Day 20 for Lorna

Hey y'all!

I did day 20 on Friday with Shawn, but I wanted to talk about yesterday.

I did yoga in a plane! When I got really sore, I did modified cat/cow, I pulled my knees up to do a forward fold of sorts, and I did neck and shoulder rolls. It was fab. I was a lot more relaxed and happy than usual.

I also did a little yoga breathing when I was trying to drown out the man shouting right behind me. That saved his life.

All in all, yoga is a great habit to have

All about balance

class thirteen of the 40 day challenge was a 9:15 gentle with Zelinda.

This class was different in a lot of ways, and I really enjoyed it. For instance, we practiced in a circle today, facing in. Zelinda said basically that she wanted to balance comfort with newness, to take the edge of boredom off our practice.

We also did a lot of balancing in practice today. My ankle is not a lot better, and I always appreciate when Zelinda gives me strengthening exercises for it. The half moon pose remained elusive on one side, though I did try hard to make sure both sides got a shot at it.

It's hard for me to find balance on with the right leg as my standing leg. It's also elusive in life. We all talked about what made us uncomfortable in life, and I mentions how pilates makes me self-conscious but also determined to be kinder to myself. It's a delicate balance.

Kind of like tree pose.

Don't forget to scroll back a few entries and enter our contest. It runs until Sunday!

Night, y'all

Lorna

Lorna, Unplugged

This morning was class #7. Gentle at 9:15 with poor Zelinda, who could barely talk due to allergies. It hurt to hear, so it had to hurt her. :(

Still, I had Thoughts. Yes, with random capitalization.

I had thought, with the kind of pragmatic cynicism that only comes from being the member of a partnership who is used to hearing, "I have an idea," that the 40 day challenge would just be a huge thing. Like the kind of thing that hangs around your neck at a conference and holds your name tag. It's not heavy, but it interrupts everything you do. I thought that. I admit it. I have so much work to do I'm hysterical, we're taking a week out of town mid-challenge, and I was sure all I would get out of the challenge was sore muscles.

As evidenced by this blog, I have already learned better. But what I got out of today was the realization that, since I work from home, and all of my work involves being plugged in (even at the Target I can do marketing work on my iPhone), my daily yoga practice is the one hour a day I can completely unplug. No phone. No tablet or laptop by the bed. No Kindle, tempting me to do market research. (How cool is it that I get to read romances and call it market research, y'all?)

Yoga is totally me time. I think of yoga. I think of intent. Sometimes I might wander into karma thoughts. It's not always physically easy (pilates, anyone?) but it's something totally unrelated to everyday stress.

That's kind of made of awesome.

Later, y'all!

Lorna

What is that smell?

What is that smell? I thought this morning when my alarm went off. The world answered, "7:15 a.m."

It's been awhile since I was up that early. Maybe since the last time I took a flight out of Austin-Bergman, which I think was Las Vegas... Vegas and yoga are kind of antithetical to one another, so we'll cut that analogy right off.

Anyway, at 7:45 we were off to 8 a.m. gentle class, which was class 5 of the challenge for me and Shawn.

I was pooped. When the cold front moved in last night, my dog went nutso. She hates it when the weather changes; her arthritis bothers her. So, I was awake for about an hour at 4:30 this morning while I let her out and let her in and got her an aspirin and a chew and... Yes, this means I have a spoiled dog, and that I was about this sleepy this morning:



My Sadie is the one on the left.

Class was crowded like whoa, but that turned out to be a huge advantage for me. We never stood up today; Zelina put us through a lot of poses lying down and sitting, and I worked out all manner of soreness. I might even have had a nap during our relaxation... I don't think I snored.

It just goes to show that the universe gives you what you need if you're open to receiving it.

I still woke Sadie the basset hound up when I got home and made her run around the house a few times. If I can't get the sleep I need, why should she?

Night, y'all!

Lorna

Pilates is like death

Or at least that's what I told someone at the kickoff party on Sunday. Today marked my third pilates class ever, and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I mean, I'm not Michelle, our instructor, by any means. She's a dancer, and she has great turnout and extension and all those other dance-y terms. (I'm serious. She's got great form.) I may not have all that, but I only had to stop about three times today and let my muscles stop seizing up like melted chocolate that needs a hit of cream...

Mmm. Chocolate.

Anyway, Shawn tells me I have the length of limb to be graceful. She insists I look like this.



(Well, she says gazelle and this is an antelope, but I'm a Colorado girl and antelope are indigenous)

I figure I look more like this:



A baby water buffalo, you ask? Absolutely. Not entirely awful too look at, but a little blunder-y.

Still, in keeping with my resolve yesterday to be kinder to myself, I can say I felt calmer and more in tune with my body today, and that all in all, I did good, even if my butt, like Shawn's, is broken.

