So far, so good

This week I’ve been enjoying very much my reentering to a more disciplined Ashtanga Practice. I’m again going sufficiently frequently to see progress–very noticeable on the heel injury, which is disappearing, and on my overall state of being, although of course things like my balance and stiffness levels tend to vary widely from day to day. I hope I can make these more consistent… This morning was a good one, as I was able to focus a bit better on deepening my breath, though the glimpse of a jump through I though I had last week seems to have been gone. I guess I really need to get my act together and start doing push ups at home… I’m not going to get away with this otherwise.

I’m also reading the Yoga Mala (SKPJ) and reviewing some other Ashtanga Yoga Books to see if I can get better ideas and tips on how to improve (and also to check that my vinyasas are correct, since there have been times in which I have been confused regarding the transitions between, say, sets of standing poses. The other thing that has been interesting to me this weekend (which is very Yoga-full) has been my attendance to a couple of workshops that allowed attendants to connect the key founding principles of Yoga with issues such as giving and achieving forgiveness, and changing habits. While these were short sessions, I think they manage to inspire a switch in my state of being as well as plans and determination on how to proceed in the quest to become a better person. For now, I have made a personal commitment to be better in my handling of a very specific issue. I will have to be monitoring myself about this for the next couple of weeks :)

Grateful

After another black out in my practice during most of the week, I finally made it to the shala yesterday and today. It was the most wonderful experience ever, especially after how bad the past few days had been.

I was pretty stressed for work (stuff to do and potentially big changes soon, plus I had to do three pretty tough internal job interviews at a one-day’s notice); having to help my Mom with some difficult and serious stuff regarding my Dad’s passing; coordinate the ongoing renovations at my old condo, which have been much more complicated than initially expected (renovations in old buildings often open cans of worms, what can I say), and juggle the fact that the boyfriend was around until Thursday (nice, but forces me out of my own usual schedule). I didn’t sleep well the whole week, awakening myself at night wondering if I was going to have to spend more money on the house; whether I should get/take this or that position, and what that would entail; how on earth I’d get all the needed documents on time to help my Mom with my Dad’s issue, etc, etc, etc. On Friday, my back and neck and head just hurt terribly from the stress–so bad that I called a massage therapist that has helped me in the past for a very urgent session on Friday evening to try to ease the pain.

It all helped, but on Saturday morning I woke up feeling completely drained and low of spirits. I had to make a supreme effort to get out of bed, dressed and off to the shala (which I manage to do a little late, in fact). The amazing thing is, as soon as I got on the mat, all my troubles went away, and I felt extremely peaceful. I had to cut the practice short and skip most of my sitting positions, since the Mysore session was about to end, and the students for the led class were already at the lobby waiting to come in. I even skipped shoulderstand given the stress I had on my back and shoulders the previous day. I moved slowly through the finishing positions, and by the time I reached savasana, something amazing happened. I started praying unintendedly, as if the thoughts and words just came out of me but without me trying at all (praying is something I really don’t do often, to be frank). I just realized how lucky I have been in life, how lucky I still am, and how petty my concerns really are in the big scheme of things. I suddenly felt very grateful for being able to be there, just lying on the floor on my mat on such a peaceful and loving shala. It was kind of odd (and it surprised me), but beautiful.

Anyway, today I went back and practice just felt amazing. I love Sundays because it’s crowded–there is a lot of energy. I sweated like crazy :) and went as deep as I could into every pose and just enjoyed it. It’s funny how I’ve stopped worrying about getting new poses or progressing on ‘visible ways’. Now progress is about feeling that peace inside. I got it.

Back, but not quite…

So. More traveling and exhaustion. It seems that it will never stop. I was in San Diego over the past weekend… supposedly to celebrate the incoming of the New Year, and also to dance (there was a festival going on there). Plus, this was an occasion to see the (long-distance) boyfriend. The trip went well, though my energy was obviously really gone–I was so tired from work and the non-stop travel of the past few weeks, that I just fell asleep hours before New Year’s eve. The 3-hour change relative to the East Coast didn’t help me; I had to make an effort to open an eye and celebrate the New Year in New York that my boyfriend was watching on our hotel room’s TV. Poor thing, he didn’t even complain that I snored through it all. Other than that, the dancing was good, but again a test to how tired I was (since I was not able to pull the late nights *at all*). Ha, what a surprise.

