To tea or not to tea

Practice this morning at home. It would be much easier if Volleyball Guy would just have Mysore on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the other hand, maybe the lack of a Mysore option is good, to force my hand and make me practice at home.

I felt rather unmotivated, so spent a little time drinking tea and surfing the web. Still felt unmotivated. A little more tea. Still, nothing, in terms of inspiration. Then suddenly, I was ready to go. No idea what kicked off that transition. The tea, maybe?

Usually I have coffee before practice. I have to get up quite early in order to have coffee and then let it settle in my stomach. And the last few practices, it hasn't settled very well. So perhaps tea is the answer? Or not having anything to drink before practice at all? How would I drive to Volleyball Guy's without caffeine, though?

Okay, so tea today. As an experiment. And practice was quite nice. I always despair at the start of home practice--obviously I can never get as warm as at Volleyball Guy's, where there's a heater going full blast and a bunch of other people. So the beginning was about me feeling outside of my practice--not warm, distracted by work thoughts (today is our quarterly planning session--a meeting that runs all day and tends to be rather stressful). I really stuck to my breath, though, and suddenly I felt warm and connected.

The interesting thing about the slightly cooler practice is that my muscles feel alot springier. Which is a nice change. Though it's funny how my mind wants to reject any sensation that isn't "usual." Usually my muscles feel very warm and languid. So when they feel springy, my mind tries to tell me something is wrong. But of course it's not wrong--it's just different. Thank goodness for zen--at least I've learned that it's often best if I set my mind aside. (Something to remember in today's meeting.)

When I got to backbends, I tried to reproduce something Volleyball Guy did yesterday. He mentioned that my lower back is very good in backbends, and that my shoulders are the sticking point. Apparently all those years spend lifting weights and climbing really made my shoulders tight. When I did my assisted dropbacks, he held me at halfway and had me grab two sandbags from the ground, then he pulled back so there'd be tension through my arms and shoulders. It felt pretty helpful.

This morning I did a backbend over the Swiss ball, grabbed two sandbags and rolled forward on the ball so the weight fell through my arms and shoulders. Nice. Maybe something I should do in the evenings as a little experiment. It'll have to be once the dog goes to sleep for the evening--she feels it is her duty to attack the Swiss ball when it is out in the livingroom. It is hysterically funny, but also a battle she is likely to win, leaving me without a ball...