Another Practice

I haven’t posted in awhile. I’ve been dedicatedly practicing with the exception of Monday, in which I suffered from a stomach bug that’s been going around. Still stuck at Mari-C binding, only on right side. hmmm. I was looking back and I managed to bind on 9/3, both sides, but not since then. Its funny the way in which our bodies open. Going Coffee-less at the moment, beginning to feel irritable and pushing too much with it in my system. Going to take a break for a while.

This will probably be one of my last posts for about 10 days as I am going on a meditation retreat. Not sure if there will be a space and time for me to practice there (yoga). We’ll see how it goes. I’ve heard that this particular instructor has us practice around 14 hours a day, so there may not be alot of extra room. I’m going to see if I can pull it off, by skipping a session or some such thing. If not possible, maybe a practice in non-attachment.

Namaste

Pain-free

Its been awhile since I posted here. I’ve had several pain-free practices since the tweakage of groin area. The gentle mindful approach has made my practice much more enjoyable.

Lifts are getting progressively better, should be jumping back fairly soon (or next year). Practiced to navasana, still no bind on Mari C left side. Felt energetic during practice.

Back on the horse

A’s visit threw me off a little bit, but I’ve gotten back on track. So good to see an old friend, it helps you remember who you are in difficult times.

Today’s practice was solid, and I’ve criminally added Mari D and Navasana even though I don’t bind consistently on Mari C. I need the bandha strengthening from Navasana, and well Mari D is a joke at this point, but it will get better, and I’ve bound in it before. I believe my injury may stem from inadequare bandha strength which Navasana and other work outside of practice will help with.

Got through the entire sequence with little or no “bad” sensation or pain in the left buttock or groin. I could feel overzealousness in the lotus postures getting into those areas so I back off a bit. Practice feels much more enjoyable when I am meeting myself where I am at rather than pushing towards some expectation of where I think i should be.

Also another change, I almost forgot. I didn’t drink any coffee today. Lately, I’ve been feeling raw and strung out when I drink it so I thought I’d give the ol’ adrenals a break. Not sure what difference this made in the practice, but I’ve noticed much more equanimity in myself throughout the day today.

Being vs. Doing

Since the piriformis tweak, on the left this time around, I’m trying to take it easy in the postures. The injury has shown me how much I was pushing and in the process creating an impatience and disharmony in my mind. In yesterday’s practice I let my body be where it was in each posture feeling the sensations in my groin and buttock from the injury. Anything that created an increase in pain was rolled back a few notches in intensity. It felt like the way I used to practice, before some kind of agenda rolled in. Not sure how that happened, it was subtle and insidious. At any rate I’m able to bring a brand new mindfulness to the practice now, and to heal my injury demands this.

Patience is my mantra.

Still binding on right, not on left in Mari-C. Thinking that shedding those last few pounds around the waste will help with this.

Pushing

Lately I feel I’ve been pushing hard at my edge in a lot of postures and maybe crossing over that edge. I woudl like to reaffirm my commitment to inhabiting the posturing rather than always trying to push into a new level of the asana. I continue to have the pin that seems to originate near the are where my left buttock meets my tailbone, in the center of the buttock and there is also pain in my groin on the left side. Not sure how I did this. I have an inkling that my recent experiments with deepening with the backbends may be the culprit. Concentrating too much on going deeper in the bend withut proper support in from the bandhas and inward rotation of the thighs.

didn’t bind on either side of Mari C. May scale back practice tomorrow. Its hard to know how to modify my practice to deal with this injury as I feel no pain during the practice itself. It isn’t until i get up and walk away after savasana that I feel moderate to more than moderate pain on the left side when walking standing etc. AFter I take a couple of advil the pain subsides completely. Weird. Well hopefully slowing down and mindfulness will help me to work with the injury within my practice.

Tweaked

I managed to tweak something that I could feel in the musculature of my left buttock near the coccyx, it felt deep in there and radiated into the area of my groin on the left side. Ouch! Nothing hurt during the practice at all, but when I moved out of savasana I felt it and it continued to be quite painful as I walked, or rather hobbled around after practice. I immediately took a couple advil and a hot shower. The discomfort and pain has eased considerably now, just an hour after my practice. I can feel sensation in the areas where the pain was before. I was experimenting if letting the bandhas go somewhat in backbends and inwardly rotating my thighs to release my buttocks. I did effort alot in headstand today and had an awkward landing so perhaps that had somethign to do with it. Its strange how I can feel nothing when practicing, but have an intense pain afterwards. I’ll take it easy tomorrow and try to figure out what’s causing the pain.

Didn’t bind on left side of Mari C again. Shoulders felt unusually inflexible and stiff.

A is coming in today.

Yesterday’s food

Breakfast - coffee
Lunch - mushroom cheeseburger, fries
Dinner - Pasta with pesto, peas, corn

Bah!

Today’s practice was a joke. My mind was no where near focussed or concentrated…and what a terrible idea to have a mirror in your practice space. Bah!

Backbends look good, but do they feel good ?

Skipped a couple half vinyasas, but i did it. Want to work on extracurricular hip opening and quad lengthening.

Pain

I woke up this morning with more pain than I’ve experienced since I began practicing in earnest again back in May.

-Elbow pain right side, tendonitis type
-Shoulder pain right side
-knee pain left side

I cleaned in a frenetic manner yesterday and that could be the culprit. I’m also vaguely remembering when I started a 6-day a week practice a couple of years ago that on days off I could be in some pain and that it disappears with more practice. We’ll see. After I finish this coffee I’ll be off to my mat.

Food yesterday
Coffee
Breakfast - steel cut oats w/soy milk and honey
Lunch - spinach salad and bread and butter, with jam
Dinner - acorn squash, hummus and crackers, nutella to finish it off
Kept snacking on wholewheat crackers after dinner

Moon Day

Aahh the much celebrated moon day. I actually feel quite odd, noticeable in yesterday’s practice, the day before the moon day. I felt mentally energetic and very lethargic bodywise. This is pretty common for me on the eve of a full moon, a very familiar feeling. At any rate I’m working part of the day today and spending the rest neatening up and cleaning as I have a much loved guest arriving this weekend. He’s injured at the moment, but I hope we can practice together. We’ve been friends for about 9 yrs now, probably my oldest friend. We’ve both been practicing ashtanga but separately for the past 3-4 years. It will be nice for me to have such a good friend to share the trials and tribulations of my current transition away from the student life into the real world, struggling into the new career etc. Many of my friends here are from my program and wrapped up in their own transition. It will be nice to have a wider perspective.

Namaste.

Drag pull grind

Well today’s practice felt alot like ‘going through the motions.’ Still stuck on Mari-C, on the left side I almost made the bind….exhale exhale grunt grunt stretch. But at the end of it my finger tips touched and that was all. Sigh… There was some residual tightness today, it felt like a part of me was holding on, and resisting practicing at all. I spaced out a few times inbetween postures losing a lot of heat and momentum. In the end I did it, and I’m happy. I think it is my right shoulder that is keeping me from binding. It has considerable less flexibility than my left. At any rate, I’m sure it will come eventually. Then I’ll get to wrestle with Mari-D which I have never bound on my own. In fact the only time when I did bind was with the help of Richard Freeman.