Today's class was AWESOME. I had so many breakthroughs I barely know where to begin. Today was one of those motivating classes that makes me so excited to get back in the room and practice again. This past week has been really tough for me and I really believe the results of the struggle of this week was my incredible class today. One of my instructors frequently says, "There is beauty in the struggle because that's where the change happens," and as I wax poetic about this experience, I'm inclined to agree.
So, half moon is getting better all the time. I've figured out how to make my body stretch up out of my waist, which is helping several postures. I can now feel a stretch in my sides from the wrist to the waist, and I just have to keep pushing to feel it down my entire side. Additionally, hands to feet pose went really well. My instructor told me to put my weight more in my toes. Once I did, my face was hovering ridiculously close to my legs. It's coming soon.
In the standing series, I definitely got a good cardio workout. The dizzy feeling I usually get kind of morphed into this buzzing through my whole body. It was rather pleasant. Pushing into the feeling is turning out to always be better than pulling away from it. I worked hard to keep my breath even but still I could feel my heart pounding, especially after standing bow pulling.
I finally had a triangle breakthrough! Again, it was thanks to some awesome direction from my instructor. Sometimes you just need someone to put the concept of the pose into different words for it to suddenly make sense to you. I'm not even entirely sure what she said that made it click for me, but I realized that I needed to push my hips down while pushing my arm and chest towards the ceiling. My heart was pounding like crazy but it felt great.
In tree pose, I think I now understand how I'm supposed to rotate my hip to open up my hip joints. I was able to balance easier and get my hips in alignment. Having properly aligned hips is such a huge deal in my world.
In half-tortoise, I had a MAJOR breakthrough. This isn't even really pose-specific but it was a huge deal for me. As mentioned earlier, I've figured out stretching from my waist in postures with the hands over the head. This really helped in half-tortoise. When I got my pinky fingers to the ground, I pushed my fingers towards the mirror and felt the uncomfortable burning sensation and slightly dizzy feeling that usually freaks me out and makes me pull away. I distinctly recall thinking, "I love this feeling!" and pushing into it instead of pulling away. When I got out of the posture and laid in savasana, my body felt like it was laying in a pool of water instead of on my mat. It felt kind of like the floor had a heartbeat and it was pulsing against my body. Yes, it really was that trippy.
After that, the rest of the class kind of passed by in a buzzing blur. I felt strong and energized. After class, I've been feeling increasingly energized and just plain happy. I feel relaxed in body and mind. I'm so excited to have had this class today.
Oh, and did I mention I'll be hearing Bikram speak tomorrow? BECAUSE I WILL. I'll be sure to talk to you all on Thursday about my experience!
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