150/175

10:30 am with Miranda

Today's class was as good as Sunday's was bad.  Heat and humidity were a perfect 105/40.  The energy was good and I felt strong throughout.

Miranda gave a few hands on corrections that were illuminating.  In the first forward bend, she started to push back on my knees while telling me to roll forward.  The feeling was a bit different than when I do it on my own.  I could feel more in my back and in the middle of my hamstrings.  I had never really rolled forward properly before, I guess.  

I thought I was doing it.  It's pretty easy to fool yourself into thinking you are doing something when you really are not.  That is one lesson I learn again and again from doing this Yoga.

In one of the situps, she came over and pushed down on my knees while I was sitting up.  When I sat up, she gave me a look that said "You see, you can do that."  And for the rest of the sit-ups, I did do it on my own.  It's so easy to let the knees bend in the sit-ups, but its also a point where I really do have control.  So no excuses from this point on.

And she pushed my hips onto my heels in Half Tortoise.  She's done this before, but I've made some progress in this pose, and it changed what she was doing.  Basically,  I realized how far I have to go still in this pose.  My head was barely on the floor, and there was an awesome stretch through my upper back and shoulders.  I can still feel the aftermath of that stretch.  The feel of this pose varies so much from day to day.  Sometimes, its like a pure rest, and other times I can get a big stretch out of it.  I haven't figured out quite what makes the difference, and today I found out how much more work there really is to do in this pose.

Balancing was pretty good, especially Standing Head to Knee.  My right leg still wants to come out of a full locked position, but there's some improvement.  Balancing Stick was really good.  Miranda stressed leaning back before going into the pose, and then concentrating mostly on lifting the leg, and letting the upper body follow.  I hadn't heard this before, and it seemed to make a difference.

All in all, it was a great class.  Oh, and I almost forgot.  My big toe touched the back of my leg in Eagle.  It's a minor breakthrough, but very satisfying.