#30in40: Week 2 Reflections

Another six classes under my belt in the yoga challenge!  Here’s the rundown so far.

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Week 2 notes (day/time, style, teacher):

• Monday 7:30 p.m., Hatha II, Beth: Class #7 – When I first walked into the studio tonight, a couple of ladies mentioned how they read my recap and loved it (Zelinda is linking up to my posts on the challenge, as well as several other bloggers), which was humbling and made me feel good.  I was happy to see Beth back teaching tonight.  Her class has quickly grown into one of my favorites – advanced, with lots of sweat-inducing flows and challenging poses.  Something she said that resonated deep was “When it gets hard, breathe.”  She was referring to a certain pose, but hello! – that should be one of my mantras for daily living.  How quickly we can forget to just breathe!  Breath was a huge part of this class tonight, that’s for sure.  I really loved the feel of my body filling with breath while in child’s pose – the expansion in the back and the rib cage is incredible.  I also really practiced my chest breathing while holding plank tonight and felt much less effort in staying up.  She had us lower down in chatauranga in counts of 4, and I was able to do so with control and grace.  We had a lovely strong practice with a lot of deep lunges and holding poses for longer than we normally do.  Towards the end of class we practiced working toward handstand, and this was definitely my favorite part of class.  I was really able to get into the 90 degree pose with my legs on the wall, supporting myself with my arms on the ground, and I was even able to lift one leg at a time off the wall – the farthest I’ve ever gotten in handstand prep.  I realized how far I’ve come since the first time I did the handstand prep on Halloween when I could barely get up on the wall and certainly could not sustain myself in that pose! I felt so strong in my upper body, and a smile kept creeping to the corners of my mouth for the rest of class.  And yet, to keep my ego in check – I am ever humbled by how not-far I am able to forward fold – blasted hamstrings!  :)
• Tuesday 5 p.m., Hatha I/II, Emily: Emily subbed for Kalena.  I was tired coming in to class tonight, probably due to the weather – rainy, muggy, gray.  Emily said we’d be working into the shoulders and chest – her style is to pick a certain area of the body and work it hard and deep.  As soon as class started, rain started POURING down outside which actually made me smile – the sound of rain was very soothing.  We did a lot of work deep into the shoulder girdle, which I am in desperate need of due to my chronically forward flexed chest and shoulders.  Our biceps and triceps really got a lot of attention as well, and I can definitely feel it in my arms now that I’m home. We also used tennis balls in a thigh high (totally gave Emily the side eye when she passed those out!) to massage our pecs, deltoids, traps, and the scapulae (shoulder blades), which felt AWESOME.  I felt tired through most of class and even on the drive home, but now that I’m home I feel rejuvenated and really peaceful.
• Wednesday 6:15 p.m., Hatha I, Zelinda: Class # 9 – After staying up half the night with an anxiety-ridden pup on account of one of the craziest, loudest thunderstorms in the history of ever, I was exhausted today and extremely cranky.  All day I was grumpy and easily annoyed, and I almost didn’t go to yoga at all.  I usually go to the Hatha II (more advanced) class at 7:30, but I decided for the sake of lack of energy and getting home earlier (so I could go to sleep earlier!) that attending the 6:15 Hatha I class was in my best interest.  It was exactly what I needed.  We still moved, and I still got really warm, but it was a much more manageable pace in between my many yawns.  Once I got moving I really noticed how I could feel all the work we did in the shoulders and chest last night that I hadn’t paid attention to all day, and I left class feeling much less grrrr and stabby, with a sense of sleepy peace about me.  My overall demeanor shifted, and I’m gaining a much clearer understanding about the impact my yoga practice has on my mental well-being.
• Thursday 6:15 p.m., Hatha II, Beth: Class #10 – I started my day off in a frustrating manner – car troubles first thing in the morning – and that sense of irritation stayed with me most of the day.  I knew Beth was subbing tonight, and a tough class was just what I needed to help right my mood.  Her fast-paced flows kept me distracted and out of my head.  I also love her quick-moving flows because when we finally get to that down dog – ahhhh, bliss!  The epitome of down dog being a resting pose.  We did a pose tonight that I have a really hard time with (my legs do not go on my shoulders, they just don’t) and even though Beth mentioned that every step leading up to the end result is just as important (so I should have just focused on what I was capable of rather than lamenting the fact that I can’t do that pose), I found myself getting annoyed that I couldn’t get into it.  That all went away when she said we could work on crow briefly – I got up for a good 3 seconds or so completely effortlessly and celebrated my tiny “victory.” I couldn’t quiet my mind in savasana, so I just took each thought (mostly frustrated thoughts about my car) and tried to wash it with acceptance in my head.  It took some of the edge off at least.
• Friday 5 p.m., Hatha I, Kalena: Class #11 – What a perfect way to kick off my weekend!  Class was immediately after work, and Kalena led us through slow movements, sustained poses, lots of breathing, beautiful arm vinyasas… the whole class felt like a glorious sigh of relief.  I felt little adjustments occurring in my left shoulder and in my cervical spine  - things moving back into place, where they needed to go.  She mentioned several times balancing strength with grace, which really rang out to me tonight.  Towards the end of class she said, “You are as free as you want to be,” which I thought was incredibly beautiful and oh so true.  Right before closing, she had us place our left hand over our heart and our right hand palm facing out, so we could fill ourselves with love and project it out into the room – a very lovely and peaceful gesture.  And I love Kalena’s closing – she has us take our prayer hands from our chest and place them with thumbs over our forehead, thumbs over our lips, and thumbs back to our heart – and she always says, “kindness in our thoughts, truth in our words, love in our hearts.”  I’ve seen Zelinda do this, but to hear it said that way helps me to better understand the meaning behind those actions.
• Sunday 9:15 a.m., Hatha I/II, Emily: Class #12 – Emily started class off by talking about surrender – how our brain may tell us that a pose hurts simply to get us out of it, and that we should discern between whether the pose really hurts or whether we are able to surrender to the pose in order to go deeper.  I love that I’m at a point in my practice where I can really listen to my body enough to know whether something hurts and I should back off or whether my body is just trying to convince me to take the easy route.  We did a lot of awesome deep leg work in class today, including an active version of pigeon that totally engaged all the muscles in the legs in a crazy-awesome way.  I know a lot of folks hate pigeon but I happen to be a huge fan, so taking it up a notch with this active pose was a great mental and physical challenge.  During savasana and a brief period of meditation following savasana this morning, I was really having a hard time quieting my mind, as usual.  I tried mentally circling each thought with a bubble and blowing it to the outskirts of my mind, but it was quickly filled with another thought, and eventually my visualization was a bunch of bubbles crowded around the edge of my mind fighting for space, so I abandoned that altogether!

