Alone

This morning, on the drive to Volleyball Guy's, I thought about home practice. Volleyball Guy is off teaching a teacher training session, so he hasn't been around in the mornings. And he'll be out of the country for the whole month of February. And we'll be in the new house, which will have a devoted yoga space. Naturally, I started thinking about just practicing at home. Pretty quickly, I decided I'd like to at least see the others a couple of times a week. At this point, I am going to Volleyball Guy's for Mysore three times a week, to his led class once a week, and practicing on my own twice a week. Perhaps just go to Mysore with the other Mysorites (as Sanskrit Scholar calls us) on Mondays and Fridays and practice at home on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday?

As I was thinking this over, I arrived at Volleyball Guy's. Quiet morning. I went in, the heater and lights were on, but no one was there. I guess Volleyball Guy got up early, turned everything on, and went back to sleep. So I practiced on my own. Funny, huh? I was thinking about how I should be doing more practicing on my own, and the universe apparently agreed.

One discovery this morning is that the pain in my neck/collarbone area is not from setu bandhasana. The pain was rather pronounced at the beginning of practice, as I was warming up, but then it was fine. Until I got to kurmasana. As I was pressing down with my legs, it occurred to me that my shoulders were stressed in a way consistent with the pain I've been feeling. And when I flipped my arms over and went for the supta kurmasana hand bind...bingo! Yup, that's what all the soreness has been about.

I am surprised and amused that I am having all of this sensation in my shoulders. I have always understood that my shoulders are tight, but I always thought I was loosening them from the back--that the issue was in the shoulderblade area. Now, though, I am finding that the front of my shoulders and into my collarbones is an area that is tight, too. And my traps. These muscles have always been entirely off my radar. The dhanurasanas have been tugging at the front of my shoulders, and throw in the supta kurmasanas--and you have a recipe for a new kind of pain...uh, I mean, "sensation." ;-) It's kind of good news (except for the hurting part) because I have been struggling to loosen up my shoulders, and maybe this is part of that process.

I continued on to upavishta konasana and then called it quits. Quiet closing. Savasana. I turned off the lights, shut the door, and left Volleyball Guy's in the dark.