Back to my roots, as it were

I've been dragging lately - after our long weekend in NYC, I didn't practice for a week (scratchy throat, general business, tiredness) and when I did start practicing again, I felt slow, heavy, uninspired. I did an easy hot flow, then two days off, then three vinyasa flows in a row. The second day - last Tuesday - I hurt my neck AGAIN in chakrasana. I thought at the time it was just a pulled muscle, because it only hurts if I tilt my head back. I seem to have lost that feeling of lightness as I go over; I really felt it in my neck. Anyway, I did full primary on Friday, and that was really more of an endurance test than anything else. I didn't practice yesterday. Last night after I cam home from hanging out with some friends on a back deck, I was freezing cold and thought how nice a hot room would feel, then it occurred to me that I might enjoy a Bikram class. Not at my regular studio, but at the real Bikram studio, where the classes are always the same and the pace is faster. So I went this morning....it was great. It's been several months since I've done Bikram at all, and almost a year since I've been to this studio. There's something very comforting about not thinking, just going through the postures. I do that to a certain extent in primary series, but it's harder - I have to think more. Bikram is challenging, but I know all the postures and don't really struggle with any of them. I can do them without having to focus on getting fully into them, or falling out, or whatever. Plus, the heavy sweating always feels really good, like I'm really detoxing.

I was also hoping that the class would work out this kink in my neck, and it has to some extent, but I may have to break down and get a chiropractic adjustment this week.

Umm, what else. Will is obsessed with sports - playing them, watching them, reading and talking about them. Michael has a "vocal tic", we think perhaps because he's feeling a bit of stress from 4th grade. He never emotes, cries, breaks down, or whatever. He will act out a little bit or be even quieter than usual, but that's about it. However, this tic has come and gone over the last year, and has been back now for over a month. Lee turns 53 this weekend and I am planning a party. I might develop a tic of my own, entertaining is so stressful for me.

Flexible kids

Lounging on the floor after his soccer game yesterday, Michael dropped right back into what in the Bikram series is called supta vajrasana:



He wasn't even trying. It took several months of practice for me to go beyond my elbows, and I can do it easily now though with a little bit of strain my my knees. Darned flexible kids!

This past Friday at primary series practice I noticed that my friend Tammy, who I met when we both did intro to Primary together, had started adding chakrasana into her practice. She told me previously she avoided it because she'd had a couple of bad chakrasana experiences. I told her that I wanted to stop and watch her do it, so during closing I watched. Instead of pushing so much with her arms, she seemed to get most of her movement by engaging her core & lifting her hips. I have avoided chakrasasna because, I realize now, I was doing it wrong - using momentum - and I tweaked my neck and upper back the last time I tried it. After practice, John helped me by lifting my hips for me which took the pressure off my neck. When I got home, I tried it on the rug - I focused on pushing my hips way up and voila, I rolled smoothly over, no neck tweaking, no going off to the side. Fun, and I can't wait to try it again.