Broken Leg? Do Your Practice!!

My friend Mel posted this on Facebook, so I reposted it on Facebook, and it's now making the Facebook rounds of every Ashtangi I know.

It's too good not to share here too.

As Sharath says, "Anybody can practice ashtanga yoga. Except lazy people."

Broken femur? DO YOUR PRACTICE!! Here's how this hero modified his Primary series (and part of Second).



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Union... With Pain?

As my boss instructed, I've been going to yoga this week. And I've noticed something interesting I hadn't noticed before.

After a month of on-and-off flakey practice, without any semblance of even the full Primary series at any one point in time... Getting back on the mat again was of course going to be brutal. Apart from the obvious muscle atrophy - OK, that's a bit dramatic but you know what I mean with the loss of strength and flexibility... I also started to notice how out of alignment I'd become - that weird scoliosis in my tailbone that's twisting my pelvis hadn't been noticeable in the last month, but in the last week since I've been back on the mat, my pelvis and back have started to feel out of whack again. The knots in my shoulders and neck which hadn't been noticeable in the past month have suddenly flared up again and are screaming out for help. So I've booked an appointment with my Osteopath.

With the amount of bodywork I've had over the years, I know that these chronic issues didn't just "suddenly flare up". They've always been there, I just haven't been tuned in enough to feel them. Which makes me wonder... I've tended to "blame the yoga" for some of these muscle knots and aches that I've had. It's easy to think this way especially since I'm starting to feel them again now that I've started up my practice again.

Now I'm realizing that it's not actually the physical yoga that's causing these knots and aches. My body issues are there and have been there... The yoga's just helped me tune into them. In the past couple of years, I've learnt that most of my issues are simply posture and ergonomics when I sit at my desk, coupled with the effects of the scoliosis. I can't believe that a month without practice had made me so out of tune with my body - to the point where it didn't feel like I had anything wrong. Actually, I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Coz now that I'm more in tune and feeling these aches and pains, I've gotta spend more money to do something about it!

Yoga as "Union" - a blessing and a curse at the same time. HA!

So it's back to the Osteo tomorrow for a bit of a tune-up.

In other practice news, I've still been working on standing back up from dropbacks. It's touch and go: sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Today, teacher M said something so many teachers before her have told me "You're thinking too much about it. Don't think, just do." She told me to stop rocking back and forth so many times before standing up, coz she can see me starting to analyze the move the more I rock. HAHA! (I think I usually take about 4 rocks before hurling myself up?) So I cut it down to about 2 (I think? I dunno, I wasn't counting. See? I stopped thinking about it!) And her advice worked! Somehow when there's a teacher's eagle-eye on you too, you're just able to channel something from within and just do it. Weird.

Also, since my practice at the shala has been sporadic, I've only mostly been practicing the Primary series while I've been there. I've started to add back my Intermediate poses again and today teacher M asked "You're not doing Kapotasana?" I replied my last pose given was Laghuvajrasana. And she dangled the carrot in front of me by saying "Oh, I think you're ready for Kapo, but let's see you practice through Laghu a few times more first if that's been your last pose."

Holy shit! OK, I know you're not supposed to want poses and to be honest, I'd given up hope already having been stuck at Laghuvajrasana for 1.5 years now. HAHAHA! So this is kind of exciting. There is some kind of method to this madness of being given poses... Right now, I'm finding it's injected a renewed enthusiasm for my practice. I could've mail-ordered a pair of Lululemons for a similar effect, but somehow this feels more satisfying. And smug. ;) I'm allowing my ego some room here even though I'm TOTALLY counting my chickens before they hatch (which never bodes well, so the ego will be properly put back in place in no time...) :p

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Casualty of Yoga

There are casualties of war, and then there are casualties of yoga. Today, I took a hit for yoga.

OK, I'm being a Drama Queen.

