Class 17 of the 40 Day Challenge, or Yoga on the Road

So, we're on the road.

We're in Glenwood Springs, Colorado looking around and goofing off and doing yoga.

Lorna and I decided this was going to be our greatest challenge, because we travel a lot. (And by a lot, I mean we're out of town about 30% of the time. O.o)

So, we pulled out the travel yoga mats (lighter for air travel) and we yoged.

We decided to start from standing and work our way to the floor, because it was bedtime. We did some forward folds, some balancing, then we downward dogged. We catted. We cowed. We seated forward folded and we twisted. I did the happy baby pose and the cow faced one.

I feel better. I feel like I can go to sleep smiling.

I also miss the Yoga Room, but we're going to figure this out, me and Lorna, how to practice on the road.

:D

Namaste, y'all

S.

Hot Springs Lodge

Glenwood, CO

Self-Practice led by Lorna :D

Day 16 was a little early

I have no real content today. Class was lovely, but I sleepwalked through it.

This? Not me this morning:



This was me:



Not me:



Me:



Well, you get the picture, right?

All three of the dogs thought it was too early for yoga, too

Class 16 of the 40 Day Challenge, or I May Rethink Eight AM

7 a.m. is an obscene time to be awake.

Now, don't judge. I'm a 2 a.m. to bed person. From 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. is prime writing time. I wake up at 8:15 most mornings for yoga, but 7?

Ack.

I didn't wake up until my third cup of coffee after gentle practice. I'm pretty sure I was dreaming about tap dancing rhinos doing a music video for Big Country...

I'm fixin' to head to Colorado, where I'll be blogging about our travel practice.

Prepare for hilarity. ;-)

After I nap.

 

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Gentle

Teacher: Zelinda

releasing toxins

Day 15 of yoga challenge was all about the loads we carry.

Okay, so it was also about classic jazz and blues like Feelin' Good, Long Time Comin' and Fever. There might have been dancing. I drew the line at singing along, not wanting to disturb anyone. Shawn hummed and tapped her toes in the forward folds.

But!

When Angela said it wasn't how heavy the load is but how we carry it, I set my intention today to get rid of all the barriers to my health I've been carrying.

Today I was really feeling the upper respiratory goo I've been dealing with. I decided to breathe it out, metaphorically. (Don't worry, I'm not contagious)

I tell you what, y'all. As I worked through the poses, I could feel the heaviness in my chest and lungs working itself out, and I felt like I was really pushing out the bad and letting the good push in.

It was kind of awesome, even if I did feel like I needed a nap after practice.

Now if I could just get my sinuses to get on board...

The dancing part was really cool.

Class 15 of the 40 Day Challenge, or How Yoga Helps in Real Life Crisis When Added to Wine

I have to tell y'all. I have discovered a real life use for yoga.

Yesterday I'm having folks for supper. Lorna and I are making gluten free vegetarian lasagna. These are not gluten free people.

We cook, we clean, we pull the lasagna out after they get here and?

The noodles are like concrete -- hard and shattery, a little dangerous, crackly and absolutely not edible.

It's 239042739 degrees in my house, I have guests, I have 3 anxious dogs. Lorna looks at me, I look at her. She grabs the gluten free fusili out of the pantry and I grab the stock pot and start filling it with water. I pull each tiny shard of uncooked noodle from the pan (leaving the goo), she opens a glass of wine. We start water boiling while everyone else chats in the front room.

We pour two glasses of wine, put the fusili in the water, and Lorna says, "Breathe."

We breathe, arms going up. We forward fold in the kitchen. We breathe.

We drink a glass of wine.

We make baked pasta.

See? Yoga with real-life uses. We didn't panic. We coped. We breathed. We cooked.

Also, today in class? Something amazing happened. We did the tree pose and Angela's talking about putting our hands in a mudra. Now, two little backstory bits of info: 1. I always do the middle finger mudra because I am the queen of NEEDS PATIENCE and 2. today I was looking for Ease as my Point of Practice. Something made me put my thumb and third finger together (vitality). As soon as I did, the entire studio flooded with white light, so bright I couldn't see.

Okay, I thought. Maybe I've just had a stroke, maybe I've cut off the blood supply to my brain. Possibly my glasses are foggy.

We release the pose. I'm no longer White Light Woman (so, brain is getting blood. Go brain.)

We do the other side.

Boom.

White light of amazing joy.

Dude!

Now, there may be a scientific answer. I'm pro-science. Right now I'm happy with mystical yoga joy experience. Joy is always cooler than science.

So, ease? Not so much, but joy? Like whoa.

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Gentle

Teacher: Angela

Don't worry Michelle

Two weeks in a row we've missed our Wednesday pilates class. We will miss it again next week, as we'll be out of town

So, I thought I would reassure Michelle that we don't hate her. In fact, despite pilates being like death, I like it. It challenges me. However, that also means that when I have a head cold and Shawn is having female problems (ie: this week) or Shawn has a head cold and I am having female problems (last week), it's not a class I can take on.

So, today was gentle at 5pm with Angela. Today was about adaptability. I? Adapted to a throbbing head. Vicious, stabbing, oh my god I'm going to die throbbing.

At one point, my sinuses let go, and I was drowning.

Joy.

I did feel better, more energetic, after class, so I am grateful that I went.

Still, it's important to both of us to let Michelle know we got nothin' but love...

Class 14 of the 40 Day Challenge, or Someone Let Me Out of This Cocoon!

I woke up this morning with the words "Let It Be" in my head.

I tried to hold onto that all day. I had a book release early, I have a trip next week, I have cramps. Lorna has a cold.

Just let it be.

I missed pilates (because, you know, it could have been catastrophic in that did you hit a deer sort of way), but we managed a gentle class and I was going to let it be.

There I was. Letting it be.

Angela says that the practice's focus it going to be adaptation.

NOT my strong suit.

I am the OCD Queen. I am the girl of planning and scheduling and deadlines. I have had an unscheduled cold, book release, and and and...

So, I tried.

Flowing. Easy. Gentle.

What are we going to make for supper, Shawn? My brain says. And we have to clean and plan a supper for vegetarians tomorrow and you don't know what the temperatures going to be and don't forget to promo that book and you have another deadline coming and did you set up the DVR? I bet you forgot.

I'm going, what? WHAT? I've been frigging ZEN ALL BLASTED DAY LETTING IT BE AND I'M IN YOGA STRETCHING WITH THE PEACEFUL MUSIC AND THE SOFT LIGHTS AND WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE??????

About then I noticed my shoulder blades were possibly cradling the back of my head...

So. Okay. Adaptation is obviously something that triggers me.

Good to know.

:D

Also, I went to Sprouts and bought frozen gluten free Chinese food for supper. I'm making vegetarian gluten free lasagna tomorrow. I have tweeted and facebooked and blogged about my new title. I did set up the DVR.

Now, I'm going to take a walk.

Namaste, y'all.

S.

 

Class info:

Location: The Yoga Room

Class type: Gentle

Teacher: Angela