Sunday Yin/Yang

No matter how I'm feeling--how tired, tight, or grumpy--I never feel inadequate or frustrated in a Yin/Yang class.  It's so much easier to accept my body's current state and ability.  Do I get fatigued in long warrior holds?  Absolutely.  Can I match Kate's deepest expression in every posture?  Of course not.  But the tone of the class is so gentle and joyful and linked to how your body is feeling right now, not where you would like it to be.  I do what I can, ensuring that I am working and feeling something, but without judging myself.

Perhaps it's because the postures are never the same and therfore it's much harder to quantify my progress or maybe because it's 11am on a Sunday and the judgment part of my brain hasn't woken up yet (I don't think that's it, if you recall yesterday's post).  I'll admit that I have a competitive streak and there are days when I want to push and tally results, mark the exact places where I have made progress.  I take comfort in revisiting the same postures over and over, building my practice cumulatively and soaking in the medical benefits of the prescribed yoga regimen.  Those are Bikram days.  There are other days when I want to just be, to move gently and to love my body as it is right now.  Those are Yin/Yang days--selfish, laid back Sundays. 

Positive Posture: Upward-Facing Dog

I've been working on that High-Low Pushup for a long time now and I don't think I ever really got it right.  I never could get the swoop into Updog to feel right and almost always went straight to the ground and did a Cobra instead.  This is how the Yin/Yang class has helped me--the slow pace made me reassess my form, adjusting where I needed it.  Today, for the first time ever, I flowed through High-Low Pushup and into Updog like it was no trouble at all.  I swooped away from the ground, opened my heart to the mirror, and breathed a deep, satisfying breath of victory. 

Struggle Posture: Pigeon

I learned something today--it's a bad thing when you lose feeling in your foot in pigeon. Apparently my hip joint is so compressed that I'm cutting off the blood supply to my foot.  Since I was so used to Bikram, I wasn't alarmed by this at first, but the Bikram compression postures are all less than a minute.  Turns out it's not a good thing to allow your feet to go numb.  In the interest of general health, I will be backing off this posture a little in the future.  I need to build more flexibility in my outer hip first so that I don't cause permanent damage to my feet.  Oops.


Have a lovely remainder of your Sunday!  Bikram tomorrow

-Allie