Edited to add:

Michelle was nice enough to take extra time after class to show me ankle exercises that I can do to strengthen my ligaments and tendons and muscles. I really appreciated the insights, and I've gotten a couple of stretchy bands to use at home! Thanks, Michelle.
Peace, folks!

Lorna

Be kind to yourself

Class 2 of the 40 day challenge was the 9:15 Hatha 1 class with Zelinda.

At the beginning of class, Shawn and I were talking about the gentle class the night before, and how one of our new challenge classmates was being extremely hard on himself. Obviously an athlete, and a competitive man, he was struggling with a new form of exercise that he hadn't yet mastered, and he kept repeating, "I'll do better next time."

When Shawn and I first brought Larry to class with us, he reacted exactly the same way. He would go home frustrated and sore from trying to force his body to do something it didn't want to do.

Shawn and I talked a bit about how our classmate needs to be more gentle with himself, and realize that there is no bad or good, that he just needs to do what he can and honor his body.

I haven't been to a hatha class since I took my hiatus several months ago. Maybe 6 or 8 months. I've always struggled with parts of the hatha class, namely the plank and down dog combinations. We did a lot of those today. A lot. So much that my chest is sore, and my hamstrings hurt. We did a lot of wide-legged forward folds, too, which normally don't cause stress, but today made my ankle ache.

So, as we did about our fourth sun salutation series, and my hands slipped like they always do because I get sweaty, and my knees and ankles gave out and I had to flop to the floor like a landed fish, I started grumbling at myself. I was out of shape, I thought, and I needed to work on my arms and abs, and everyone else in the class was half my size, and ruh ruh ruh...

Then, as I dropped into child's pose to pant and rest after that last down dog, where everyone else was still kicking their legs in the air and waving them around, it occurred to me. Here I was telling someone else to be kind to their body, and that yoga wasn't competitive, but I wasn't following through on that.

So I proceeded to wallow in my child's pose for a bit, letting my tight muscles relax.

Okay, so I still muttered a little sigh of relief when Zelinda said we were moving into sitting instead of tall kneeling and lunges...

Things you think you know that you don't

We went to the kick off party for the 40 Day Challenge at the Yoga Room in Round Rock yesterday. It was very neat to meet our fellow participants and get an idea of why everyone wanted to do the challenge.

I have admitted more than once that I do yoga because Shawn decided to do yoga. Otherwise I would still be on the stationary bike at the Y, or maybe rowing away on the rowing machine. (Not at the Austin Rowing Club. Don't get me started. That is not a calm or peaceful thought.) When Shawn decided to try yoga, she asked me to come along, and I did. I felt awful that first time, not being able to touch my toes or sit back in child's pose because I was too big to fit between my knees.

I got better.

So, I have to say I'm doing the challenge because Shawn is incapable of passing one up. I am still unlikely to go to yoga without Shawn. Not because I dislike it, or am uncomfortable, but because I am, at heart, too lazy to leave the house without someone to kick me.

I am the one who does yoga at home on her own, however, so I guess that means it's a part of me now.

Tonight we did the gentle class at 6:15 with Zelinda. This is where the things I think I know comes in. I said my shoulders and neck needed work. I had a dentist's appointment this morning, and I spent the whole time with my shoulders up around my ears. I thought sure it was my shoulders that needed a good tenderizing, but as practice went on the muscles along my spine got tighter and tighter, my lower back all but seizing up on my last seated forward fold. Then we went to the mat for a twist and a little beginner's bridge pose, and something in my back let loose.

It felt so good I almost cried.

Sometimes, even when you're trying to listen to your body you have no idea what's going on at the beginning. You have to make it a progression. A process.

That's a pretty cool thing to learn on the first day of challenge.

Night, y'all!

XXOO

Lorna

The fainting goat syndrome

Notes on class today at the Yoga Room in Round Rock

I did the 10:30 gentle yoga class with Zelinda as the instructor. We had a great bunch of people in the class, and it was very gentle today.

This was both good and bad for me. When we're moving slowly from pose to pose, I tend to lose my balance more. I have a bad, bad ankle that I sprained years ago, and recently pulled the ligaments completely out of shape again on. Put me in triangle pose, and boom-- fainting goat.

Strangely enough, our teacher had never heard of fainting goats. We made her watch them on You Tube.

On the good side, a very gentle class was what I needed today. For the last week I've been taking new supplements and meds from my doctor to increase my circulation, and as with all things homeopathic, it gets worse before it gets better.

Before I start sounding like I'm all doom and gloom, I'll mention that when I did my seated forward folds today, I started thinking about how far I could reach as opposed to when I first started. I may still struggle with warrior two (my shoulders and arms get so tired) but my flexibility is so much better, and I feel so much more capable now.

My goal the next few months is to work on balance, and on that silly ankle, so I have less chance of falling over the dogs...

Stay tuned, and I'll let you know about my progress!

Lorna /Scoobie Doone