Graciously

I haven’t had much blogging time this week, but I have been to practice every day so far… it looks like I might manage every day this week too

My sciatic pain is particularly bad this week, I wonder if it is related to the horrible wet weather we are having. It is supposed to clear up for the bank holiday weekend ….. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

I had a great practice today, despite the considerable sleep deficit I am clocking up at the moment. All the singing this weekend meant no more than 6 hours sleep per night

I had a feeling that something was on the cards when I got loads of adjustments today, and lo and behold, after I had finished my backbends I was ordered to stand up and do half drop backs. Well, I have managed to avoid doing them for the last 5 weeks or so! Even the half drop backs hurt my lower spine, no pain no gain, right?

The status of the kitchen is that it is absolutely empty now, all the units were removed on Friday, the new ones are all in boxes, flat pack in my living room. I am not that keen on living in untidy spaces, so I will be glad when it is all finished!

I am generally feeling a bit restless at the moment, I need to do some serious spring cleansing, of both myself and environment. As soon as I get my flat finished I intend to work on moving out and into somewhere new – this will be a good time to get rid of the stuff (read clothes!) that I seem to have accumulated. Personally, I need to let go of a few things, my life just feels too full. Another extended overseas trip would be great – it was a very effective cleanser last year!! I can’t really believe I have been back for over a year now.

I didn’t make it to practice yesterday as I had to wait at home for delivery of my kitchen. It arrived, and today my existing kitchen is being taken out…. hopefully there will not be too much destruction when I get home tonight.

Practice today was OK, it was super quiet in the shala so it was a nice calm environment.

Tonight, more singing.. aiiii…. I am getting a bit bored of it now and would much prefer to be out with friends doing something interesting. I am sure people will go for drinks afterwards, but I don’t want to be out too late as we need to be back there tomorrow at 9.30am.

More singing on Sunday morning, so no weekend practice for me – AGAIN. Oh well, one day, and it will be super special

I was lured out of the office at lunch time by the promise of 20% off at House of Fraser.. I went for a(nother) DKNY handbag but came back with a top, which is super cool and a pair of Diesel Jeans which don’t really fit properly and will probably have to be taken back. Never mind, they look suspiciously like another pair I have anyway. I do have about 20 pairs of jeans, but most of them don’t fit. I can’t bring myself to get rid of any though, in case I get fat one day and they fit again!

The yoga just wasn’t working for me this morning. I felt inexplicably tired; I hadn’t gone to bed late, I slept ok, but once I was on the seated postures I was yawning after every half vinyasa. By the time I got to backbends I was feeling shattered and made one pathetic attempt, but my shoulders didn’t want to open at all, so I managed about 1 breath and then gave up…… until H approached and insisted that I was to do backbends, even if it meant me holding on to his ankles. I did then manage two, but felt a bit remedial!

I’m rehearsing until 10pm tonight, so that doesn’t leave me encouraged for an energised practice tomorrow.

I didn’t get to practice today as the builder decided he needed to come around at 8am…. I am bored of kitchen renovations already. I spent far too long in IKEA last night, but have now selected a kitchen which will be delivered on Friday. Today I chose a fridge, tiles and lighting… I only need to get a sink and taps now, then watch as the destruction begins….

Yoga tomorrow, then hopefully Thursday and Friday too. I have 3 late nights coming up though as we are doing a world premiere on Sunday so are rehearsing 7-10pm with the orchestra every night for the rest of the week. Sigh.

After a few days off, it was back to the mat this morning. Practice was OK, but I am rather stiff from my weekend of aerobic activity.

I went for an aerobics and spa weekend, which was great fun, but I ended up doing 9 hours of classes over two days, so have worked plenty of muscles that don’t get used so frequently in my practice. I managed to get two massages too, which was great. One was a sports massage, so I asked the masseur to concentrate on my sacroiliac area and told him all about the pain I get doing baddha konasana. He did a lot of work to my lower back, and buttock but was generally perplexed as none of his work or the manipulations he tried replicate the pain. His prognosis was that it was a sacroiliac strain and that I should try and rest it for a couple of MONTHS and have some infra-red treatments. I did explain that I wasn’t that keen on taking any time off at all! Over the last eighteen months it has improved despite practising most days, so I don’t think time off will help. I don’t think it was any better or worse today.

