Day 18 of Challenge (60/60), Class #19 – 1st Back Bend off the Wall!!

This morning started a little frantic for me. I woke up from a dream about yoga. In my dream I was at some seminar or something for yoga and having the best time sweating… then my alarm went off. I think it was because I wrote a blog post and then read Kim’s blog from Teacher Training.  She wrote a very interesting comment on her blog. Kim wrote,“Mind Body Connection: It’s not some esoteric thing. It’s your spine. When your spine communicates correctly your mind and body are connected… how simple.”

I had a crazy but a productive day at work today. Unfortunately due to all my running around, I didn’t eat a proper breakfast and I didn’t really drink enough throughout the day. I felt really thirsty as 5pm approached rapidly. I did take an extra shot of E3live before class and I am so glad I did.

When I got to the West End Studio today, I was happily surprised to see Pam. Pam is Garland’s mom and a great teacher. I don’t get to take her class often because of scheduling I am guessing or maybe the yoga gods just decide that it is not time for me to take her class. She is very motherly and soothing as a teacher. She doesn’t do many corrections in class so you can just get into the zone. That’s nice sometimes. It’s also great to get corrections, but having variety really helps your practice I think.

Class tonight was like a reunion of yoga buddies that  I don’t always get to see. One person that I do see regularly was Laura (my Challenge sign up buddy). She was in my rear view today which gave me a lot of energy. Unfortunately the only guy in class today decided to put his mat right in between us when there was plenty of room in the room and he would have had more space. I think he was trying to smuggle some of mine and Laura’s energy. It made for an interesting class being so close. I was the only one in the front row on my side of the podium. I felt a little odd up there by myself.  Almost like I was separated from the rest of the class. Michelle and Amy were also in my rear view as well tonight and provided incredible energy to me.  Emily and Megan were in the back row right behind me so I really felt their energy through class as well. That would explain why I had such a great class tonight.

I wasn’t as sore as I thought I would be and I was able to stretch much deeper tonight. It was so exciting for me especially since coming into class I felt tired and dehydrated. Also I felt the urge to pee about half way into the second breathing  set. I kind of put it out of mind and actually made it through class without having to flee the room. Honestly,  since I was all the way on the other side of the room I didn’t want to walk through all the people to go to the bathroom. It was a pretty busy class today so that would have been disruptive.

The heat in the room today was perfect in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong it was HOT but something about it was just perfect to get into the poses. At the end of class, Laura was stretching doing the splits. I was curious to see how far I could go, so I tried. I didn’t get all the way into them but much further than ever before. I wonder if by the end of the Challenge I will be able to do it. After the passing of the ice cold washcloths at the end of class, people left the room pretty fast. The washcloth felt particularly amazing after class today. I was getting ready to leave the room when Laura came back and asked me if I wanted to try to do a back bend off the wall. In the past I have seen her and a few other super bendy people do back bends to the floor. I have always thought there is no freaking way, so my fear held me back from trying. I am SO glad Laura asked if I wanted to try. I DID IT!! Of course I had her assistance to come back up. It was such an amazing feeling after. During the back bending I felt like I couldn’t breathe and had a little freak out about that. It’s scary to go that far back. Now that I have done one and know what it really feels like I am definitely going to keep working on it. This is a huge milestone for me.

In the locker room Lisa C. was coming into the 7pm so it was nice to say hi and see other familiar faces. Tiffany and Olivia (7yrs old) are both doing the challenge. It is such a beautiful things that Tiffany has introduced this yoga to her daughter. I am curious to know what her practice will be like when she is 18 yrs old. When I was putting my smiley face sticker on the Challenge Chart, I noticed a guy that I have only seen a couple times looking at it. I asked him if he was doing the challenge. He said he was thinking about it and introduced himself as Jeff. I said,”Go for it and sign up. It’s the best way to learn especially since you are a newer person.” He wanted to do the 30 day Challenge which is perfect because there is still time to sign up for that one. I hope he followed through and signed up. I tell you that chart with all the stickers is really enticing. I think that may be why some people sign up. The lure of the chart. Anyway it felt great to encourage a newer person.

I decided to go to Whole Foods after class and eat a little healthier tonight. I also ran into Emily, Megan, and Nancy there getting food. We were all on the same wavelength tonight. When I got home, my sweet hubby surprised me with an early birthday gift. The new iPhone 4S. I was thrilled and quickly set it up tonight. Unfortunately, the brilliant people at Best Buy/AT&T decided to port over my Sister-in-Law’s number instead of my number. (We are on a family plan) The kicker is that the help line closes at 10pm and it was 10:15pm when we figured it out. Now, I tell this story because in the past I would have gone bananas over the situation even though there is nothing that could be done. Since Bikram Yoga…. literally nothing can steal my peace.

Namaste Peeps!