretching the ligaments on the outside of my ankle. Today, I tried a few different approaches with my half-lotus and repeated the pose a half-dozen times. I finally figured out that if I bring my foot *really* high into the hip crease and open the hip just a bit more, there’s less of an angle at the ankle joint.

This had a small impact on my Marichyasana B: I couldn’t go as deep into the forward fold (but that will come back in time). I was afraid I would lose the wrist bind completely in Marichyasana D. To my surprise, I found the wrist bind *easier* with the deeper half-lotus! Often, R has to nudge me into this bind, but I found my wrist easily today. This could be a fluke, though. I’ll know for sure when I repeat it in the Shala tomorrow.

The jumpback work was really fun! I’m starting to really get the hang of the lotus jumpback! I tried holding Bakasana for a few seconds to make the jumpback more solid. I’m still struggling to come into a hold-able Bakasana from Bhujapidasana and Supta K. My legs never end up high enough near my shoulders to make the proper transition into the arm balance.

Backbending: Three Urdhva Dhanurasana for warm-up, two for rocking, two more walking in the hands in, and three walking up the wall to standing. Ten, total. R doesn’t seem to want me to do more than that, so I stopped and did finishing poses.

Here’s this week’s State-of-the-backbend:

I had very low expectations since I had a bad week and the Moon Day, but I actually see some improvement! My arms could be straighter though.