It was nice to be back at the shala today; it wasn’t that busy which surprised me considering it has been closed for a few days. My practice was OK, but was having a bit of a shaky day and my muscles didn’t really feel very energised. I have been feeling a bit ropey this afternoon, so hope I am not coming down with something (more severe than a dislike of work!). To mark my attendance at the shala, my nails have little flecks of yellow paint on them, it seems to transfer onto my nail varnish very easily if I brush the wall!
I added Bhuja P and Supta K back into my practice today without any pain issues, so I am pleased that I seem to be well and truly on the mend. I didn’t do any yoga at all whilst the shala was closed, I just went running. Supta K was pretty awful, I’ll work with that for the next few days then consider added Garba P and Baddha K back in too.
Something that has been bothering me since last week is my vegetarianism. I went to a meal last Thursday and the host was pre-warned that I was vegetarian. She prepared a nice meal that nobody seemed to object to. MrH mentioned over the weekend that the host had complained about preparing a vegetarian meal a number of times the following day. Whilst part of me thinks that she is the one with the problem and she should be more grown-up about it, I do feel uncomfortable. I could eat meat for one evening and on the grand scheme of things, nothing would change. As I have discussed a couple of times in this blog before, I was advised by a yoga teacher that you would be better to eat a bit of meat than to hurt your hosts feelings, but how does this relate to a host who has been pre-advised but wants to make a fuss about it anyway? Should I keep quiet and just eat up; would that be a more mature approach from me; is making someone prepare a special meal for me selfish?
So, for the last few days yoga hasn’t happened. As predicted, I ended up getting home late on Thursday and didn’t get to bed till 1am. I woke up in time for yoga but had already taken my mat from the Shala and left it in the office, so didn’t go. Yesterday I discovered that a friend of MrH used to be an astangi, so we messed around a bit in the park and did some drop backs and handstands which was fun. Today I have spent more time in the park, but not doing yoga.
Due to a colleagues illness/inactivity, I will have to go to work tomorrow to finish of some things that have Monday as a deadline; I will take Tuesday off in lieu, so it’s not so awful, and as the shala is closed until Wednesday I can do that without having to make the trip into town and coming home again. I’ll try and do a little self practice tomorrow morning though.
Oooh, yoga mum is on the wordpress front page today – I bet that does wonders for the stat counters 
Practice was fine this morning, another wait, but worth it for what was a good practice. Had to skip out a few SNB as time was short, but I felt quite warm anyway, so it didn’t seem a problem.
Prasarita Padatonasana C suddenly seems to be getting better, and my hands can be forced to the floor with palms both inward and outward. My back bends are getting better although they are still preceded by a degree of apprehension, they seem to actually involve my back doing some bending, or maybe it’s more shoulder opening;anyway, they feel quite good. Also managed to bind both toes in baddha padmasana for the first time in the morning. Progress indeed 
Yesterday’s prom was pretty fab – 5 rounds of applause in the end; I’m pleased to have it out of the way though so I can get some more sleep.
I’m off to a party tonight accompanying the man-friend, so not sure if I will make it to the shala tomorrow :-S. I don’t want to be rushing off too early at my first social engagement with his work people; I guess I’ll play it by ear when I get there. A nice long weekend coming up though, and next week I’m hoping to add the rest of my poses again – fingers and toes and everything else crossed.
I am hoping that after next weeks longweekend/moonday break, I will be ok to go past navasana again. The buttock is feeling quite a bit better this week so I am hoping it is on the mend. I tried Bhuja P at the weekend but it hurt a lot, I am hoping another week of rest will do the trick.
This morning was really busy at the shala, half an hour wait before 7!!! Not so good on a day when I need to leave work early for a rehearsal… oh well, no lunch break for me then.
Yesterday was a hectic day with another 2.5 hour rehearsal for that same 4.5 minutes of music…. gah, talk about losing the will to live. The concert is tomorrow night, then singing is out of the way for a little while. Whilst I love it, it really does make for a long day doing yoga then work then choir and finally getting home about 2 minutes before bedtime.
My blog search history revealed a hit yesterday through the search term “yoga mad” tree smell. Yes, the tree mat does smell rather rubbery, but I quite like that. Better than smelly feet, I say! Which reminds me that my tree mat is still at my old teachers place; I could do with a new mat again too as the one in the shala is shedding quite substantially after only a few months. I guess it’s time to go an collect the tree mat and bring it to AYL.
In yoga news, I am getting bored of my shortened practice, but I am going to speak to an osteo tonight for some advice.
I have just rehearsed 4 minutes of music for TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!! I joke not. We rehearsed our 4 minutes of Mahler 3 from 6.30 till 9pm. Leaving me to arrive home just 15 minutes before bed time…. yay… Not.. The worst thing is that we have another rehearsal tomorrow night, and one on Monday and one on Tuesday before our prom on Wednesday….. urgghhhh.
I’m still taking it easy in my practice, and I think the pain is easing…. unfortunately, stopping at Navasana makes for a short practice, and I really didn’t want to stop doing yoga there today, but you can’t really start ad libbing at a Mysore class.
Right, bed, then start all over again… groundhog day….
Ok, so I was being a bit of a drama queen yesterday, but if I can’t be a drama queen on my blog, I don’t know where I can be.
Practice today was better, it seemed to be warmer in the shala this morning, I was sweating again despite the fact that I was trying not to exert myself too much. I was being very gentle on myself and trying to enjoy stretching into the stiff areas, but working slowly to avoid the pain. I looked back at my blog entries from earlier this year when I was having the same pain issues; I only wrote about it for a week, so I suppose it must have healed itself quickly. What I need now is a little patience.
H made me laugh today, when he swooped past me in virabhidrasana A, he squared my hips, then looked again, moved my head, then looked again and unlocked my thumbs (yes I cheat…) then said ‘hmm, that’s better’. It seemed funny that what is technically quite an easy posture to get into can go so wrong!
I love my practice really, and am not ready to give up on it yet 
Practice today was nothing but awful. My entire body has seized up. I could hardly forward bend in my surya namaskar. And, as well as hurting from the sciatic pain, my whole buttock now feels incredibly stiff. I can barely stand up from ardha baddha padma padangustasana on my first leg, and hardly get into it on the second side. Purvottanasana hurts, as does the second side of all of the janus, as well as mari B and D. Back-bending was appalling because my spine was so stiff and my shoulders weren’t open and lotus was particularly hard to get in to. In fact I was dreading back bends as soon as I got to the seated postures.
Most of my practice I thought about giving up, not just for the day, but forever. Well, maybe until things stop hurting. Should I keep at it, or rest up for a while? A difficult question. Is it just my state of mind that is making me want to give up, because despite coming back to my mat everyday, my practice is getting more difficult, or is it a genuine plea from my body to rest?
I had a nice practice this morning, I enjoy Fridays. I finished at Navasana today so it seemed to whizz past quite quickly!
I spoke to H about the pain in my buttock and he also said it was the piriformis going into spasm. He said it usually occurred when a person is very open in one direction…. gosh, I wouldn’t have ever used that expression to describe the external rotation of my hips, but whatever. Perhaps the rotation is possible, but the muscles still don’t allow! He agreed with me that I should lay off doing the stuff that hurts until it gets better. He was very positive in saying that it would get better. Suggested ways to overcome it were concentrating on lengthening forward in baddha K and engaging the muscles in the stomach and front of the hips (difficult apparently!) and wiggling the toes if it starts hurting as this usually releases the piriformis!!
So, I left feeling a bit happier today. Hopefully by Monday it will be much better and I can start with a clean slate!
