forward fold

Day 8: forward fold

Morning after killer yoga class and my body is sore.  I attempted some asanas and feel soreness that wasn’t there yesterday.   As I bend into forward fold, a pose generally so easy for me that I don’t even view it as a pose, pain hits.  My lower back and the backs of my legs feel the stretch.  What happened to me?

As I bend into pose, your head drops, your arms fold at the elbows hugging each other, and your body is dropped to your knees.  This pose in some ways is like a resting pose, a settling into the ground, your body learning to release itself in an easy way, before it’s catapulted into plank and the rest of sun salutation.

I’ve noticed the changes yoga has afforded me in the past week.   Out of 7 days of my yoga works membership, I utilized 5.  I have a little more space in my pants, my butt must be diminishing.  When I walk on the ground, I notice how I try to center my feet and spread my toes.  But it has also been my frame of mind, it’s not a dramatic change.  I’m not in a forever state of “om” although I literally have it tattooed on my wrist.  It’s this realization of the importance of doing some type of meditation, of freeing your brain, and simply being.  Yoga is a movement meditation, but anything can be my yoga.

As I sit in forward bend, I remind myself that the difficulty and inability to do this pose today is different from yesterday, and it will be different again tomorrow.   This is where I’m at today.  The class yesterday may have caused pain today, but it will  only help further challenge and increase my strength and flexibility in the future.