Overturned

I went to yoga class this morning. It was supposed to be a mixed level vinyasa class, but I was the only one there so she asked what I wanted to work on. I told her I was trying to do inversions (headstands, etc.) and I wanted to work on those. And so we did.

We started out with warm up poses, opening shoulders and back, spinning the triceps in, aligning hips. Then we worked on forearm balance prep, which is insanely hard. And some dolphin pose. We did headstand, which I like and am good at, and a shoulderstand which is one of my favorite poses. She said I looked very peaceful in it.

(Photo from Yogajournal.com, link above)

There was a lot of laughing, and adjustments to my poses, and going deeper into forward bends (with hamstrings trying to say "I can't!" and me saying to them "yes, you can, relax") and a general feeling of amazement at what my body can do. Even though the stupid scale says I've gained 5 pounds in 6 days. Which cannot possibly be right.

Then I went to lunch at a lovely locavore place and had pate and wine and mushroom bisque.

I almost went back to the evening restorative yoga class tonight, but decided to lie around and feel sorry for myself for having no friends.

When I lived in California and was single, my mother wanted me to join the Appalachian Mountain Club (hiking, etc) because she thought I'd meet someone. Except that I'm not a joiner and just felt really uncomfortable on the few outings I went on.

Well, apparently I'm back in that phase because I just signed up for some trail clean up thing happening tomorrow. At least it will get me out on the trail, and hopefully I can find some work gloves to wear, and some long pants that aren't yoga pants.

And we'll see whether I go, or decide I don't have the right clothes for trail work and I hike by myself or I go to yoga and attempt Level 2/3 vinyasa flow which says:

These classes will contain consistent practice of deep back-bends, inversions, arm balances and challenging variations while honing deep concentration, including pranayama and more subtle perception of the body-mind. Classes include discussion of yoga philosophy. Long holds combined with flowing practice.