Will I ever be able to do Side Crow?

In life,  we all have our nemesis..    The black spy had the white spy.     Sherlock Holmes had Professor Moriarty.      I have Side Crow.

Side Crow requires you to balance your body lengthwise across  your bent arms.  It requires arm strength,  balance and a good degree of flexibility in both your shoulders and hips.    I had never been able to do it and thus avoided it in my regular practice and never gave it much of a chance.  

After a discussion with my Yogi friend Larry about my struggles with this pose,  I decided to spend concerted time working on it to see if I could really do it.    After watching a few videos and taking a few head plants  (you can't catch the gnarly air without taking a few face plants dude) and spending a few weeks working on the pose ,  I was able to finally succeed in holding for a few seconds and now can hold for 5 to 10 breaths (with some difficulty).  It is not easy. 

What is important about this success to me, is that fact that I have again gone back to focusing on working on challenge poses.    For a long time, my home practice has consisted of following pretty much the same two or three sequences and was as much of a workout as a yoga practice.   I now take one practice day a week,  shorten the flow part and then work on something that I struggle with.    In this way I am improving my general crow pose,  working on firefly  (now that would be a miracle) and finally got to do a successful  (though with much room for improvement) side crow.  

Little gains happen every day in a Yoga practice and sometimes big ones happen with some perseverance and a lot of effort.

Namaste.

Post 100. A vegetarian lost in the land of Waffle House and Cracker Barrel

Post 100.  It sure is hard to write these. 

So..  Here I am in a hotel in SE Tennessee..   Across the street is a Cracker Barrel and a Waffle House and neither excites me with their culinary offerings (in fact I have never stepped any of their ubiquitous locations) as a perusal of both of their menus shows a cross section of the unhealthy food choices that many chain restaurants offer Americans.  Their menus feature the factory produced meat focused diet that our nation is famous for.   Even some of the  vegetables at Cracker Barrel have "meat flavoring" on them that one has to be careful to avoid  (but since I have never eaten there,  I have had no need to avoid them) 

So, how is a vegetarian to survive in the midst of all of this dead animal product offering?   This is always the challenge when I travel for work.   Unless I am in a place where their are enough vegetarians to warrant either dedicated vegetarian restaurants (like New Jersey and surprisingly Kansas City) or restaurants which feature a dedicated vegan/vegetarian menu in addition to their meat oriented one,  then eating becomes a game of picking and choosing what to eat.     The biggest challenge is to find a good source of protein without having to resort to too much cheese (or no cheese at all).    

On my current trip,  I have been here for  four weeks so I have to been both creative or restricted.  Every morning at breakfast,  I am pretty much forced eat the same exact thing  (the hotel offers breakfast).   Black coffee, whole wheat toast,  my own peanut butter (the Smuckers offered has unneeded sugar) a banana and a pile of grapefruit and pineapples that the nice lady who takes care of us every morning makes.    There is some cereal and instant oatmeal but neither excites me.     There is also the magic waffle maker, but who knows what is in that batter.  My guess is the souls of dead puppies. 

The factory that I have been working at has been  actually a good source of vegetables  (though usually overcooked) and they have a decent salad bar with beans and such and, to my surprise,  they mark some items as vegan and the cook tells me what is in everything so my big fear of having nothing to eat at lunch  (factories are not known for their culinary variety) was allayed. 

Dinner is pretty limited.  Many restaurants have nothing but salad and fries and my best real options are an Indian restaurant 25 miles away and one local Asian restaurant with a small vegetarian menu.  The Indian place is really excellent  but going there is a bit of a hike.   Most nights I give up and just get the best frozen option at Publix  (watch out for the salt on these) and make a big salad.   I really do not mind that because I can then work my meals around my Yoga schedule.  Thank Shiva my room has a fridge and a microwave.     I tried Olive Garden (desperate times mean desperate measures) and boy did that suck.   I mean really really bad.   Pizza places are  pretty ubiquitous (and the one I tried was very good)  but I only want that much cheese on a rare occasion.   

I am more than looking forward to returning to being able to cook my own food and controlling my intake but I am surviving.   I just wish I could get a good plate of pasta and fresh lightly cooked veggies with beans and garlic for dinner tonight.    Oh well. 

Namaste.

There is always something to learn in your Yoga Practice..

I took a Yin class a few days ago in my home away from home studio in Cleveland, Tennessee.   The class was small and very intimate. The best thing was that  the teacher had the right demeanor for a Yin class and was very knowledgeable.   The fact that she was passionate about Yin was a big plus.

Yin is designed for long holds of poses (3 to 5 minutes is the norm).    The  poses apply moderate stress to the connective tissues ( tendons, fascia, and ligaments) in order to increase flexibility.    The practice is very slow and deliberate and generally is only done with seated and lying down poses. It is a great counterpoint to a rigorous practice.

In addition to introducing a pose that I was not familiar with, the instructor stressed  that we should go into our poses until we meet initial resistance.   After that, we stop and breath ,  and then slowly fold into the pose until we reach a level of discomfort  that we can withstand for the balance of the hold time.   I really had not thought  about how to best get into a pose (except that one should not force yourself down)  and this way really hit home with me.   It is something that I have added to my Yoga toolbox.

Every time I practice,  I learn something new.   A new pose,  something new about a pose that I have done a thousand times,  something new about myself.  Even standing in something as familiar as Warrior 2,  I still learn something   How to better hold my arms, keep my shoulders relaxed,  remembering to go deeper,   understanding my limits.     

This constant learning is why I love going to foundation classes.    Many teachers break down poses to their component parts,  and thus I understand how I can better do that pose.    A few weeks ago,  the instructor focused on the being cognizant of where your hands and feet were and making sure that they were actively engaged in the pose.    Because of this ,  I concentrate about making sure that my hands remain open and my feet are where they should be.    Additionally,  I also constantly do an up and down scan of my body making sure that everything is where I think it should be.     That little tip really has allowed me to increase my focus while in a pose.  

Namaste..