I was talking to my friend about tight shoulders, and she told me that she had swapped her mouse into her left hand, so as to balance out left and right hand/arm/shoulder use. I changed my mouse over this morning, and am not having too much trouble with it. The only weird thing that has happened is that my brain feels like it is trying to swap left and right hands over when typing too, so touch typing is a bit wonky!! Hopefully I’ll acclimatise soon!

I had a short practice today having woken up with a cold. Having a partially blocked nose seemed to deprive me of the requisite amount of oxygen so I found myself taking random gulps of air between postures. I persevered up until Supta K, then called it a day. I didn’t feel too bad all day, but now I am home I am feeling quite exhausted. Early to bed for me.

I’m definitely going in June – 4 days at the Bio2008 conference, then a week of holiday afterwards.

If anyone out there has any tips on places to stay and things to do and where to practice, let me know please! I will be stuck in the vicinity of the Convention Centre for the first 5 days, the rest of the time is my own to go where I please

Nothing particular going on here today, I am just enjoying being a bit lazy!! Sunday practice hasn’t happened, but at the moment when I seem to have 5 week days of 17 hour non-stop activity I feel sleeping is my priority at the weekend! Plus I have actually had a social life the last few weekends, so don’t really get to bed that early either!

I had intended to post on Friday as it marked my 1 year anniversary of practicing at AYL. If I could be bothered or had the time I would work out how many practices I have been to, and how many 5 day weeks I have attended. I think that latter is probably about 3 I know that I have only been twice on a Sunday in the last year.

My anniversary practice was nothing exceptional, the shala was busy which is unusual for a Friday at 7.30, but one thing I have learned over the last year is that how busy the shala is on any given day is not something that can be predicted! I ended up getting quite frustrated with the back bending. I really, really, really want it to improve but by the end of my practice I feel tired, sweaty and don’t have a lot of time left, so it is the least ideal part of my practice to be struggling with something. The first backbend I can work with, but after that my spine hurts too much and it is just a matter of enduring 5 breaths in whatever degree of bend can be achieved. Patience….

I sat reading the Sunday papers with my knee bound into half lotus as suggested by Carl. It wasn’t uncomfortable but provided a nice stretch. The real stretch happens when I try and lie back keeping my half lotus on the floor – the entire of my hip/buttock seems to be locked. I now need to find a person (unlikely) or a heavy piece of furniture to place on my lap whilst I stretch backwards!!!

Anyway, I can’t work out how it has got to 6.30 pm and I haven’t done anything constructive, particularly as I have work to do. I am thinking of going for a quick evening stroll, then working in half an hour. The April showers seem to have temporarily subsided…

Another nice practice today, it was relatively quiet in the shala at 7.30 so got straight in and had some spaces to choose from! I went for the space by the window and radiator, I quite like only having a person on one side of me, although it isn’t ideal for any of the utthita hatas as the wall is in the way, and there is a bit of wall that juts out and tries to attack me when in Garbha Pindasana, but otherwise I like it!

Today I practised in my contact lenses, which is a rare treat. Being able to see what people are up to does distract me a little, but it has it’s advantages, not only are some of the other practitioners inspirational, but I also noticed today that when coming into updog, the lady in front really squeezed her shoulder blades together. I tried this and it does seem to cause a bit of chest opening, and probably does facilitate some external rotation of the shoulders. So maybe V’s suggestion can work after all, I was just trying to use the wrong muscles to achieve it. I managed once decent and one reasonable backbend and stuck them both out for 5 breaths, which is a good achievement for me.

Another little project for me is to try and get into lotus unassisted. At the moment my left hip is really stiff and I can’t bring my left leg anywhere close to being able to place it over the top of the other. I am sitting in half lotus at my desk again. My tendency is always to half lotus with my right, but by keeping on working on the left, hopefully that hip will loosen a little.