Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life, Fat Lip

I just started reading Mindful Yoga Mindful Life by Charlotte Bell. I'm still pretty early in the book but I am enjoying it so far and feel like she is speaking to ME. Don't you love when that happens? I'll write a real book report once I'm finished.

My face met the floor last night in what seemed like one of the most challenging classes I have ever taken. The theme seemed to have been "What can't Marilyn do?" and I walked out with a fat lip, nothing too crazy, my face was closer to the floor than I thought at one point. I wish I can tell you the name of the pose I was working on when it occurred but I can't. It was an arm balance that didn't quite happen. But it's all good. Happy Wednesday!

I wanna fall again!!

Hi everyone! I haven't had much to say lately on the yoga front until today so I've been laying low. I did a pretty cool thing in class last night. I fell....over and over again. For a lot of us, inversions are scary because we're afraid of falling and hurting ourselves.

My teacher wanted us to do forearm stand but no walls were allowed. She knew everyone in the room so she wanted to push us a little. She wanted us to experience falling out of Pincha Mayurasana so we wouldn't be afraid to do it again without the wall. It was like a tumbling class for toddlers.

We did it first in partners; one person spotted you as you came up, bend your knees, started drawing your feet to the ground. So yes, there is a point where you do find yourself doing Scorpion before your feet hit the floor.

Once it came time to do it on our own, I have to say it was kind of fun! Those couple of seconds of me perched up and doing the pose with no support before bending my knees and falling back (or is it forward?) was so exhilarating. It was the same feeling I had the first time I did a handstand.

After I learned how to do a headstand away from the wall, forearm stand was my next mission. I've been practicing this pose for a while now trying to engage my chest and shoulder blades more to not crunch my lower back so much. That was my issue, I wasn't drawing my chest forward enough. I can't wait to try again!

UPDATE: It is important that I add to TUCK YOUR CHIN! Since your head shouldn't be touching the ground in this pose, this will be easy, instinctive even! :)

**Waves**

I went to yoga last night, the first time in two weeks! My teacher, Lippy, gave me a few tips on what to do to take care of my hip in forward bends (ie: roll up a blanket and folder over that). I didn't go crazy with the forward bending. I have an excellent forward bend where my palms can lay flat on the ground and my forehead touches my knee but last night I checked my ego at the door and used blocks, blocks, and more blocks. Even in Trikonasana I used blocks.

My teacher has now forbidden me from using my right leg to kick up into Handstand. =*( It's my "A side", my left leg gets neglected a lot. So I tried to kick up with my left leg and it truly is like learning how to do a handstand all over again. Kinda sucks but I understand why I must do it, balance baby! It's crazy how you can get your body to move a certain way on one side but when you try the other side you are completely lost and your legs are just flaring out like crazy.

It was nice to be back in class. The anti-inflammatories I was taking for my hip did the trick and I haven't felt any pain in about a week. I may refill the prescription and just keep it in the cabinet in case it flares up again. The doctor thinks that's enough to do the trick. I'll stick with that.