Monday, August 31, 2009

Monday woes.

Oi, another week passed. This way the life itself will be gone in a blink of an eye, and I will not even notice it. Time to slow down.
Nothing much to report, except for the fact that we are poor now. Very much so. Coming up with down payment for the apartment was difficult, but then there turned out to be closing costs, quarterly taxes, and a gazillion of 0ther expenses to be payed right now, and not a minute later! So yeah, poor.
Practice-wise, not much to report. Laghu comes and goes; it is gone for now. I do not worry too much, it will come. Not a lot of energy to practice; being anxious about getting a loan sucks up all my energy at the moment. Yesterday I decided to add half an hour to my sleep in order to be in top shape for the morning practice; but not only I was not able to fall asleep early, I tossed and turned well into the night. As a result, the practice was quite pitiful today.
Plan for this week - meditate not only every day, but several times a day, every time I feel that my heart is racing and palm are sweaty.
Have a great week, everyone!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Still playing games, owning Laghu Vajrasana and no longer drinking alcohol

Nearly two weeks off the blog. Facebook games madness continues, but the eagerness to play faded a little; so there is hope on the horizon. Several things happened while I was away:
1) I need to kill my inner alcoholic permanently, because I have a life-threatening sensitivity to sulfites. Had a major asthma attack after celebrating my husband's CFA exam with Russian champagne. It is not like I love drinking wine, but still this makes me a little sad. Oh well, I am forced to live a healthier lifestyle, shouldn't complain.
2) We are thinking about buying a condo. With 2 bedrooms, which means we'll be able to accomodate guests. Wink-wink.
3) I can do Laghu Vajrasana now. Like so many yoga poses, this one turned out to be not about superhuman strength. It is all about spatial geometry, knowing where to press, which muscles to contract, which parts to release. Aliya hepled me a lot with this pose. I do not know what I am going to do when he, Rayna and Ananda are gone to Paradise (here, on Earth!). Sigh.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Dangers of facebook and kitty update.

Lately I had a hard time keeping things together - I would concentrate on one thing, and ten others would fall apart immediately. And I added an additional challenge to it (like I needed one, honestly!). On a Facebook, I got sucked in into the Robin Hood game, hopelessly. The intention was to keep up with friends who stopped blogging, but update the facebook regularly, and here we go, the trap has sprang. The only saving grace for me is that facebook is banned at work, otherwise I might have gotten fired.

Kitty seems to be doing OK, though she did not greet me in the morning again, completely ignoring our morning treat-giving ritual. What is up with her? Aren't cats the creatures of habits and rituals? Weird.

Laghu Vajrasana still eludes me. My thighs are fried daily now. David said yesterday that as soon as I learn to do it, we'll be moving forward. Which kind of gave me a mixed feeling - I am not all that sure I want Kapotasana any time soon. On the other hand - I want it! Need to sit and sort myself out.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Some good, some bad.

Last week was the week of our summer students poster presentations, so the time went in a blur of hurried preparations and the poster session itself. Then the weekend came, and it was my husband's birthday, for which my baby came to visit. It was so nice to have the family all together again. We went to see a Harry Potter movie (we used to do it all together when Ilya was still small), bought a graduation present (a Movado watch) and celebrated Victor's birthday in a seafood restaurant at the Washington Marina. We also spent considerable time just lounging around, eating and watching tivoed "Boston Legal". I felt very rejuvenated after hectic two weeks.

Missed Mysore again - the third time this month. My older cat was not feeling good for a couple of days, and today she did not come out to greet me and to ask for a treat. Might not sound like much, but believe me, this is a big deal. Every time she lost her appetite, it ended up with extremely expensive surgery and her being on a brink of death. So I decided to take matters seriously, did not go to practice and instead dug her out from the depths of my closet, fed her hairball gel, checked her signs and watched her for some time, making sure she is OK. Well, she was not quite OK, but better than I feared. I will have to keep my fingers crossed at work today.


Sunday, August 2, 2009

Back from Minnesota

Good intentions of practicing yoga on my own resulted in one day of intermediate (up to lagu vajrasana) and four days of half-ass yin practices in my hotel room. I do not have discipline, as it seems. With some trepidation I stepped in to the shala today, and ended up having an amazing practice. I always knew that breaks were good for me, but a week-long break? Interesting.

Assisted backbends were not quite good, though. I was dropping back heavily, and it took a lot of effort for David to lift me up. He got sick of it pretty fast and made me hang back with my legs straight. Turns out I am terrified of this pose! In my dropbacks I always support my back with hands on the hips or thighs until the very last moment of bringing the hands down to the floor. I did not realise that I cound not do it otherwise. Today, there was a moment of pure panic rising, and I lifted up so fast, nearly knocked David's head with my own. Well, something new to work on. Love challenges!

 

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