Day 7

This past weekend was pretty hectic, hence this delay in posting, but still here going strong. I arrived to Sunday afternoon class straight from my daughter's ballet school party. Having helped to set it up and then having spent two hours running around surrounded by the screaming children towards the end my mind was racing to the studio for some peace and quiet. My body however felt a little bit less eager. However, I found the class relatively easy I suppose it was so because I was completely relaxed and managed to control my breath throughout of the session. I can definitely see some progression in my practice. On Sunday for the first time ever I went fully into one of my favourite postures - Standing Head to Knee. 

There are four parts to this posture and to get to final one the first three need to be completed in sequence.

Part 1 - involves transferring the body weight to the left foot and locking the knee of the left leg while picking up the right foot and interlacing all ten fingers on its sole. The thigh of the right leg at that point should be parallel to the floor, giving the right leg the look of an upside-down L. If comfortable in that position you can move to 
Part 2 - If your standing leg is locked and you can balance you lift the upper body and kick the right foot forward until the leg is parallel to the floor. Feet on the extended legs are fixed and the heel is kicking forward, again if you can hold part 2 and if you can balance than move to 
Part 3 - Slowly round your back and while holding the extended foot bend the elbows down until they are below the calf muscle. 
Part 4 - Finally if both legs are straight and you can balance slowly bend your head down keep focused on one point on the floor, tuck your chin to your chest and slowly touch the forehead to your knee.
Repeat with other leg. 

My tips would be to always take time at the beginning of the posture to make sure that your weight is distributed evenly across all of the standing foot - heel, toes, side. Also, do not go into this posture without engaging the abdominal muscles and keeping them engaged throughout. This ensures your lower back is protected. I have been struggling for some time with part 4, because as soon as I would bring my head down I'd lose the balance and fall out of the posture. What I think really helped on Sunday was revisiting my abdominals and pulling them in tighter while also engaging both of my thigh muscles, basically locking both of knees. This made my body feel solid so it was a lot easier to pull my head down.

So this is my week 1 done. I have to say it has been hard work but enjoyable. Also I realised that I've been having a couple of hours to myself every day this past week, something I haven't been able to do for a very long time. Anyone with 2 children under the age of 3 will probably appreciate this. My husband has become a bit of a 'bikram widower' as he said the other day and has been having to manage a couple of bath times all on his own. On Sunday night before I left we put the girls in their shared bath for some bubbles fun. Just as I opened the door to go I was embraced my husband and girls' collective screaming coming from top floor as our youngest pooed in their bath water...... Took a deep breath, stepped out and closed the door. Namaste.