Rinse and Repeat

Has a week really passed since I last blogged? Almost! I feel negligent, but I really haven't had much to say. You don't believe me, do you? Wait until you read this post. It's BORING.

There's absolutely NO DRAMA at all in this Bikram's yoga practice. Nothing to report. Nada! It's kind of awesome, but it makes for some very dull blogging. "I got up, went to the hot room and did my practice. Then I showered. Then I left." Repeat. Daily. *yawn*

No one at this hot room cares if I'm suffering enough! If I get The Lazy and sit down, the class just goes on without me. In fact, I can take breaks whenever I want to (but I rarely do). If I decided to take Savasana smack dab in the middle of a pose, no one would say a word. Not only that, but if my back feels cranky and I decide to go easy on the hang-backs after Ardha Chandrasana, no one yells at me. Of course, by the same token, If I'm being all awesome and heroic in Ustrasana, no one says "Good!" either.

It just is what it is.

On Monday, I fell out of Sasangasana. If you're not laughing, you should be! This is a pose where I'm literally curled up in a ball on the floor. It was quaintly ironic, given that I managed to stay perfectly upright in all four renditions of Dandayamana-Dhanurasana (Standing Bow; similar to Natarajasana in Astanga). But Almond said mildly: "That's fine", and told me to come back into the pose. No biggie.

Really, these teachers seem happy if I do the following: 1) Show up. 2) Stay in the room. Everything else is icing on the cake.

Of course, I'm exaggerating a little bit. On Wednesday, Peanut was teaching. If there's drama anywhere, it's in Peanut's classes, but it's mild drama at best. And Peanut is such a sweetheart; you've gotta love him. He likes to pick on the teachers in the room! I haven't told the Mixed Nuts that I'm a yoga teacher, but I guess they finally Googled me. This week, when Peanut started in on the teachers, he included me in the bunch. It was kind of fun, and I had a great practice that day. For the first time, I lowered my forehead to my shin in Dandayamana-Janushirasana (Standing Head-to-Knee).

Pistachio was teaching on Thursday. This is the day that I finally nailed the balance in Padangustasana (Toe Stand) on the first side, hands in prayer position. It's also the day that the room was cooler than usual. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wasn't HOT enough. I've finally gotten to the point where I don't notice the heat unless there isn't enough of it.

In Walnut's class today, I fell out of the first side of Padangustasana but nailed the second. The room was hot enough and I was completely invisible again. I feel like I could have sprouted wings and flown around the pillars and no one would have paid any attention to me.

My shoulder is feeling better, I think, but there's still some lingering sensation there. I'm not sure if it's truly from the injury or if it's just imagined pain, an imprint of trauma. I haven't done Astanga in 19 days, but I do teach Astanga and demo in some of my classes. I've noticed lately that Downward Dog feels completely comfortable and on Wednesday, I demo'ed the transition from Up Dog to Down Dog. It felt fine.

The devil that lives on my left shoulder is whispering in my ear. She wants me to give the Primary Series a try sometime this weekend. I miss my practice. But the angel that lives on my right shoulder is also offering advice: give it a rest and wait 11 more days and ease into it slowly.

I'm wondering, what would Guruji do?



Susananda's Bhairava, hopefully on his way to London. She may need his wrath to get through passport control! Let's keep our Cybershala fingers crossed!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad