That's the email we woke up to today from Kyla. I love those motivating messages every day, it serves as a great inspiration especially on those lazy days where sometimes staying in bed is too good to give up.
I was clearly tired last night (seriously who falls asleep before class even starts??), but I had no idea how tired; I've been doing really well lately at getting up early, going to class, or at least to have my lemon-water-poop-accelerator (such a sure thing) and some breakfast! But today I slept in until 11:45!! That is majorly late for me lately, I felt so flustered! Luckily a long, deep night's sleep was clearly just what I needed. I do love waking up to my Tibetan bells alarm (I'm not sure Jamie feels the same however), but it does feel nice just to wake up from the sun shining high noon in the sky through the window.
Anyway after a decently busy day, I walked through the dazzling sunshine - yay! - to the 5:30 class with Kirsten. I kept my eyes half open this time to make sure no repeats from yesterday. It wasn't a full class, so it was nice to be able to spread out. There were two girls whispering constantly for the fifteen minutes we lay in savasana as people made their way into the room. Seriously - the room is silent - everyone can hear you and it's effing annoying!! It took all of my yoga training of my breath not to (calmly) ask them to shut. up. I was talking myself into saying something when Kirsten came in the room and we got started. I love the ninety minute classes when we start off in vrksasana - tree pose. It's another point of comparison, when it's the first thing you do and then you repeat it again at the end of the balancing series right before mid-savasana. I'm always surprised at the difference in the openness of my hips between the two - it totally makes me appreciate what yoga does for my body. I'm finding if I go a day without doing it, I feel sore almost, it's weird. But good I guess - it's a reason to keep going back even once the challenge is finished! It's like my body is addicted to stretching all the time. Not kidding, ask Jamie - if we're just sitting around watching a movie or the food network, I am stretching my legs up one at a time to lengthen my hamstrings. I constantly circle my feet and flex and point my toes to feel the circulation and the muscles move. In other words I'm a major dork with restless legs syndrome who found my calling.
I found myself progressing pretty well through class today. Parsvokonasana (Prayer twist) is always a bitch on the legs. Kirsten once said something in class about a student's least favourite pose being a long prayer twist. I found my legs extra on fire today, and had to come out of it once or twice. I was able to sit really deeply though, which lessens the burn a little believe it or not. It's the same it utkatasana - today I got down the deepest I ever have, my thighs were actually parallel with the floor! I don't know if I looked like mister here, but I was down pretty low. Once you get down low enough you hit the sweet spot where it doesn't really burn any more. Either that or my legs were just too numb to feel the burn. Coming to dancer's pose I found it hard not to get distracted in the mirror by the girl behind me; she was about four inches taller than me with legs for days, and her dancer was elegant and elongated and I tried so hard to bring my leg up so I could see the whole flat of my foot above my head. Then I fell over. That's what happens when you look at other people in the mirror and lose focus! But I managed to get it back just in time for Kirsten to tell us to lower it down - clearly. The second set of tree was awesome, I felt so much more flexible. A new little spin on it today I haven't done before is we brought our hands to heart center, raised them up over our heads and brought one arm down to the knee as we stretched out of the ribs over the knee in a half-crescent moon shape. Wow that's not hard to keep your balance at all ... I often manage to ground myself just as we're coming out of the pose. Ah, someday!So I often worry when we first start the floor series whether we're going to do wind-relieving pose that I'm going to let out a huge fart. Those of you who know me well enough know that this is not an unusual occurrence - at all. But today I was feeling extra gassy (damn detox tea and genetic tendency towards flatulence) and was worried I was going to let one (or two, or three) slip; no big deal if it's silent - I'd probably be fine because I find since starting the cleanse my farts are more frequent than stinky (Jamie would tell differently, but that just goes to show how many more there are that don't smell at all). However no one wants to be that person who audibly farts in a silent yoga class. Anyway I survived unscathed (only to let them all go as I walked up Dresden Row after class ...)
Lifting each leg in the air one at a time as we were doing setu bandha sarvangasana was a little tough, but I managed! I was also wobbly on our transition down into pigeon (I think??) from adho mukha svanasana as we raised one leg at a time and then bent our leg until the hips were stacked on top of each other, leg at a more or less ninety degree angle. My arms and leg were like dancing spaghetti noodles the way they wobbled. Some days it's just not all there. Yet I still managed to feel completely fantastic walking out of there! I guess I'm trying to teach myself that no matter how hard I want to be on myself for falling out of a pose, or having more supremely wobbly arms than the wacky waving inflatable tube man, it's always just an empowering
I was majorly excited to get home - it was finally sweet & sour tofuball time! I fried the tofuballs again for a few minutes just to crisp them up again, they had really absorbed a lot of the marinade. I removed them and added the sauce, heating it up and adding the cornstarch-nutritional yeast mixture. I added about half a tbsp because I was only making enough sauce for myself, but I think that was probably a bit too much once I got it onto the plate. Needless to say, it was still delicious!! Next time I might try eating it all freshly made, without marinating the tofu overnight, just to get a little more of the flavours I put into the tofuballs. But I will definitely be making this again! And putting tofuballs on pasta (I'm thinking they will be delicious with the creamy tomato basil pasta I made the other night)! But I still have some left so will gladly work my way through them. Mmmm....
After a thrilling evening of studying, and the nighttime routine from the Morning, Noon & Night video I have from YogaJournal, here I am! Downed my psyllium husk (discovered it's easier to mix when I put the psyllium in before the orange juice, duh) and am ready to meditate my way through the night to my exam in the morning ...
Always remember Judy Garland's brilliant words - sometimes it's easy to forget if we are trying to be something we are not. Spend some time getting to know yourself, and that's how you'll find that first rate version of you.
Namaste.
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