It's not really an injury or anything serious per se, but I've noticed an extremely peculiar phenomenon. Basically, when I've had a bit of a break from yoga and then go back to it again, the little blood capillaries in my face burst and I end up with little blood-red... er... blood spots on my face. They're not bumpy, they're just red spots under the surface of the skin. They don't hurt, they're just downright FUGLY. Especially after a couple of days when the fresh blood-red colour becomes... erm... PURPLE. Y'know, like how a bruise would react.

Actually, I thought it was just the yoga practice itself that maybe made me heat up or something, thus causing these red splotches.

BUT.

It happened to me when I was in Prague too. I didn't have time to do a full-on Ashtanga practice, so would either do some meditation or pranayama, followed by headstands. Ladies and gents, I think Sirsasana is the culprit. Must be all that extra blood rushing to the face or something while I'm upside down!!

Today, I finally made it back to the shala again and just started back with Primary series only (on a separate note, I was surprisingly strong and bendy. Funny how a break from the yoga does this. Also, Hello Summery Weather! Heat really helps to open up everything!!) But I digress.

So after today's practice, I looked in the mirror after my shower and was shocked to see this FUGLINESS on my face.

I'm warning you. It's pretty graphic and not pretty.



You have the chance to stop and look away now.


Are you ready?


I've got an extreme close-up of the burst blood capillaries too.


OK, you've been sufficiently warned.


Here goes...



That's not as bad as the close-up shot you're about to see. In my defense, I can unequivocally tell you that before this morning's practice, my skin was smooth. No zits or anything. All this redness came up after practice!

Ready?

... ... ...

... ... ...

Let's go!



ARRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

WTF right?!

I can handle bruises, I've had them everywhere from practising yoga, but er... ON MY FACE?!?!??? I'm a little bit too vain for this.

My teacher M at the shala had spotted my Sirsasana issues. Remember my moment with Sharath? Well, I could hold Sirsasana a wee bit longer in Mysore earlier this year, but still couldn't hold it till the end of Sharath's count. Teacher M in Amsterdam spotted me in it a month ago and basically said "you need to push your hips out a lot more. You're using too much of your arm strength right now and not using the balance in the pose enough. Coz you're not completely vertical."

AHA! No wonder I was getting all tired out in it. So I've been pushing those hips forward and getting over that fear to cross the last bit that would get me completely vertical. Who'd have thunk. I suspect this might be what's getting me red-faced? Maybe?

Eww. Those photos are disgusting. To make up for it, I'm leaving you with something a heckuva lot more beautiful. Variations on Surya Namaskara. I posted it on Facebook a few days ago but it's too gorgeous not to share here. Enjoy!

Busted Foot Practice & New Home

Yesterday, I had the most horrific practice. My foot is still busted, but I can put a little bit more pressure on it. So I figured "OK, let's try the primary series and see how far I get".

In the Surya's, I couldn't quite jump back properly. Or rather, while jumping back, I was putting more weight on the right foot. So... I really shouldn't have been jumping back at all. Turning my left foot in in B version was a little bit painful but I thought "my foot is just stiff. It hasn't moved in a while so let's just warm it up". When I got up to Trikonasana, it was OK on the right side, but on the left side, the muscles on the left foot arch were not happy. So then I decided I'd better just back off and don't be a hero.

I then went straight into the seated poses, but still had to modify quite a bit coz my left foot can't turn beyond a certain point. This led to a practice that was all about breath, bandhas, ow-my-foot, drishti, oh-I-need-a-pedicure-wait-where's-my-drishti-again, breath, bandha, oh-my-god-my-toenail's-falling-off... I was completely distracted, unfocused, and all over the shop. Only because I let my busted foot consume my thoughts rather than embracing the fact that "OK, my foot's busted. I know I have to modify so why am I whining. Get on with it."

In fact, I was so unfocused, I actually stopped mid-practice, got my camera out and took a photo of my baby toenail that was falling out. I couldn't wait until after practice coz "what if it falls off completely then I can't get the shot?"

