maybe not sick as a dog...

But certainly dog tired

Went to pilates Wednesday with visiting relations Kristi and Leeah. Leeah was a natural. Kristi and I were more challenged, but it was a hoot, and I was so glad we went. We bounced and stretched and even with the magic peanut I couldn't do a rollover.

Still, it was good to go back to pilates class and see Michelle and work muscles that are still sore!

Bringing family to class

Friday at gentle class, we got to meet Angela's husband and some of her family who were visiting from Canada. She took it really easy on us, which Shawn was grateful for, thanks to the new tattoo on her chest.

Today in gentle with Zelinda, Shawn and I brought her sister Kristi and Kristi's two daughters. It was so much fun to introduce them tot he yoga room while they're here visiting. We had a great stretch, did a lot of neck and shoulder work, and the girls are excited to go back tomorrow.

Zelina also had a theme today, which was to spread happiness. I got a hug from Zelinda before we left the studio, and I got to pass that on at breakfast to Joy, one of our favorite ladies at the Cafe Java.

After that, we had a lazy day watching movies and playing with the bassets, so joy was pretty easy. It was a good day.

tough day in class

I had a rough practice today. I'm not sure if the left side and right side of my brain don't like to talk, or if my head and heart chakras were having a throwdown, or what. Could be just that I'm teetering on the edge of that time of the month so hard that my basset's breath could knock me into it at any moment. (That always makes me uncoordinated and a little unstable.)

In the end, I felt incredibly frustrated with my body because it wouldn't do what I wanted it to. I couldn't balance on one foot because of the $#@% puncture wound. I couldn't hold my arms up and breathe. I couldn't...

But what I could do was relax at the end and free my mind for relaxation. And at the point of revisiting things we love and that make us happy, I had a clear, shining image of my life as it is right now, with my writing and my home and my travel and all the wonderful people I've met this young year.

So, I might have felt like the grumpy kitty during class, but I didn't let it get me down for very long :D

XXOO

Lorna

Angela Tried to Kill Us

Yeah, so, the photo doesn't mean anything but I love spring and it was pretty. I admit it. I'm shallow.

Today's practice was *hard*. We did Kundalini things (so not a technical term), and while I was doing them, I was so into the breathing, that I didn't realize Angela was trying to kill me.

Now I know. O.o

I am sore in places I didn't know I could be sore.

On the good side, I do finally feel like my balance is back -- my body feels like my body and not some stranger's when I lay on the floor. Tree pose makes my heart happy.

Oh! Heart stuff. Today's focus was balancing your heart and your head. I'm not sure if it worked, but I did some hard psychological things today and I felt like I was capable and strong, so I'll take them.

:D

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Hatha I

Teacher: Angela

Bats in the Belfrey

So, apparently there's a bat in the studio.

This gives me incredible geek joy.

Now, don't get me wrong, I will be the first girl shrieking and running out the door, but still... there's a bat.

In the studio.

*cackles*

We took two days off from yoga, so it was good to get back, to stretch and move and just focus. Things were feeling pretty good,  and I was there, you know? Really right there.

I love that.

:D

Also, today? A health professional did a fitness test with me and I'm pleased to report that I'm officially physically fit.

So there.

Ha.

Fat and fit.

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Gentle

Teacher: Zelinda

Some days you don't feel like getting out of bed

Friday and Saturday the weather was nasty, and I have a hole in my foot. (seriously, ask Shawn) I just didn't get out of bed.

That means, though, that I didn't do yoga between Tuesday and today, save for some bolster work at home.

It's amazing how your body starts to crave the motion you learn in yoga. It's also amazing how much tension you don't realize you're carrying until you release some.

Today I'm super sore in my inner thighs (partly from yoga hip and leg work, partly from twisting my ankle at the rodeo and having to stay upright) and in my rib muscles. The tiny bit of core work shows me that I need to come back to pilates if it makes me this stiff...

Grins

Trying hard to observe without judging, right?

XXOO

Lorna

PS: The sleeping puppy was Goober, Sadie's brother, who passed away three years ago. He was a beautiful baby.

Buzz buzz buzz

See the big buzzy bee?

That's usually me. I'm a busy person. I wake up and I go. I drink a lot of coffee (not as much as I used to), I work a lot, I go.

Then there's the internal bee-ness. All writers I know live with this -- you have a cast of millions in your head telling you stories, 24/7. They poke and whisper, demand and fuss, fight and struggle. No matter what happens, they're there, and I'm incredibly grateful, every second of every day for them. They're my career, my life and my passion.

Sometimes, though, I crave a second of silence. (Don't tell them.) That's yoga for me. I've said from the beginning the yoga is the only place where I think about yoga -- just yoga. Not vampire yogis, not bull riders in love with a yoga teacher, not an assassin with a penchant for environmentalism and yoga.

Not Cajun werewolves, a gate to hell in Dripping Springs, zombie cats in east Texas, werepumas in New Mexico, an entire rodeo town (wherein there's this little girl going blonde to catch the eye of a cowboy and he's breaking up with his current girl and he doesn't even know she exists, but he's going to and there's going to be this fight at the county fair and...)

See?

This is where I live.

And I love it.

But I love it when I'm practicing and all I hear is my breath, too.

:D

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Hatha I

Teacher: Angela

two days to catch up on

Shawn and I had a long weekend on the road. We left Wednesday to go to Dallas, then Saturday down to Houston. Then Sunday home.

We took one of our dogs to Shawn's daddy's. Kiss, the pitbull, just wasn't fitting in. Daddy fenced in an acre and a half for her, and oh, y'all, you should see her run. She loves her new yard, and she's ready for daddy to be her human.

Still, it was hard to admit we'd failed her a little. That we weren't the best family for her. It hurt my heart.

After the accident, Kissy leaving, and being on the road for days, I was feeling a little cracked.

The best thing I could do was go back to gentle yoga Monday. After class I felt so much looser in my skin, so much better. My back was so tense and I didn't even know it until I laid out on the floor at the beginning of class.

Today we followed that up with Angela's hatha I class. We focused on swadhisthana, or the sacral chakra today, which is all about acceptance and renewal. That was the perfect thing. It was just so timely for me. I feel a lot like the little weed in the picture, ready to poke back out of the cracked mess and start over.

5 Reasons Yoga is Better than Deadlines

1. When you go to yoga class, you get smiles and, if C is there, hugs. When you reach a deadline, you just have stress.

2. In yoga class, you do modified cat and cow pose. In deadlines, you start inventing words in order to make word count.

3. Yoga class has soothing music. Writing deadlines have hysterical wailing noises.

4. In savasana, you stretch on the floor and breathe. In deadline mode, your brain is stretched on a rack and you panic.

5. When you miss yoga class, you have a bit of guilt and Angela misses you. When you miss a deadline, you have 1039283470 emails and your editor threatens to blow up your car.

:D

(This post brought to you by a very late novel.)

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Gentle

Teacher: Zelinda