What V said, Smoky Cop, Haunted by Beet Salad
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 01/17/2008 09:10 am by karenThings change. Yesterday morning, I felt awful before and during practice. This morning, I felt delightful. Nice.
I was also haunted by the images of beet salad that Tova posted on her blog. Beets, feta, pine nuts. I am going out to Wild Oats to get lunch today instead of huddling at my desk. I must have some beets and pine nuts. And a bag of carrots, because that sounds like a yummy snack.
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Last night, The Cop dropped by the house during his shift, because he was in the neighborhood. He smelled of smoke because he had just been to a call where a woman tried to light her house on fire. She stuffed a bunch of stuff into the stove, set it at 500, and lay down on the couch. He sees a lot of attempted (and successful) suicides. It makes me terribly sad, that so many people are so deeply unhappy.
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This morning, I spend a good bit of time doing the Vanessa exercise. Up into UD at the wall, walk the feet in, press the chest open, repeat. Woohoo! It’s starting to really work! And astonishingly, it is feeling really good! It’s a little scary, because I feel sensations that are unfamiliar, and I have to sort them out, because “reactive mind,” feeling unfamiliar things in a weird upside-down position, tends to want to get anxious and label the sensations “bad,” or “pain,” and then bail. But if I just relax a bit, it all works out.
And who was it yesterday who said the arms in UD should be springy and all the work kept in the legs?? I’m thinking it was Patrick… Anyhow, yes! Yes! Yes!
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And I even grabbed a couple of screen shots that document a UD on New Year’s Day (first photo) and one from today (second photo).
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Yes, I am walking my feet in, which I am figuring is a “training wheels” exercise — something that is educational, but which is also a habit that will need to be broken. The relationship of my upper body to the wall is really important, so I can’t get the same effect by walking my hands in (which would be preferable to the feet). Once I get this squared away and the armpits open more, I will jettison the feet-walking business. In the meantime, though, a very useful exercise…