Astanga

So, we’ve established that Backbending Angst drives me into an insomniatic frenzy and makes me turn into a CrazyPants.

This week, I’m discovering that my gremlin, which I’ve named Nitara, makes me tired. I don’t think I’ve really felt well-rested since Wednesday and I’ve been sleeping a LOT. In fact, I’ve been spending most of my non-teaching, non-practisting, non-Princess-Fur-Walking hours in bed, passed out.

Say what you want about the validity of homeopathic preparations, but the Arnica has a very specific effect on me: it puts me to sleep! I’m not dreaming this up. The pellets knock me out for at least three hours (or leave me yawning for those hours, in the case of my evening classes last night). Even the gel makes me drowsy. I guess I won’t be operating heavy machinery this week. It’s more effective than the Melatonin! Yesterday, I napped for two hours in the morning. Today, after practice, I went back to sleep for almost three-and-a-half hours. As I write this (late evening), I’m already sleepy.

I think the full-body exhaustion is also just the nature of my gremlin; pain is exhausting. I’m a pretty tough cookie, but I was really hurting yesterday. I had a full schedule of classes to teach and was miserable for most of them. I put on my happy face and carried on.

By last night, the idea of practising in the morning seemed laughable, but I didn’t give myself the option of skipping. I figured I would show up on my mat and deal with whatever I found there. In addition to the Arnica Gel, which I do believe is helping, I took muscle relaxants last night before bed. I woke up feeling better, more sore than ‘crampy’. This means I’m on the mend, which is good news!

I’ve been following the recommendations in the ‘Treat Your Own Neck’ book. This morning, as I was doing them, I could actually *feel* my gremlin moving around, from shoulderblade to the base of the neck and back again. The book has a series of daily exercises for maintenance of a healthy neck. I think I may need to incorporate these into my post-salt-bath routine since this has become an area of concern for me. I also need to be more aware of what I’m doing with my neck during my practice. I think I’m going to take a hiatus from anything ‘chin-to-shin’ and focus on keeping my neck in a neutral position, particularly in the forward bending poses.

I had a careful, but relatively complete practice this morning. All jumpbacks/throughs were there, but I skipped the Chakrasanas after trying one and hitting that same ‘my-muscles-aren’t-working’ brick wall that I crashed into yesterday in Sirsasana.

I worked steadily, but carefully in my backbends. I did six and worked on walking my hands in and breathing. That felt like enough.

Since Chakrasana wasn’t working for me, I wasn’t too surprised to find that my Sarvangasana was tender and not very deep. I couldn’t get far enough up on my shoulders to hold up my knees up in Urdhva Padmasanana - I had to keep my hands on my back. Same in Pindasana.

But I managed to come into Sirsasana! This was a great relief to me - it's probably my favourite pose. I didn’t stay for long and I came down one leg at a time, skipped the half-bend.

Another six-day week is complete! Tomorrow, I’m definitely taking rest. No Astanga for me. My practice will be gentle, restorative and brief.

I’m hoping that I’ll be up to full-strength for for the led Primary on Sunday. I’m looking forward to this. I always enjoy the discussion afterward and I already have the ingredients together to bake vegan double-chocolate brownies for my shala-mates. We’ll feast! :-)