Nairam’s Roads

Phew… it’s been (another) rough week for me. First of all, I started it feeling quite sick (nausea, headache, and a general sense of weakness and low spirits). On top of that, a lot of stress at work–not only a lot on my plate but also changes were launched in the organizational structure of the institution I work for, with my division being split, and lots of emotions involved.

Things improved a bit toward mid-week. I had two really nice Mysore practices on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. However, as I wrote in my past posts, I seem to have strained myself a bit. I soon discovered that not only I had the natural soreness from pushing the muscles to elongate, but also I started having waves of pain running from my right shoulder (and shoulder blade) through the arm and to the hand. Since it didn’t feel “muscular” it kind of scared me. I saw my chiropractor on Wednesday night and she thought that perhaps there were being some nerves pinched under my clavicle (that was a little turned) but the adjustment didn’t seem do do much. I actually suspect that the problem is that I was already carrying a lot of tension (knots and what not) on my shoulder and pushing myself during practice may have caused some stress on the arm. The pain was so bad that when I had my work’s performance evaluation on Thursday afternoon I spent most of the meeting grabbing my arm to ease the pain (luckily it was a very relaxed/informal meeting).

Anyhoo… I ended up having to take a break from practice from Thursday to today (Saturday), since the pain only started receding yesterday afternoon. Luckily it feels much better now and this afternoon I’ll go see a therapist that my chiro recommended to take another look. 

Not doing Yoga, however, came at a bad moment. I really need it to make myself feel better, specially since more work stress toward the end of the week. I have 3 research projects to complete before I leave in a 2 and 1/2 week work trip on Wednesday, and I continue to get this stream of requests that interrupt me constantly. End of the story-will have to work on the weekend again ;(  … and in the meantime I have this feeling of being the one person of the team who’s being overworked. It’s a vicious circle-the more I deliver and create a reputation for being hard working and good at producing, the more comes my way. Sigh. In the meantime, I have teammates on vacation! (literally). I admit that is *not* helping to lift my spirits.

Ugh. I hope this bad period will end soon. With my arm in much better condition, I’ll be able to practice in the next 4 days, before I leave. And I’m excited. Because of the Thanksgiving weekend I’ll have a chance to stop in Cusco and Macchu Picchu before a couple of work-crazy weeks in Lima. I’m dreaming of the place–I have heard not only of its beauty, but also of its energy. I think there could not be a better way to recover my energy before starting another rushed cycle. And by the way, my plan is to write every day to report on Ashtanga practice once in Lima (I will try while in Cusco and Macchu Picchu, but it will depend on how the altitude hits me)…

Oh, and I forgot. Thanks to Ms. Portside, I managed to do some little internet shopping to enlighten the end of my week (I think I deserve it)