A day at the beach

beach at the hamptons.

Last week, I rode out to the hamptons to field measure a house for a new client. We stopped for a few minutes to look at the water on the way back. The smell of the salt air is the best best thing ever. I prefer the beach in the off season.

Practice this week has felt like a day at the beach..easier mentally, though never easy, per se. I feel like I have passed the brunt of my mercury retrograde work/living space/future planning crisis, for now. That stuff took up so much energy all the time. I am trying to pare down a few things..like less time online at home, to make up for having less time off.

A few firsts this week - made it up from bhuja without pushing off the ground with my feet! I did it by accident yesterday (as most of my firsts happen this way..), made it back up, feet only grazing the floor and burst into a big smile. The trick for me seemed to be to not let the feet touch the ground-as in giving my weight to the ground. Brushing the ground with my feet seemed ok. And the next one is pretty obvious...at the end of 5 breaths..inhale UP. My best shot is to come up right away (well, it still takes a breath or two..but I am trying to get this to happen faster). I did it again today, and with less feet brushing of the ground.

My other first- I rolled up into urdhva mukha paschimattanasa.- on my own. Complete shock, as I have felt completely stuck at 90% of the way up for a while now. I held my feet nearer to my toes, and this gave me the extra room to roll up. So it seems. Or perhaps, it was just that I didn't have any expectations about what was going to happen, when I started. My first attempt was very close, and I realized I could do it..and on the second attempt, I made it all the way up. I may miss the flopping around. Who knows. If I can repeat it tomorrow..that will be interesting, since today I was nursing a sore shoulder and going at half force on the vinyasas (trying to anyway)..doing less is always my hardest practice of all.