I actually had a decent practice this morning. I didn't sleep at all last night. Ever since the BF quit smoking, he's been a nightmare to deal with, and that includes bedtime. Cranky bastard has been hostile and evil, but at night he's had these awful night sweats and can't sleep, I swear he's in menopause. So he's decided he can't sleep under my lovely down comforter any more, he gets too hot. Being the wonderful, giving, supportive GF that I am, last night, while he was out visiting the future step-children on Valentine's Day (yes, that's right, I spent V-Day by myself and never complained, such a trooper am I), I put flannel sheets on the bed and got out my two summer-weight cotton blankets. I was hoping that between the flannel sheets and the blankets, I might be warm enough and he might be cool enough to get some sleep. I was very wrong. I was freezing all night long, and he still didn't get any more sleep than usual so it was all for naught.
I woke up at about 6:30am, having huddled under the covers all night thinking 'there's no way I'm gonna be able to get up and practice in the AM'. I lay there for a few minutes then bounded out of bed, threw on fleece pants, sports bra and long sleeved t-shirt, went downstairs, turned on the space heater, rolled out my mat and just did it. 4 A's, 3 B's, all of standing, Dandasana, Paschimo, Purvo, ardha baddha, tiriang mukha, janu A, marichi A and C, two backbends, shoulderstand and headstand. I even worked up a sweat. I know this all sounds very boring to others but I'm so freaking excited about it, I've had such a hard time getting motivated to practice at home. BF woke up early and came downstairs at about 6:50 so I got him to wrestle me into Mari A (he's really learning how to get my arm pretty low on the folded leg). He tried to help with C but that's hard if you don't really understand where the rotations are. He was a good sport though. Then he spotted me with my headstand.
And here's where I have to make a very sad, embarassing admission.
I
can't
do
a
headstand.
You heard me. I'm lame. I've been practicing yoga for three years this month. And I've been practicing Ashtanga for almost two years. And I can't do a headstand without a wall or a spotter. Or a handstand for that matter, EVER. I see pure beginners do headstands with no problem whatsoever. This frustrates me to no end. I have actually had horrible breakdowns because I can't do a headstand, one in front of an unfortunately inexperienced teacher in LA who was clueless as to what to do when I freaked out. My regular teacher in LA tells me it's because I have an inordinate fear of being upside down. Her theory is that people who are somewhat anal and who don't allow a lot of chaos into their life have a really hard time being upside down. I think it's because I've rolled over my hands before and it hurts! And as far as handstand goes, I've actually had my shoulder go out from under me and fallen on my head. Scary and painful. My neck hurt for over a week after that one. This was in the same LA teacher's Saturday morning vinyasa class where I broke my right big toe jumping back. He shall remain nameless, mostly because I like him and neither were his fault.
Sunday morning and Monday morning (holiday) to the Shala. I haven't been this excited to go to class in a really long time. New company boss also said I should work from the City next week at least one day to get a feel for it, make sure I liked it. I think I like this guy!
Blubber alert today only about 50%. It's going down.....slowly. Perhaps if I laid off the bread and sugar....ha! Must get rid of this roll and beat BF at losing the weight.
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7 comments:
Hey... wanted to quickly say that my inversions suck and headstand took me forever. I had no upper back or arm strength whatsoever when I started ashtanga, and secretly I still hate headstand. Fear of falling. And my teacher recently changed my hand position, so I'm feeling unsteady all over again. You are not alone! : )
I'm not fan of unsolicited advice, so if you want to know how I learned to get up and stay there, give a shout and I'll tell you!
P.S., Port Washington isn't THAT bad. Where do you practice?
Anna
No, PW is actually pretty nice as far as Long Island goes. I'd just rather be in LA with all my friends and my original teachers. Waaaah! Re headstand, I have a SERIOUS fear of falling, especially given that I've fallen before. I've gotten up on my own a total of three times so any advice is more than welcome! I practice at Yoga Sutra.
Oh, it was Christopher who taught me headstand! I practice there too, but now with Greg, in the mornings.
Basically what Christopher said is - go into downward dog with headstand arms/head placement and then walk in, in, in until you can't go anymore, and breathe there, 25 breaths. And eventually your hips go over your head and you develop the upper body strength for your feet to pike up off the floor.
It took me a year, but eventually they did!
You can do headstands! Maybe you just haven't yet figured out how they work. You have to balance upside down, which is a little different from balancing on your feet. Heck, you've been balancing on your feet since you first learned to walk. If your parents had made you stand on your head back then too, then you'd be a star at it.
Technically I *can* do a headstand without help because I've done it before. Three times to be exact. What I'm really working toward is coming up with straight legs. So I'm taking Anna's advice, since we share teacher(s). And I know at least one of them is a major stickler for coming up with straight legs. Today, 10 breaths. Tomorrow I'm going for 12. Someday I'll get to the magic 25. But thanks for the pep talk, Carl! :)
I haven't achieved sirsasana with straight legs yet either. That's secondary in importance. For most of the last year, I worked mostly on driving my weight downward through my shoulders to strengthen them. I kept almost all my weight off my head. Now, I can headstand as long as the rest of the folks in whichever shala I go to.
Allow yourself years to get these things.
Unfortunately, at my shala and with my teacher, the straight legs are very important. Teacher freaks out if he sees you do it by bringing your knees in or one leg at a time or with the wall as a spot. :(
You're right though. I've decided to cut myself a break with this particular post. Not so much with the Marichy's though!!!!
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