Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Foggy

102 classes in 98 days.

Monday was one of those odd days, in and out of the hot room. I was kind of in a daze most of the day, and it just continued over into class.

For whatever reason, I couldn't really bring myself into the room totally. The good news is the class went pretty well, no bumps in the road and doing well on the postures. It just felt weird mentally the whole time. The class went by really fast and I was surprised when class was over. By the end of class, my fog was gone, so that was nice.

I've been a little frustrated recently due to being kind of "stuck" in my practice. I've done this long enough now to know that this will happen, and then eventually I'll make some more good forward progress. But it gets annoying when day after day it feels like I'm not going deeper in ANY of the postures. Just the same old same old. Of course every class is different, but I want to get better all the time.

Sheri's teaching class tonight, so maybe I'll complain to her about this.

Greg

4 comments:

  1. Oh! I hear ya Greg. I struggling specifically with Standing head to knee right now. Frustrating. Our teachers are always telling us sometimes we'll feel like we go backwards on some postures. Keep working strong.

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  2. Hee. Do I really even have to SAY it? Welcome to your practice. No two days are ever the same, but that linear forward progress doesn't often happen. (Usually you get it when you're really new or when you make a change to your routine (like going every day if you used to go once a week.)

    Think you're frustrated now? Wait til one of the days when you feel LESS flexible. That'll happen, too!

    The trick here is that getting is easy, maintenance is hard. (This is true for life in general.) You're moving out of your "honeymoon stage" with the yoga. Now you're settling into the routine of "married life" and it turns out that your bride nags you about the laundry, doesn't wash the dishes, and doesn't put on make-up anymore. So now what? Entirely up to you.... :)

    But the good news is that the yoga still have PLENTY of tricks up its sleeve and tons of surprises for you. You have so many exciting times ahead of you. It won't be exciting ALL THE TIME. But trust me, I've a few years in now and sometimes I think that I've still only scratched the surface.

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  3. J, Thanks a lot! This is very helpful. I like the marriage analogy (since I was married earlier) :) No matter how I feel in class each day, I just try to concentrate on the form of each posture, regardless of how deep I can get. I know that good things will happen if I do that. This is why I like teachers that pay attention to detail and give me good corrections.

    I've had a few teachers tell me that it can take a while for hamstrings to loosen up, especially because of all the stuff I've done to them (basketball and running) over the years.

    Again, thanks.

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  4. We all want forward progress all the time, but progress more closely resembles something from The Ministry of Silly Walks:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w

    Worse, focusing on progress and goals will ultimately lead to frustration and disappointment. Either you meet the goals, and wonder whether that's all there is, or you fail to meet them and start kicking yourself. Of course, its wonderful to make all that progress right at the start. But the secret is simply to fall in love with the practice itself. Then, the progress becomes something of a nice by-product.

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