Crackpotting

Sometimes I wonder if practice makes me more sensitive, and other times I wonder if I'm just a crackpot with an obsession.

Mysore this morning. I was running a little late, and when I got there, there were three new people! What?! Actually, one was a guy who comes to Saturday led quite regularly. Then there were two women I've never seen before. One of the new people was just to my right. It didn't take me long to realize she was doing "yoga improv." How did I know? Well, the sequence, of course, but also the fact that she turned to her left and faced me on some of her poses. LOL! I felt like a kid in a classroom, when the person in front of you keeps turning around to talk to you during class and you want to tell them to knock it off and face in the right direction.

Does practice make OCD tendencies worse? ;-)

Practice felt great right from the very beginning. Is it because I've been icing my hamstrings twice a day and always after practice? Or is the extending from the spine (hereafter referred to as the "Jody Maneuver") helping? Or am I just finished with whatever realignment was going on over the past few months? Who knows. And who cares? All I know is practice felt wonderful.

Strong and flexible and a little over-adrenalized--I think because I've been eating meat (well, fowl and fish) again. I'm also kind of aggressive lately, but that's a story for another entry. Anyhow, I rolled along at a very good pace. Maybe more than a good pace--I think I was actually a little speedy. For some reason I felt like I wanted to hurry up. But for what? Here's the crackpot part: I felt like my over-adrenalized feelings were coming from The Improvisor. Like I was getting a jolt of nervousness from her. I had the impression that she was giving off "What do I do next?" vibes and I was caught up in them. Even though I knew what I was going to do next--I do the sequence almost unconsciously at this point. All of a sudden, though, I had this feeling like I had to move along quickly because if I didn't I would forget. Weird, huh?

Whatever. When I got to kurmasana, my legs felt totally relaxed and pain-free, so I just lifted my heels up and it felt totally effortless and light. It's been a looooong time since my legs felt okay in kurmasana, so I was psyched. Volleyball Guy always keeps an eye on me in kurmasana and supta kurmasana these days, and as per usual, when I got to supta k, he let me grab my hands, then stabilized them and got my feet together. The feet dealio is coming along.

On ezBoard there is discussion about supta k and the length of people's legs and arms and backs and whatever. In the end, of course, we probably all can do the pose, provided we patiently persist for however long it takes.

Baddha konasana was terrific. Usually I grab a sandbag and put it on my back in this pose (usually I have one pose where I stop and take time to set up and try to really work it--and currently baddha k is that pose). I was doing pretty well (my back seems to be "getting it" finally--for a long time, the very idea of deeply folding forward in this pose has seemed so weird and undo-able) when Volleyball Guy came over and draped a second sandbag over my back. It was just enough to help me touch my forehead to the floor. This is a really big deal, because I am not a natural baddha konasan.

What's next? Well, I often dream of doing durvasana. Of course, in my dreams, it is very, very easy.