This week threw me several curve balls – the thunderstorm, the car troubles – and there were definitely moments in my head where I didn’t want to go to yoga, but they were fleeting and a voice of reason rose up each time telling me “you’ll be glad you went,” which I knew to be the truth and was confirmed after each class.  I am coming to realize how much yoga is a working part of my mind and that I really crave my practice, which is incredibly badass.  I have discovered a great sense of ease for the most part – poses becoming easier, strength increasing – though this week I definitely had more mental distractions which made it more difficult to keep my mind quiet.  I strive for the next week’s classes to work more on the meditative aspect.

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This weekend was so relaxing and full of good things.  Alex’s schedule officially shifted to M-F for the time being, so for the first time in I can’t even remember how long, we had two days off together.  It was fantastic!  Saturday we both slept in, enjoyed some coffee together, I made us some fresh juice, and then Alex got to work on a lovely brunch for us. 

My plate – gluten-free toast with coconut oil and grapefruit/vanilla bean jam, a cheese omelet the size of my head, and BACON!  We watched Labyrinth while we ate – I’d never seen it (I know, I know!) and overall I thought it was pretty great, except for the fact that any time David Bowie was on screen I was distracted by his tight pants and prominently-placed penis, good lawd!  Alex went to his Iaido (sword-based martial art) class for a few hours, so I lounged around and watched Louis CK’s Hilarious and a couple episodes of Man V. Food, before settling in for a nap and some reading in bed.

Today after yoga I spent some time in the kitchen – preparing some veggies to ferment, making muffins, some coconut butter, sprouting lentils, soaking buckwheat groats to dehydrate for cereal – all which I’ll talk about later in the week.  Alex is playing video games while I type up this post, and then I think we’re going out for Indian food for dinner.  Good times.

I’ll leave you with gratuitous dog photos because I know how much you love them.

Have a great rest of your Sunday!

<3 C