Expansion Joint

Day 7 93 to go

Colliding Galaxies Make Love not War - Hubble

Yoga Health Center San Carlos.  A silent class needed after the "melt down". Received a few warm (knowing?) smiles today. I attend San Carlos maybe 3 or 4 times a month.This studio is friendly and chatty but I know no one here.  Maybe they were being nice or maybe they recognized the "China Syndrome Gal" from Saturday. Adore a silent class. It allows me to gauge where I am in my practice. Only think about the best approach to pose and the best use of breath. How well have I  been paying attention? Who's words are running in my head for each pose? I like to hear the names of the postures and that is what we received in silent class today. I am still being too effected by what is going on on other people's mats. If they fall, I fall.  If they stop trying to go back in, I stop trying. I put myself close to the door today in case another melt down emerged. It did not. A great class, must do that more often.  I need it to keep the meltdowns at bay, apparently. 


Bikram Yoga Tip of the Day:Balancing Stick Tulandasana. When you raise your arms and interlock your fingers, engage every muscle from the floor to the ceiling. Start with your hands and feet always. When you step out make sure both your elbows and both your knees are locked. Before you tilt, check in the mirror that your hips are in alignment. Inhale and stretch everything. Exhale and pull, pull, pull. Pull your palms together, pull  your arms behind your ears, your  finger index fingers towards  the mirror, pull your back apart, pull your leg up, pull your toes to touch the back of the room. Check to make sure your extended leg is straight and not rotated, sometimes you need to rotate your foot, your ankle,  or your hip joint to maintain the correct hip alignment.  Exhale and pull you arms forward and your toes back.  Feel your vertebrae expand like the universe. 

Hip Rotations

94 l 6 to go

Busy day :: 6 to go :: 6 to go :: 6 to go :: commuting from Redwood City in the middle of a remodel project that will not end. High hopes for yoga inprovement despite aromatheraphy breathing problems = head, inner ear, lungs knees are all taking a hit

Carry on, make it work, as Tim Gunn would say.

My suits are now beginning to hang off me abit, this I attribute to Dr Joel Furhman's book, "Eat to Live".

Bikram Yoga tip of the day: Tulansana Balancing stick pose: Adjust your hips before you tilt so they are parallel. Lock your standing knee. Make sure you arms and elbows are locked against your head and keep your chin up so you can see your front knee or your fingertips in the front mirror. Pull with equal force from your elbows to the tips of your fingers and from your knees to the end of your big toe. Rotate your elevated leg so your knee cap is facing the floor.

Midnight Train to Prada

day 83 l 17 to go

Wednesday 9:30 am class

September 30, 2009

I've fallen down and I can't get up.

(Its okay. I am wearing Prada)

Photo from Milan Fashion Week 2009.

My Yoga train is empty. Q4 has everyone busier than me.

The 26 postures still elude me. Current zeitgeist sez excercise does not matter, nuitrition does.Good thing I do not attend yoga for exercise. For me it is a meditative practice. Something to challenge the focus and quiet the mind.

Both primary care MD and Dermatologist both strongly advised there were better ways to spend my time than in Bikram Yoga practice. Dermatologist was strongly against it (for me). Regular Doc would have preferred the time spent walking.

What will I do 18 days from now?

Yoga tip of the day: Stretch your feet. In awkward pose, feel the heel releasing the soles of the feet down. In Tulandasana ,Balancing stick pose, move the weight around over your foot until you feel your body weight centered over the middle of the foot, then exhale through your arms, locking both your elbows and knees, pulling with all your might to reach opposite walls with fingers and toes.

Does anyone know what day it is?

The challenge is 100 days of Yoga. In a row. Don't know what day this is.

The studio was closed one day in July, and I missed a few days in July.

It's August 1st.

Show up, breathe, stretch, breathe, sweat, and breathe some more.

This the Bikram Yoga. My water bill has gone up.

Today there were aliens (as in never saw them before) in the classroom. ADD challenged, little things distract.

There are 26 poses. The order still eludes. Once we are on the floor, follow along with class and the stay with the instructor. When all else fails, breathe in, then breathe out.

Practice means, show up with intention, breathe, stretch, breathe, sweat, repeat and rest.

Focus only on your practice. Meditate for 90 minutes, no wiping, no squirming, no water no mindless thought chatter.

Alien starts doing push ups in class. Distracted, lose focus, fall out, then back. Started thinking about designing yoga clothes with a logo across the butt ala juicy. Again, fall out, lose place in the class, had no idea where the class is in the practice. the battle against spacy mind chatter is a daily one.

Put the thoughts out, breathe in, start again.

I wonder what day this is. Does not not matter. Breathe in breathe out.

Pose of the day: Tuladandasa. Great trick, make sure your hips are in alignment with each other before you rotate over even if you do not step out as much.