Exponential
Well, here we are, Jan 4, 2006. Four days in!
I think I'm beginning to show signs of SAD (Seasonal Affliction Disorder), or something to that effect - where the body starts to miss the light. Honestly, I cannot remember the last day I saw sun here. It must be weeks ago. Perhaps there was a glimpse of sunshine one morning in yoga practice, but I didn't get out in time to feel it's rays on my face.
Maddening.
Started to come down with a cold yesterday. No real surprise with the stress of the holidays wearing my system down. Seems like all the folks at the studio are carrying a sniffle here or a sniffle there.
Did not feel strong for practice, but I decided to go anyway.
My backbends have been a work in progress and like Tiger Woods re-inventing his golf swing, I've gone about the painstaking labours of revisiting first principles. Understanding the years-old habits of my body, the muscular patterns, all the subtleties that I ignored before. Rather than satisfying my ego and keep doing things the "easy way", I've gone back to learn how to do it the right way. That's how it's done here at Downward Dog - it's always the hard way, but in the end, it's the best way.
Perhaps nothing's been more difficult than trying to get my right arm to work properly. It's been at least a year and a half where I've noticed how one side of my spine bends more than the other - and for the sake of depth within the postures, I've just ignored it. But sooner or later, these shortcuts lead to brick walls.
Ron (the mysore extraordinaire) of Downward Dog zeroed in on this shoulder three months ago and really started to make me work on it. "Jeff - you can't straighten this arm. The other one's straight, but this one, the arm points over here, and the elbow's always bent. That's putting this big twist in your spine as you backbend."
So - back to work. For the first few weeks, Ron would always come by as I put my spine through it's paces, and he would adjust me, trying to shape the shoulder into place. A few times, it felt like I would snap. But he was patient - he'd stop me and explain things ten different ways on ten different days. Forget just doing something over and over like a stupid bull and hoping for a new result - (the traditional mysore way) - Ron keep looking for a solution from different vantages.
These last 6 weeks, Ron hasn't helped me with the backbends at all. I would struggle and push, and relax and soften... and I think I was getting it. Glimmers of the fringes of a shiny epiphany. Then yesterday, as I came up in the inverted bow posture, Ron came by. He started poking his fingers into all the spots of my right side, where the wrong muscles were engaged. But today it was soft there. He checked the straightness of that stubborn right arm, which was quivvering - old forgetten tissue learning to become sinewy again.
I couldn't see him, but I heard his voice, "All right! Now we're seeing some progress!"
I laughed, upside down, "Yeah... it's only taken months for a change"
Ron replied, "Exponential."
As I came out of that backbend, I was happy.
"Exponential" I whispered to myself - the finest compliment of 2006 thus far!
j
I think I'm beginning to show signs of SAD (Seasonal Affliction Disorder), or something to that effect - where the body starts to miss the light. Honestly, I cannot remember the last day I saw sun here. It must be weeks ago. Perhaps there was a glimpse of sunshine one morning in yoga practice, but I didn't get out in time to feel it's rays on my face.
Maddening.
Started to come down with a cold yesterday. No real surprise with the stress of the holidays wearing my system down. Seems like all the folks at the studio are carrying a sniffle here or a sniffle there.
Did not feel strong for practice, but I decided to go anyway.
My backbends have been a work in progress and like Tiger Woods re-inventing his golf swing, I've gone about the painstaking labours of revisiting first principles. Understanding the years-old habits of my body, the muscular patterns, all the subtleties that I ignored before. Rather than satisfying my ego and keep doing things the "easy way", I've gone back to learn how to do it the right way. That's how it's done here at Downward Dog - it's always the hard way, but in the end, it's the best way.
Perhaps nothing's been more difficult than trying to get my right arm to work properly. It's been at least a year and a half where I've noticed how one side of my spine bends more than the other - and for the sake of depth within the postures, I've just ignored it. But sooner or later, these shortcuts lead to brick walls.
Ron (the mysore extraordinaire) of Downward Dog zeroed in on this shoulder three months ago and really started to make me work on it. "Jeff - you can't straighten this arm. The other one's straight, but this one, the arm points over here, and the elbow's always bent. That's putting this big twist in your spine as you backbend."
So - back to work. For the first few weeks, Ron would always come by as I put my spine through it's paces, and he would adjust me, trying to shape the shoulder into place. A few times, it felt like I would snap. But he was patient - he'd stop me and explain things ten different ways on ten different days. Forget just doing something over and over like a stupid bull and hoping for a new result - (the traditional mysore way) - Ron keep looking for a solution from different vantages.
These last 6 weeks, Ron hasn't helped me with the backbends at all. I would struggle and push, and relax and soften... and I think I was getting it. Glimmers of the fringes of a shiny epiphany. Then yesterday, as I came up in the inverted bow posture, Ron came by. He started poking his fingers into all the spots of my right side, where the wrong muscles were engaged. But today it was soft there. He checked the straightness of that stubborn right arm, which was quivvering - old forgetten tissue learning to become sinewy again.
I couldn't see him, but I heard his voice, "All right! Now we're seeing some progress!"
I laughed, upside down, "Yeah... it's only taken months for a change"
Ron replied, "Exponential."
As I came out of that backbend, I was happy.
"Exponential" I whispered to myself - the finest compliment of 2006 thus far!
j
posted by jaydubmah at 1:12 PM
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