Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Friday!

That was such a great week of Mysore practice with David Keil. I love my shala, but boy it is so nice to have all this attention in a room with 10 people in it. All the adjustments made full sense to me and I know what to work on now. I feel more confident in Kapotasana (though far from actually understanding it fully). Moreover, I had a "preview" of supta vajrasana - seems like a doable pose. I am still sore all over my body, though in a nice way, and feel like a massage would be a good treat for me.

On a completely different note. The last couple of weeks I noticed that I have a tremendous difficulty of concentrating. Always suspected that I might have a subclinical level of ADD, but this time it became so pronounced, I actually started considering seeing a doctor and beggging for meds. When I mentioned this to my boss after a day of futile struggle, she remembered reading a book, called "The edge effect", which was talking about tyrosine, serotonine and other neurotransmitters and how they affect the personality. I did not read this book, but there was a light bulb lighting up in my head. I remembered that in one of his lectures, our ayurveda teacher Brendan Freely said that he abandoned raw vegeterian eating because it made him "too flighty" and attributed this to increase in vata imbalance. I have not been eating any dairy the whole last month, so there was no uptake of any kind of animal protein in my diet at all. So probably I am low on tyrosine, and, as a result - low on dopamine and catecholamines. Which is reflected in difficulty to concentrate practically on anything (including writing this blog). I should know these things, being a neuroscientist and all. Anyway, this is a theory, which need proving. So for now, I will take some tyrosine supplements and see if my ability to work using my head improves at all, and meanwhile research raw foods rich in tyrosine and phenylalanine. Let me tell you, this raw vegan diet, with all its healthful benefits, is a lot of work. But I still like it. :)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Whatever does not kill us makes us stronger, right? Right?

Second day of David Keil's mysore, and I am so sore, no words to express it. It is my own fault - haven't done yoga for a whole week. First, in Chicago, there was no room to do it, and I swam instead. Then I came home and skipped shala due to the ladies holiday. And now I am paying for it big time. It even hurts to breathe - all those tiny muscles between the ribs are not happy at the moment.
Good thing I did not complain, though. David asked a lady on the mat next to mine if she was tired. Sounded very compassionate, too. She sighed exhaustedly - yes. So what does he do? He makes her take full vinyasas for the rest of her practice! You know - those, when you come to samastihi every time. Whew.
On a positive note, it seems that my kapotasana is less sucky now. I was holding my heels both days, and it felt less terryfying than before. In kapotasana B, David somehow elongated my lower back, so it was quite bearable as well. My back was still in shock afterwards, and UD's were close to impossible, but I can feel baby-step progress. Got assistance with the dropbacks and a great squish after.
Tomorrow's practice is going to be interesting, though. The bookshelfs that I ordered from Office Depot arrived yesterday, which is good news. Bad news is that they are "extra tall", which means - do not fit in the elevator. I will have to unpack them downstairs and carry all extra-long pieces to the 4th floor myself, using the stairs. Two double cases - 8 trips at least. My husband is overseas, I do not know anybody in the building, and the super in the building is kind of old. So it is just me, it seems. As I said, mysore morning after will be intriguing.

 

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