back on the mat
this photo is so weird! where is the car? i see the lights, but no trace of car. more photo experimenting at downtown santa cruz’s controversial river street sign. i love the randomness in these recent photo experiments. you don’t know what you’re gonna get when you hit “click” or whatever the shutter button is. some photographer, huh? that thing when you hit the other thing.
well, time to get back on my bike and on with my life. my back is still not 100%, but staying away from the studio won’t be doing me any good. respecting my limitations with a slow and deliberate bikram yoga practise will become my new rehabilation. i was talking to a friend who’s chiropractor suggested giving up bikram yoga. that was the last time she went to him until just a few days ago. after looking her over, he said to keep doing what she’s been doing. which was not seeing him and practising bikram and vinyasa yoga instead. quackopractor.
frustrating things: the first forward bend, padahastasana, hands to feet pose, i couldn’t get the grip behind my feet, could only crouch down. standing head to knee, all i could muster was locking one knee and raising the other, stayed straight and concentrated on holding in my abs. standing bow, i could get into the set-up, but the forward bend, not so much. there might be a pattern going on. balancing stick wasn’t so bad because as you go forward, you raise your leg at the same time, which seemed to work okay on my back. standing seperate leg stretching was not gonna happen. i need to ask what i should do in that pose. i used to touch my forehead to the ground, now i can barely bend forward.
i’m not gonna go into every pose but you can see how it’s radically changed my practise. respecting my new limitations is gonna build so much i really believe that with bikram yoga in my life, i’m going to heal into better posture and have an even better practise than before. okay friends, check in with me tomorrow as i continue healing my back.
Tags: art, bikram yoga, leica, night photography, santa cruz photographs
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:04 am
Take it easy, treat yourself like you would a newborn baby… The heat and light stretching alone will help you heal. xo
(I didn’t realize my comment settings were set that way. They’ve been fixed! And the blue book has been super-entertaining on my commute…)
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:54 am
Way to get back in the game! Be careful!! ( :
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:11 am
watch those forward bendz.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:38 am
Ditto to waylon – easy does in in the forward bends! Baby steps in forward bends, go for it in backbends, and spine twist like there’s no tomorrow. As Mary Jarvis says – all backward bending heals the spine!! I’m stoked that you’re back in the studio and you have an awesome attitude. I hope the yoga works. I really think it will!! This is what it was made to do!!
(Hilarious story about the chiro, by the way.)
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Thanks for the chiro story–I love stories about Western medicine peeps getting proved wrong. (Not that there’s nothing wrong with docs, of course.)
Take it easy getting back into the groove!
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:04 pm
you do *not* want to give me a newborn baby! it took me two times before i realized that my friend’s kid couldn’t sit upright on his own. in my defense, at least he din’t have that far to hit his head.
yeah, no forward bending, total drag. even the backbends don’t feel that great! :~|
for the record, not all doctors are bad, but most work for the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies. i trust them all as much as a lawyer, chiropractor or salesman. unless my arm was falling off, i would take a bikram yoga teacher’s advice over a doctor’s most any day of the week. i do like opticians. and dentists are okay too.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
In the last post or so you mentioned about not holding in pointed out by CB. That is how I messed up my hamstrings a few months back by not pulling in and engaging in separate leg stretching. I am still no where near being healed. Take your time. It will all come back. Do not force any of it. Some days you will do almost like your recent practice and other days, no where near! Just don’t push it and you will keep moving forward in your practice.