New poses

Happy, happy Monday. Hope it's off to a stellar start ...

It feels like mine should be over soon. I've been up FOREVER. I got up when Josh got up - about 5 a.m. - and now it's 7:30 a.m. So I'm blogging and catching up on DVR-ed stuff ... and watching the news of course.

Why have I been up so long? Well first and foremost, getting up to send the man off (with coffee, breakfast and lunch) is part of my fancy job description ... "house wife." Plus I like to see him before he ventures out. Every minute counts when you work 14 hours a day and spend all of three waking hours at home with me.  

But in addition to morning time tending --- I have big plans for this week. Starting today ...  the plan for the day - cleaning, laundry, gym, washing the dogs, grocery store ... yep the usual. I'm also going to start a new workout/yoga training schedule for my teacher training - exciting.

I'm aiming to finish up my workbook questions this week then start re-reading the text, more in-depth this time. I'm also going to break down the poses (and more importantly the Sanskrit vocab) so I have X amount of words/poses I memorize per week. Then, I'm going to have poses of the week - an arm balance then a standing/sitting/supine posture to master. It's important to focus on specific poses and make sure that I know everything there is to know about them. Because BELEIVE YOU ME ... when you have a yoga instructor that doesn't know what the freak their doing - it's obvi. I had a REALLY bad teacher recently (she was a sub) and it def reinforced how important knowledge is when it comes to yoga.

Of course, I end-up getting fixated on the arm balances, because they're so challenging and fun. I have to use online videos and descriptions to teach myself ... so I become obsessed and can't move on until I've figured them out.

Here's one I learned Thursday. It's called Eda Paka Galavasana ... Flying Crow. I thought that I had gotten it before ... but I wasn't doing it right.

This is how it's supposed to go down. (Of course, you first have to stretch out and prepare for the pose, which is an intense hip opener). From standing, you cross one leg - high up on le thigh. And press that foot into you leg. Drop your hands to the floor. 

 

And start to bend the 'bows.

Squat down, look up, come to chaturanga arms (bending like a tricep push-up). Lean forward and - crucial part - hook those toes TIGHTLY around your arm (basically your armpit) and make sure it's firmly sitting on your upper arm. Meanwhile, you shove the bended knee into the opposite armpit.

Lean forward. Look up. BREATHE. And start to lift your back leg. Find a drishti (focal point). And hold it.

I need to work to get the leg higher (mostly by leaning forward more ... and perhaps even walking my hands closer to my feet). We'll see.

Eitherwhoo. Work in progress. Speaking of, here's some others that I've been doing. These are from my Saturday practice. Josh was nice enough to take pics of them for me.

This is one I submitted to the Pose of the Day Yoga Challenge.

And I've actually started getting REALLY into those. There is this huge yoga community on Instagram. These people are AH-MAZING. Crazy talented and so supportive and helpful. I just love them. I've gotten so many good tips from them, I can't believe it took me so long to get involved.  

Support is so important. And I know that most of my friends have my back. Of course, there is one - one who will remain nameless - who hasn't commented or given me any kind of encouragement on social media. I've actually seen her in person and she's a little condescending. Like not impressed and is kinda put off that I even post pictures of my progress (at least, that's the way it seems).

Granted, I'm not doing this for validation. Really, I'm not. I post poses on Instagram and then put the photos in my Yoga album on Facebook. I want to have a collection of my postures for myself and be able to track how they evolve. I upload a ridic amount of pictures to every photo album I have on Facebook because I use it as another kind of sky drive. A place to save photos just incase my phone, computer, other devices crash.

But yes, it's about tracking progress. For instance, this one HOPEFULLY will get better. And I'd like to see the transformation.

Plus, I think a lot of people enjoy seeing poses. They are new and different. And it's my life now. It's what I do. I spend plenty of time supporting - "liking" if you will - other people's lives. Be it babies, marriages, trips, dogs, stupid "wise words" posts, forwards, etc. It's hurtful that one of my close friends doesn't feel the need to reciprocate but - what can you do?

It's OK. It's just something I've got to let go ... and thankfully yoga helps you do that. Ha.

Anywhoo. In addition to Eka Pada Galavansana, I've been working on Fallen Angel. It's one that I've seen all over Instagram and finally figured it out Sunday.

Love this. And my face isn't really smushed into the ground. There's a bit of space ... you just can't really see it here.

Another one - Adho Mukha Vrksasana aka Handstand.

Oh and last one. I got tagged in a #stopdropyoga on Instagram while we were on the deck drinking wine. Eeek. I went with one I knew I could do without any trouble - Bakasana.  

Haha. So fun.

Welp. That's that. Nothing too exciting. I'm planning a weekend update and GIF pose sometime this week. The GIFs though really aren't working too well. They won't upload. I have no idea. Maybe I can figure it out. Here's hoping.