Binds and Balances

Lately, all I've been doing is reading for exams. All that sitting in crummy university chairs while staring at books and paintings, and taking notes in a strange Chinglish shorthand, just turns my shoulders and hips completely tight and inward-facing - hence all the extra joint work lately. I spent a lot of time today "hanging out" in Bound Extended Side Angle Pose just to try and turn my shoulders right-side-out again. A fun sequence for this is Side Angle - Bound Side Angle - Triangle, especially because by the time you open up into Triangle, your top arm and shoulder feel much lighter and more spacious than they would if you just opened into Triangle from Warrior Two. One bind that I still haven't quite been able to manage is the bound version of Half Lord of the Fishes, probably because I always get stuck trying to twist one shoulder the wrong way. Today was also a fun practice day in that I fell over out of Firefly and ended up laughing out loud, and am really enjoying the preparations for this pose. Can't exactly make it off the ground yet, but for hamstring stretches and groin openers, the prep work for this can't be beat.

My schedule has been a little thrown off lately, in that I've been working as soon as I wake up in the morning, and leaving yoga until the end of the day just to maximize the amount of reading that can be done during daylight hours. It's not quite as energetic a practice at dusk as it is at dawn, but it is less rushed, and I can get deeper into the poses by the end of the day without feeling sluggish or drowsy. It is also a nice way to put a cap on the day's reading before a late dinner, so you're sure to have an empty stomach before and know that right afterward dinner will be served. Yumm - dinner!

WoYoPracMo Log:
Jan. 8: 45 minutes mixed asana, focus on hip-opening, soundtrack Wah!
Jan. 9: 10 minutes slow pranayama in Savasana (not much of a practice, but still)
Jan. 10: 40 minutes mixed deep, slow flow vinyasa, focus on deep stretching and opening from deep within shoulders and hips, soundtrack radioio.com "Ambient"