Last night I didn't get to bed quite as early as I wanted, but resolved to sleep as SOON as my head hit the pillow. I think my body is getting accustomed to getting up an hour earlier, because I become alert at around 4:50 AM, drift off lightly (natural snooze) and then my alarm sounds a few minutes later. So up I bounced, rested, alert! and headed right to the kitchen to feed Mona Lisa, roll out my black mat and begin. Absent was The Weaver (Mona) and I missed her presence, so solitary practice commenced and I would recall later that the mind chatter also was silent. The warring sides that spoke so loudly on Monday never uttered a word; today there was complete congruence.
Moving lightly, I applied some of the things I learned during the weekend workshop in Miami with David Robson and also a few things that a local teacher, Keith Moore taught me. Contact free jump backs are coming. It's been a year or more that I've struggled with kicking back by pushing my feet down to lift my hips (cheating), aggravating my knee in the process and taking one foot back at a time. Now, I've learned to press my hands more into the mat which gets my hips up and legs back together although still with foot contact but no pressure on my knee. Floating forward happens periodically in the seated sequence right now. In standing, tight back muscles and flat out fear of jumping too high keeps floating out of reach during sun salutations. Quarters are tight at my place, and it would be catastrophic to flip onto my fathers' antique desk. Something certainly justified in fearing in my opinion.
Admittedly, there's another roadblock in my morning practice; backbending. Despite having done many delicious up dogs prior to the time for wheel, I just feel that I'm not ready. By my own admission, I can do wheel just fine and as I type this it doesn't make sense. It's obviously all in my head because just a few weeks ago I couldn't imagine waking before 6 AM. I guess that's the next layer of stiff thoughts that will peel off in practice.
Feeling pliable and quiet, I rolled up my mat and went in search of Mona Lisa. She was in my bed curled in a ball, a position in which cats tend to sleep, deeply amidst a mushroom cloud of down comforter listening to my second alarm which is set to "Children of the Sun" by Floacist. As I approached the bed, she looked over her shoulder and regarded me with a sweet good morning mew stopping my intention to shoo her away to make the bed right in its tracks. Deciding (my first decision after having been up for more than an hour!) to leave Mona in peace, there was only one thing left to do...
Make my old faithful smoothie. It just felt like the right thing to complete practice this morning, and I have missed it so.
No comments:
Post a Comment