Today, I am tired. I had trouble focusing in the Anusara class on this, my seventh day of my 10-Day Yoga Challenge. I did not feel strong and bright.
I’d gone to bed too late, the baby had woken too often, and I hadn’t gotten up early enough to eat enough to sustain me through a practice.
So I was actually grateful that the teacher was stuck in traffic so I could lie down and wait.
And then I was grateful when she told us to just go on our bellies for our first cobra pose from something else low, admitting that sometimes she enjoys “cheating” and getting to do a cobra without having to go through chaturanga.
I was grateful for her honesty, especially on a day when I couldn’t focus and kept lowering my knee when she said foot or getting something else wrong by doing what I imagined would make sense instead of listening to the actual words being spoken in the room.
It was still wonderful to breathe. And my down dog toward the end of the class did, I’m sure, look different than my first one. I got some great adjustments that made me feel taller and open. But I also felt a little jealous of like daughter who was sleeping in the car with a babysitter and open windows on a beautiful morning.
Perhaps all the extra oxygen I get in the 75 minutes I seriously breathe does compensate some for the lack of sleep, but woman cannot live by breath alone. Well, at least breastfeeding woman can’t.
The teacher called on us to “reveal” in our side angle twists, opening our chests and side bodies. But really, the whole practice reveals us to ourselves.
Other posts in this series:
Day One: The challenge begins!
Day Two: “Let your bottom blossom”
Day Seven: “Reveal”
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