Day Seventeen

This photo is from: http://laurielangdon.com/photo_gallery/photo_gallery.htm (ie it's not me - I wish)

I had a good, strong class with Andy today, except for the poses where I took a short break to get my breathing back on board. (The three day headache required painkillers and I am sure they were dicking my heart rate around a little today). I am making some progress in standing head to knee, though not anywhere near getting my head down yet like the girl in the picture above. Right side I am getting my elbows further down my calves. Left side, managing to straighten out the top leg to almost locked, at least for a little while, before falling out. Hallelujah!

The hamstring thing is getting better too. I noticed it bothered me less in standing separate leg stretching and then when we did the stretching on the floor towards the end I actually managed to lock out that left leg in the second set. This is good news.

I sat out part of triangle when my heartrate went crazy and I couldn't get my breath back. I'm still feeling a bit dodgy and I didn't want to push it because I checked my blood pressure last night and after 3 days of headaches it was way high, which is why I finally resorted to taking something for it.

I was very resistant going into camel because of the last two days - came out early first set (nauseous) and then did a full camel second set. No puking. No stars. More good news.

So, even though I did sit a few things out and have a few stumbles the rest of the class felt good and strong and I was quite pleased with it. Great energy in the room - Andy was absolutely hitting her stride and everyone was fully participating and energetic - which was fantastic and really boosted me up as well.

And at the end of the class Andy said Namaste and we got to say Namaste back! We used to always do this when I began Bikram, all the teachers at Glenfield used to say it when it was Andy, Dave and Julie, but somewhere along the way it got a bit lost. I'm hoping it will become a bit more of a habit because I think it's a lovely way of ending the class - besides sounding like "have a nice day" (if you said it really fast) it adds a note of respect and thanks and an exchange between the teacher and the students before the teacher leaves the room. I remember I used to wait for it and answer it before I could really settle down onto the mat and relax in savasana. My first ever teacher Julie used to say "Be kind to yourself and be kind to others. Namaste" and that was great too. A reminder to tread gently never hurts when you are leaving the yoga room. Anyway, that's class 18 over, on day 17, and I am really looking forward to another great one tomorrow.

Namaste! x