End of Week 5

This week was the toughest for me. I was really hard on myself for posture clincs.

We had only one lecture this week. Which means we trucked through 6 postures. Again It was up early and up late memorizing.

Week 5 is interesting. The men seemed to be more emotional this week. Lots of emotions coming out from the stress of teaching the dialogue during posture clinics. We all went through the wave of beating ourselves up, knowing we can do better.

A few more quit this week, for this reason or that.

Everyone is sore. My hips, lower back and hamstrings are having pain. Hands to Feet Pose, Tree Pose, Toe Stand, Standing Separate Leg, Coming out of Camel, all give me pain.

They tell us that if our body is not aligned properly, especially our hips (which is my problem from pitching for almost 20 years), we will first feel it in our knees then our hips. I'm onto hips now. My body does feel great though. I've lost some weight, my arms are almost symmetrical (Left arm is giant compared to Right - softball). I'm eating less and running on less sleep. Very Yogi.

As for poses. . I lifted up my right leg horizontal in Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee and it was locked for 5 seconds! First time ever in a year. My left leg is getting stronger in locked position, holding longer. My left and right side are two different people. It's a struggle. In toe stand I'm in a lot of pain in my knee and foot when I'm on my left foot. I can't get my spine straight yet. On my right foot I can balance perfectly. Frustrating being two people.

We are so tight though. On Saturday I could barely get down to Hands to Feet pose to touch the ground. It took awhile to get my spine warmed up.

The room conditions have improved. There are 9 fans now circulating the oxygen around. We were starving for oxygen at one point, with all the carbon dioxide settling at the bottom of the floor. That is when I was feeling anxious for those few classes in the first few weeks.

The teachers are starting to push us hard in class. We are drinking less and less water with only 3 water opportunities during the class now. They are weening us off. If you do drink, which people do, then the teacher calls them out and says something like - you in the pink, put the water down, this is a bad time to drink water before this pose. I'm guessing our water free class is coming up soon. We are being pushed to all lock out our knees, to lift our legs up in standing sep leg head to knee, and to never sit. First we must stand out a posture, then take a knee, then sit Japanese style, then lay down last resort. If you lay down at some point the teacher will call everyone up to try the posture. We are also working on being in unison as a class. If teacher says step to the right, minimum 4 feet, immediately arms down - then we must be stepping and moving the arms together as a class. Following directions is important now - we are supposed to be doing the postures correctly with the teacher.

We still have some pukers here and there. Some people are so exhausted from late study nights that they crash as soon as we start the floor series, sleeping the rest of the class. I sometimes shut my eyes during savasana and find myself passed out for 20 seconds during a savasana. Then the call of the next pose bolts me awake. I am so tired during classes at times. It's never during the pose, only in savasana when my body is resting I get sleepy. Not many people sit or drink anymore. We have all become stronger.

My strength has improved immensely. My triangle is very strong. My feet used to slip all over the carpet, now I am firm. I can hold triangle for a long time with my hips parallel to my knees, thighs parallel to the floor. If you could have seen me when I first started, wow, my body has come a long way, especially my left side!

I have developed a heat rash on my right bicep. I'll put up a picture of it. It just appeared about the sice of a sliced mango wedge (not a mexican mango). Now it's fading, but it's very strange, no pain, just discolored skin. I call it my yoga scar.

I memorized 4 postures this weekend. That may only get me through Tuesday or Wednesday. It's still pretty good considering the average is 2-3 on the weekend. Rajashree is supposed to be back this week to teach us a ton!

One night we had lecture we did a group meditation as we were all pretty stressed out. It was so interesting. I have a new curiosity with mediation and ohm, om, aum. The sound of life that resonates all the way up your body.

Ok. Well, have to get back to my study group. Have a great week. I feel prepared for mine.

Goal, To let go of trying to be perfect with flow and dialogue and just have fun with the teaching of each poture.

Cheers!