*** GROSS PICTURE OF FALLING-OFF TOENAIL COMING UP ***

You were warned.


(I am purposely covering the rest of my toenails coz I NEED A PEDICURE!)

And the whole practice was really short but it was so laboured it took me too long to finish... I mean I pretty much did a reverse half-primary. No standing, only seated poses... which shouldn't have taken me more than 45 minutes to 1 hour... But I finished it in 1.5 hours. Um... My usual full practice up to Laghuvajrasana takes me about that long (then another 15 minutes for closing). So... it was a super loooooooong, drawn-out, all-over-the-place practice.

Oh well. I got on the mat. HAHAHA! I kept thinking the whole time "This is when the real yoga kicks in..." Y'know... Having to do your regular practice with an injury, but still maintaining that same, steady concentration the whole time, unfazed. For me, it was... YOGIC APPROACH: FAIL!

When I was done, I checked my phone and a friend had invited me to a jazz brunch at the Hotel Americain (Yes, that's the "American Hotel" but spelt the French way. And it's in Amsterdam. HAHAHA.) It's a beautiful old Art Nouveau (or is it Art Deco?) hotel, and the architecture's just stunning.



When I got home, I was finally in the mood to take more photos, so here's the long awaited pictures of my "new" apartment. It's actually in an old Dutch gabled house... and because it's a really tiny house over 2 floors (they're usually about 4 storeys high), the entire house is MINE! I HAVE NO NEIGHBOURS!! :)

The ground floor is a parking garage that I have no access to - the landlord's daughter parks her car there.


It's so adult, but everyone has their names on their doors here.


Since the ground floor's the garage, my flat technically starts on the First floor (for my American readers, "first floor" is actually the floor up the ground floor, what you would call "second floor"). So when you open the main door, you're greeted by a flight of stairs to go up. I like that they're painted white. But this means everyone has to take their shoes off!


From the reverse angle at the top of the stairs:


So the First floor's an open plan living/ dining and kitchen area, and I've also got a small terrace by the kitchen.







I added some wall art with these flowers. And I like my little falling-man-door-stopper. Because I've got no time to look after a cat here, the next closest thing I've got is this grumpy cat timer.



Going up the white spiral staircase, there's a skylight. Important for grey & rainy Amsterdam!


The second floor is built right up into the roof, with exposed ceiling beams, and I love how everything's painted white. There's a bathroom at the top of the stairs. The loo is in its own separate room (very European!)... And there's a tiny room on one side of the house - big enough for laundry and storage, and the other room's my bedroom. On the side of the tiny room, there's another terrace that looks out into the nothingness view of neighbours' windows. From the top terrace, you can look down into the kitchen terrace. :)










I love how in the bedroom, there's another tiny skylight at the top and the landlord's put in a stained-glass picture. Thank goodness it's not The Crucifixion or anything religious. I think they're... Potato Eaters? (HAHAHAHA!)


And I put in more wall-art: silver dragonflies in the bedroom!


That's all... I'm really liking how I'm going more girly with this house. I guess after living with a boy for many years, my previous apartments were all kinda gender-neutral or bordering on the masculine (coz somehow masculine home decor seems more gender-neutral than putting up flowers and dragonflies on your wall! HAHAHA!)

I'm really liking the light and airy feeling of this new place. Feels like home. :)

Funky Foot Fashion

I hobbled my way to the Fysio yesterday (that's the Dutch spelling of "Physio". Cute!) and she gave me an ultrasound on my foot (which helps er... break down all the swelling that's going on there. I think.) And then she also taped up my foot.

I love that it's not the ugly beige tape Fysios usually use. Apparently they come in all colours too, but she ran out of PINK. :)


(Please don't look at the state of my pedicure coz i really need one!)

It actually hurts more on the other side, where the arch of the foot is. But from this angle you can see the funky fan pattern going on top of my foot (to "help circulation" apparently).

