Lamentation of a Yogini

 

The pigeon flew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The eagle, too

No tree...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...no bow, in the meadow

The monkey played

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The camel stayed

 

What do you know

They come, they go

 

(photos from Yoga Journal)

Freedom in Backbend

I find this strange–after almost two years of yoga (and that means two years of doing surya namaskaras) I feel only now a certain kind of freedom in standing backbend. Tremendous joy I experience every time I get into this pose. It’s as exhilarating as a free fall! =D

Yoga in Davao…

…sadly is still yet to be established. With the absence of yoga studios, even gym-based ones, the friends of my friends who do yoga have to be content with self-practice, at least for now (and until someone changes his plans in the next two years, ;-D).

For a yogin deprived of yoga for days, I saw yoga in everything. Here are the proofs:

Baby in (half?) hero pose (virasana)

Baby in (half but in meditation?) sage Bharadwaja pose (Bharadwajasana)

Baby in bent-back-leg pose (tiryang-mukha-ekapadasana)
“Keep the back of your legs flat on the floor…”

Happy baby yogi!

Thanks, Akeem, for posing for Tita Chona!

And thanks Rose (and Tito Moy, Tita Olga, and Jinky) for welcoming me to your home!

The New Yogis on the Block

Meet Teo the Yogi.

Warrior 1 (even with yogi dolls, alignment is important in keeping balance)

Upward Warrior (tight hips, tsk! tsk!)

Turtle (as I made the adjustments, I could just imagine what happens to my hip joints when I get into this posture…yikes!)

So, this is what happened to Teo after that hip-breaking pose.

His parts are so fragile that a little twisting caused breakage right away—either that or he is osteoporotic (thus his name Teo, he he….)

Yogi Gelo gave me an idea what I can do with Stikfas figures. There’s more to this toy than what meets the eye—when I went to the store the first thing the sales personnel asked me “What kind of card do you want?” Duh?! I just want the doll. I got green and blue for myself, and red for Crissy without the slightest idea that each is a different model.

Teo is G2 Alpha Male (whatever that means) while Crissy’s is Classic. Teo has more parts and breaks more easily (obviously with his hips) than the two others. Until Teo recovers from his surgery, he can’t do yoga for the meantime.

Meet the Yoga Master.

Warrior 2 (look at those hips and the perfect 90-degree bend!)

Wheel

Wide-legged forward bend

Monkey

Scorpion

Yoga Master is Alpha Male (again, whatever that means). It’s easier to assemble and more durable than Teo.

As I took pictures of these toys, I realized that anatomy really plays a role in what one can and cannot do—just look at the differing structures of Teo and Yoga Master. (Picture below shows Teo with his new hips, thanks to Yoga Master’s spare energy, er, parts. Healing is pretty fast, huh.).

It also took me a lot of patience to get them into the poses properly without breaking a bone or two (hmmm, maybe that’s what also Teacher Pio feels about us, he he).

Sebastian tear + yoga teacher

Funny, somebody searched this phrase in the net. Duh?! Is someone tracking my record of injuries and…who “could have caused” them? Ha ha! Thanks to WordPress, I now have a title for this blog!

Since Tuesday last week, my yoga session with Teacher Pio has not been that easy. In fact, I sent him a message asking, “Does this signal the beginning of our tormenting nights?” That night the straps in the shelf found their way into the shala, as we did the full pigeon pose. I thought my hip joints were going to break—ouch!

source: www.yoga.about.com

The following night we were only supposed to deepen our poses. “Pull your knee caps, push your heels on the floor, tail bone up, tuck your stomach…inhale, exhale…” Teacher Pio went as he instructed us in the downward facing dog pose.

source: yoga poetry of the body

Then “snap!” I heard a sound from behind (literally). I think it was something around my right sitting bone. Gee, there are just some things I do not get yet in the practice of yoga. I was already holding the position—it’s not as if I am in transition from one pose to another— then something would just snap without any warning. No pain, no tightness of muscles.

The first time this happened to me, I was holding the wide-angle forward bend when my left hamstring suddenly snapped.

source: yoga poetry of the body

That time, however, I did not take time to center my sitting bone before getting into the posture. “How can something as gentle as yoga cause you injury?” a friend asked me once. “Lack of awareness,” I answered. But this time, lack of awareness in downward dog, which I have been doing since my first day ever of yoga?!

The succeeding nights did not get any easier, what with the turtle pose (or more appropriately in our case “a distorted turtle” said Teacher) and spine and leg stretches.

source: the complete book of vinyasa yoga

Last Saturday only Jane and I attended the evening session, which means we had all of Teacher’s attention. Uh-oh. When Teacher was pushing my right leg (yes, the one with the torn sit bone muscles) in his hope that I could perfect supta trivikramasana (sorry, no English translation provided), I was tempted to ask Jane, being a mother of four, “Could labor pains be this bad?”

source: the complete book of vinyasa yoga

But in this pain lies a hope. You see, I have felt (and seen) how misaligned my right leg is. For me to keep my balance in tree pose, I have to twist my right heel a little outward.

source: yoga poetry of the body

When I do back bends, I can actually feel my right hip joint protruding a little bit more than my left side. This misalignment becomes very much pronounced when I do the bow pose—my reflection on the mirror just shows how asymmetrical body is! My right leg always turns outward.

source: yoga poetry of the body

I told Teacher about it once and he replied, “Be content with what you have.” Be content with my twisted right leg. Sigh. Nevertheless, he keeps on rotating it inward whenever I do the pigeon and monkey poses.

source: www.yoga.about.com

source: the complete book of vinyasa yoga

“Yoga will first show your misalignments…then it will correct them,” an old yogi friend told me. I believe that. And I hope that this pain only signals that something in my structure is getting corrected. For the meantime, I try to be content with what I have and what I can do.