Lately, classes have been hell.
Everything is hard right from the beginning. I walk into the room and the hot air takes my breath away. Pranayama exhausts me. Half Moon pose kills my hips. I always fall out of Awkward pose. Eagle pose kills my hips. My calf muscles burn in Standing Head to Knee. And that’s only the start, but I think you get the idea.
Where have my “easy” classes gone? I was on a smooth ride for a few months where class was a walk in the park. I walked in, sweated, stretched, pulled, breathed and then left feeling wonderful.
I still leave feeling wonderful but every breath, every movement, every muscle contraction is a challenge, a chore, a battle. I am trying to look at this experience in a positive way. As The Missus said in "Good Class Redifined”, the harder classes are the good ones! This is where your body is changing, growing stronger, flushing toxins. But man, oh man, is it tough. Every class I am finding reasons as to why I should leave the room. And it’s not even unusually HOT!
Sometimes the worst experiences, the hardest times in our life, teach us the most. We benefit from them by growing and learning. We get through them by focusing on the good.
So I am focusing on the good in my yoga.
My good for this week: In Janushirasana with Paschimottanasana (Head to Knee with Stretching pose), I am able to touch my forehead to my thumbs! My forehead is so close to getting to my toes. In class, the other morning, my instructor said to me that if I went to see Bikram he would stand on my back like this to help me get my head to touch my toes!
3 comments:
It's true, at the last training he "surfed" on people's backs at the end of training. It was quite funny. You're so right - the hard ones are the ones when your body is readjusting. Getting stronger indeed!
Nice attitude, J. I completely sympathize. I've been a regular victim of the yoga truck lately. I want to be cool with it and accept there's just things that need to be worked out, but sometimes I just don't like the excessive suffering! Heheh. Here's to a smooth class in the future.
I've been slogging through a rough go of it, too. I get the whole "but the tough classes are the best ones!!!" rationale. But, still. Sometimes, you just DON'T want to feel like you're going to die at any second atop your yoga mat, ya know?!
:)
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