She was going on about how there are up to 5 levels of how you can hurt your tendons/ ligaments (#5 being a proper tear), and I'm probably at a level 1. Seeing as how I can kinda walk around properly today and start to put a wee bit more pressure on the foot (even though I really shouldn't be), I would have to agree. SO GLAD IT'S NOT ANYTHING MORE SERIOUS!!

I had every intention of getting onto my mat this morning and just doing some seated postures. But coz I've been sleeping with my foot elevated on a pillow, it gets really uncomfortable and I wake up with a stiff/ cold/ sore foot and leg. And completely in no mood/ state for anything physical. Oh no. I hope I don't start to fall off the practice wagon again so easily.

I'm halfway between "Do I need to rest or am I just being lazy". Sometimes it's hard to tell. As you can probably tell by now, I'm an "ALL OR NOTHING!" kinda person. So even by getting on the mat, I would need to consciously hold back my ego and stop pushing myself to GO GO GO!!

Someone suggested instead of doing full Suryas, I should rather warm up by doing cat/ cow/ child stretches then go straight to the seated asanas. Sounds really wussy, but also very wise given my foot situation.

So damn frustrating. I obviously need to SLOW DOWN and LEARN PATIENCE. Practice, practice... and STILL not coming. HAHAHA.

Hello Injury & Bye Bye Summer

2 days ago, I posted off my application form to KPJAYI. AGAIN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Let's hope this time around I finally get to go. The office has approved 1 month of leave. OK, so it's not the 2 months that I originally intended to go for but hey... I'll take what I can get!

In my excitement at the post office, I tripped over a step and twisted my foot. Good thing I didn't break or snap anything, I just pulled/ sprained a muscle in a MAJOR way. I spent all of yesterday at home because I couldn't walk. I thought my foot looked OK, but when I compared the left foot to the right foot, it looked like I had leftfootelephantitis. To make matters worse, because I'm bikeless, I couldn't cycle to the doctor or physio either... And there's no way I could have WALKED there. (And NO! I refuse to believe this is a bad omen for my intended trip to Mysore!!)

I was forced to stay home with my leg propped up in bed, reading Guruji. HAHAHA! So... It's not like I was complaining AT ALL. :)

The foot's much better today, I just can't apply too much pressure on it so I'm walking around with a limp. Good thing it's a Moon Day so there's no practice today. I couldn't manage any standing sequences yesterday. Tried some seated poses but my left foot couldn't bend beyond a certain point and it got awkward and painful. Jumpbacks? Forget about it! So I figured "Sod it. It's time to rest."

On Tuesday, the day I busted my foot, it was the official last day of Summer (although technically, Summer was pretty much gone when August came around in Amsterdam...) So a workmate decided to take his boat out for ONE LAST boat ride to say "Bye Bye Summer!" He also had fake moustaches on board, so we spent the whole ride blowing furry kisses to our cameras. (Incidentally, EVERYONE on board was smoking cigarettes, but I'm pleased to say I didn't reach for one. It also didn't feel like such a big deal. So... yes, my nicotine detox is still ongoing!) (For my recent struggle with picking up smoking AGAIN, see Point #6 here)










Spot the real moustache.


It was a beautiful day, clear skies and not too cold.


And then we went down one of the canals right in the middle of the Red Light District. There were girls in their knickers in the store windows. But I still didn't have the guts to take photos of them even though we were on a boat and could technically make a run for it if they came out hissing and spitting at us. It was slow-moving traffic down this canal coz there were lots of other tourist boats gawking and rubber-necking too.


Entrance to a sex show (Yes, those are naked ladies on the walls).


Yes, it's the Erotic Museum.


More pictures of naked people on the walls (another sex show? Whore house? Who knows? ...Who cares?! It looks great!)


We passed a "floating" Chinese restaurant (You can see it's not really floating at all).


And the beautiful new library. It made me think of Arturo coz I'm sure he'd appreciate this lovely design.


The End.