Thursday, November 13, 2008

132/149

8:15 pm with Miranda

All day I had a kind of deep pain in my left hip socket, so I was a bit anxious about class.  I didn't feel any pain in the hip at all during class.  That made me thing that yoga had once again cured a temporary problem.  But now the pain is back.  It's not bad, but its like something deep in my hip wants to open up, and it isn't quite there.

I set up in the back tonight.  And, as always, it was harder to focus and I did not fare as well in the balancing poses.  The rest of the class went really well though, especially in the parts where I got physical corrections from Miranda.  First, she helped out in the first forward bend, and once again I came just shy of locking my knees.  Then she put all her weight on my legs during Wind Relieving.  She's done that several times, and it always feels good.  Tonight I almost got contact between knee and shoulder, and there's no way I can get nearly that deep without help.

Then the new correction came in Floor Bow.  She pushed forward and up on my ankles, driving me onto my chest and getting my feet up higher than I ever thought they would go.  It felt absolutely amazing.  Now I'm a little bit aware of some tenderness in my lower back, which might be from that, but it was definitely worth it.

On my own I had some good moments as well.  From a distance my half moon is starting to look more round.  I still think this is one of the hardest poses in the series.  I've worked hard at getting the form better, and the good form set back my apparent depth for a while.  Now I'm probably 20-30 degrees above parallel from the floor with my arms, but my elbows are locked, my knees are locked, I'm reaching pretty strongly with the hands, and I have almost no collapse in the waist on the short side.

The other pose that was good tonight was Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee.  I actually locked my knee on the right side.  I might have done that once in a Zeb class during the challenge.  Then the sciatic pain killed the pose for the longest time.  Now, its stronger, at least on the right side than its ever been.  On the left side, my knee isn't bent quite so pathetically as before.  And I'm getting closer to keep my arms locked throughout the pose.

Finally, going back to last night's post.  I think the reason I was never able to understand the words in the line of that song is because they just don't make sense to me.  That made me think that maybe the same thing happens sometimes with the Bikram dialogue.  I have several times heard something new in the dialogue, even though its clear that I have heard the words many times before.  And the reason I suddenly hear it as new, I think, is because it suddenly makes sense,  perhaps because my body has reached a point where I am able to make sense out of it.  This is interesting, but shouldn't be that surprising.  It just shows a deep connection between the mind, the senses, and the body -- a connection deeper than a purely intellectual approach might suppose.

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