The balance is back - 7 days of yoga and counting

It was imminent that I would wake up one day and realize that I had gone astray. I had let myself go again! Over the last six months I had become complacent and let the stress consume me inside. Outwardly, I was starting to eat my stress out and had let my physical practice or yoga and walking slip to the sidelines. I was starting to balloon.

I had the usual excuses - too busy, too much work, travel, bad food. It all hit me at once, when I hit 210 pounds in June 2009 and then by June end I was 214 pounds. I couldn't fit in my pants, my asthma returned, and I was starting to slip into the hole of depression.

Finally there is a realization and eureka moment! "Just take care of yourself first"! In that awareness I made a pact with myself. I had planned Munoso's intense one week workshop in the first week of July in San Franciso at Abode of Yoga. I couldn't attend it as one of the days was a day with my children. That was more important that any yoga in the world. So I made a promise to myself - I would practice yoga every day I was denied time with my children starting July 1. That was a 14 day stretch. Not only would I practice yoga, but I would restart my walking, watch my food intake and let the stress go away from within.

It has been 9 days. I have taken a yoga class for the last 7 days. I have walked 2-3 miles every other day and I have restarted the healing of my mind, body and soul. I went on the scale today. I am down to 210 pounds. The soreness from the first few days has dissipated. I have gone back to the path of centering myself. It has been a re-learning of what I learnt for the last 3 years - how to calm your mind and how to connect to your mind and soul through your body.

Everything I learnt is steadily coming back. There is no more sadness as much as there is no more happiness . There is no more an expectation of where I "should" be in my life right now. I am where I am, and I couldn't be at any other place. So I accept where I am, and I just go with the flow of life, with the only one end goal and that is to remain in my neutral space. Everything else including the weight will simply melt away. The balance is slowly returning and I felt it in my sirsasana yesterday. I can really balance on my head now, better than I had ever before.

That was my realization today and with it melted away my writing block......I am back to blogging.. slowly but surely!

Namaste

The Yogi

Hang upside down and let your aches and pain dissipate...

On Saturday I attended Nuvana's back care class at Sunset Yoga after a Friday evening back care regiment in private session with her. We determined that forward bends were aggravating it, so there were a number of supported back bends performed, along with twists. She avoided the traction with belts. My back pain was isolated to the lower left and heavy lifting was responsible in aggravating an old injury many years ago playing racquetball. Nuvana has no background in human physiology or anatomy, but she has a knack for isolating the area and using her skills to twist, stretch and turn you to relax the area. It is interesting to observe and feel your back pain slowly disappearing albeit for a short while.

Back to Saturday morning. The pain had moved to the center of the lower back and any forward bending would aggravate it. It was bearable. The class had many who were in some sort of pain. We started with some sitting poses and I could feel my shoulders tighten. Did I sleep wrong. The class was hard and eventually we ended up at the ropes. The best 10 minutes were hanging down in sirsasana. I had done rope sirsasana in some time and that just relaxed me completely. I would highly recommend it....

Namaste

The Yogi

Yoga at the Gym with Nuvana

Every Wednesday evening Nuvana teaches an hour class at my gym. I decided to start attending this class again to get back into the gym groove. This is a bizarre place to do yoga. It had a very open arboretum type area, with huge floor to ceiling glass windows in a semi circle. The windows face west, so on a sunny evening, you have the sun glaring into the teacher's eyes. Up above us is running track and a work out area, where they have this marvelous set of gym equipment and exercise bikes. There is also a piece of equipment which serves great to tie ropes and hang down in rope sirsasana. I bought ropes back from Pune so Nuvana showed me how to tie them and hang down. I am certain we were being gazed at by the crowd in horror as I hung down like a bat.

Doing yoga in this gym is not as peaceful and quiet as you would want. There are people running up on the track and constant thumping and shouting in the 4 basketball courts behind the wall. Reminds me of RIMYI yoga halls in Pune, with all the noise from the outside. Its so noisy around, that Nuvana has to yell instructions - one student comments "why doesn't she use the wireless mike?". Well she is probably used to shouting instructions from India I presume.

The class is intense. Its all about stretching your spine. Various twists and poses to lift up the sternum, stretching your spine, creating the space by further lifting the arms and eventually two variations of Downward Facing Dog by the wall, moving to Upward and Downward using blocks. My uttanasana seemed to greatly improve as I could finally touch the floor. I am sore, the whole class seemed to have a good workout.

This is what I like about Nuvana. Consistent well formed instructions and a flow of sequences to the final pose and then gentle pushes and corrections. Its all so logical. I am glad to be back in her class. Pune seems so much more different. But they all have the same purpose. Teach you great yoga! A fellow student asks me in the change room if I was as sore as he was. I said "yes" but its good sore and Nuvana is one of the best teachers in town. I think he is coming back again.

Namaste

The Yogi