Anyhoo… Back in town since yesterday night. I am *theoretically* on vacation, and running a thousand needed errands. Some of them pretty engaged–they involve some house renovations that I’m getting into, not without fear of the mess they’ll bring into my life. But I’ve been saying I’d do them for long enough, it’s time to just get to them, and things and plans have been in motion–though slowly–for a few months already. I just have to push ahead and do it. In fact, today I ran errands all day long and at least got a lot of stuff done.

Of course, my Ashtanga practice is one of the most important things that are not getting done these days. This frantic rushing between the office, the urgent stuff to do, and the airports, really demands of me a level of discipline and stamina to keep the Yoga practice going that I’m finding–not without disappointment–I just don’t have. I admit that, from time to time, the fact that I don’t manage to make the space for it doesn’t make me precisely proud of myself, although I also realize that maybe is simply makes me human.

At least I’ll be able to go back to the shala for the rest of the week to start to recover. Then… I travel again (on Sunday!!!). Ugh. And, 4-5 days after that, I will come back home and things will finally calm down. I’ll again have time for myself, and will go back to my more peaceful and normal life ;)

Can’t wait for that to happen…

Trying to be back on the Road

OK, here is me, back after a long, long hiatus. It’s been a hiatus not only from the blog–it feels as if I’ve been away from my own life. I’m not happy about that. The whole “work time” in Peru was really tough–very busy, stressful, physically demanding. On workdays, we started at 8 am and went on for meeting after meeting (some of them quite important) battling awful traffic, stress, speculation, you name it. Sometimes, we didn’t get back to the hotel but until 9 – 10 pm. Since we couldn’t work much during the week, we got stuck together in the hotel’s executive lounge working for days long almost non stop over the weekends. Ewgh.

I managed to practice Yoga probably 3 times during those days. Everyone else was also complaining of the lack of time to exercise, let alone relax and sleep decently. Those days in which I practiced I felt terrible–I managed to get a decent Yoga mat, and sneaked into the spinning room at the gym much earlier in the morning, hours before the first class started. At least I was able to close the glass doors and be isolated from the rest of the gym’s noise. But I was watching myself on the 3 mirrored-covered-walls, realizing that I wasn’t breathing properly, that I wasn’t focusing and that my posture was just horrendous. As I looked I couldn’t avoid feeling discouraged, thinking to myself that there was no wonder why D is sometimes so tough on me during Mysore practice when I’m in town. I thought to myself “Gosh, I do suck…!”. And I was feeling also sad, realizing that I was quickly loosing that hard-earned flexibility that I had work so much to get since I started practicing in June.

I got back on Sunday afternoon–after an overnight flight in which I not only couldn’t sleep, but after which every single muscle and bone ached. After a little rest, I had to work again to submit some revisions to our project by Monday 9 am. Things have continued more or less like that for the last couple of days, only starting to slow down today. Of course, waking up at 5 am to attend Mysore was not even in the realm of possibilities. Finally now I get to sit, write this down and fear what will happen tomorrow at the shala. I expect horror–I’m even afraid of not being able to remember the proper sequencing up to Janu Sirsasana.  

During my hiatus, I managed to peak at my dear “Yoga-friends” blogs. Alfia’s really made me smile with that “practice after a break is a bitch”. Ha. No kidding. A huge bitch. I’m fearing her tomorrow :)

But, oh, well. This is part of Yoga, and part of learning, too. I’m fatter, weaker, less fit than I was when I left, and perhaps even more insecure. But I guess I just have to get over myself and do it. It may take me many days of practice to get to where I was–let alone improve to a level even close to where I want to be–but I suppose this is part of the process. Life–or nothing that is part of it–is ever linear. I find myself advancing and backtracking; and I suppose at this point, with my Yoga practice I’m at a point in which I truly back-stepped. Sure, maybe I could claim that “it was not me” –if that’s of any consolation; but that’s besides the point. It’s not what’s important. The thing is, this is the moment to demonstrate what really matters to me, to take over my temporarily derailed life again and regain what I may have lost in my Yoga practice. I’m sure I will learn much from this.

The end of a rough week

It’s been some tough last few days (will it ever end??? I hope so).  I even fell stomach sick and low… so I decided to take care of myself and skip practice yesterday and this morning, in my attempts to recover. Ugh…

I’m trying to make today as nice as possible for myself; so that life gets normal by tomorrow (though I will probably need to go to the office, double-ugh). 

(And praying for Annabella’s kitty, Scout, too).

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