St. Anthony

While in Newark, waiting to board my next and final flight to Toronto, I had this feeling like I was missing something.  I checked that I had my backpack with me, and I did... so I thought to myself "this backpack is the only thing you were carrying on you besides your passport which is now inside your backpack...which you're carrying....sooo... I guess you're good to go!"

Despite all this checking, I still felt like I was leaving something behind, even when we landed.  I checked around before getting off the plane; I seemed to have everything I needed.  I even asked my sister if maybe she left something, she checked, nothing seemed to be missing.

So now it's Saturday night and I'm forced to write last night's blog today and cannot post any pictures because I can't seem to find the bag that held all of my electronic stuff.  Nightmare!  The bag was actually just mostly a bunch of cords... like my cell phone charger, the cord that allows me to transfer all my pictures from my camera to my computer, my battery charger for my camera, and a bunch of other similar things that I might as well stop listing because just going through it is arising fiery flames of anger and rage, and mostly just disappointment.

I honestly don't remember even removing this bag of goodies from my bag at any point but I just don't seem to have it on me.  While in Mexico my sister was gracious enough to be my Pursuit of Happy Hips photographer.  So all the pictures that were posted from days 11 to 17, were all her magical workings.  I was going to ask her to take some again last night but once we made it home she was fast asleep in mere seconds.  With no battery power in my own camera, no ability to charge the camera, or even transfer the pictures to my computer, and additionally no access to my sister's camera, I accepted the fact that Day 18 was just going to be a photographical failure and that was that.

Day 18's routine is called Sunset Session.   It's a 40 minute video and also the last of the 7 routines in this dvd set.  It keeps a really great sun salutation flow and goes right into the main Standing Flow routine which seems to be in every video.  It includes: warrior I, warrior II, crescent pose, triangle, half moon, and one leg forward fold.  This one also included the boat pose series which I was doing quite nicely.  I could feel the pose being held up more by my lower core than by my back or legs which may have been working harder in the past than they probably should be.  I think I'm on my way to doing this pose properly and am starting to activate groups of muscles that weren't ready to be awoken earlier in this journey.

Once I finished my Sunset Session, I attempted to write my daily blog.  I turned on my computer, opened up my little blogger site and started typing in my passwords when my laptop made a sad little noise and then shut itself off.  I tried turning it back on.  It wouldn't turn on.  I thought maybe it was the battery, and I just needed to plug the power cord in.....but the power cord was already plugged in. 

At this moment I took what should probably be recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records as the LONGEST and DEEPEST inhale and exhale this green Earth has ever witnessed by a human being.

With that, I said to myself, "Tomorrow is a new day" and went straight to bed.

So now it's Day 19.  It is in fact a new day and I spent most of it working.  As soon as I got home I tore my luggage and back pack apart.  I did this 4 times.  My bedroom looks like Hurricane Meighan just ripped it to shreds.  In utter despair I googled the prayer to St. Anthony and read that aloud about 500 times.  I've done this a lot in the past when loosing TTC passes, or jewelry with sentimental value and often times it's worked like a charm.  Today is not that day.  My computer on the other hand is thankfully working.  I really don't know what it's deal was last night.  Perhaps that was the Universe's way of telling me I should get some sleep!

After failing to find my beloved bag of gadgets, I decided to start all over again in the Power Yoga for Happiness 2 dvd collection and try out Eddie Would Flow for the second time.  I really surprised myself today.  While in table pose, I never used to be able to lift my leg up.  In fact, I never even bothered trying because I just didn't feel I had any strength to do so.  But today I thought, what the heck, just give it a go.  My leg just shot straight up!  On day 16 I mentioned that Crow Pose is something I would really like to be able to do next.  Lately I've been feeling like I might be able to do it soon but the arm strength just wasn't there yet.  Well, today I nailed that sucker too!  Nailed is a funny word, because my crow pose didn't exactly last very long, it wasn't the most controlled pose I've ever done in my life, and I probably didn't do it a hundred percent accurately but I did it and my feet actually lifted up off the ground.  So for me, that is total success! 

The thing with poses like this one, is that you really just have to find the sweet spot.  It's not really all about arm strength as much as it is about having upper core strength and finding your centre of gravity.  I remember a yoga instructor once told my class that "... all yoga poses are essentially supposed to be easy and shouldn't feel like torture.  If they do, then you're likely not doing them correctly."  That was the deal with crow pose for me.  Sure, some actual upper body strength would make this a lot simpler, but really I just needed to adjust my positioning a bit because that was all I did differently today than in past attempts and this time I ended up in the pose! I feel like when it comes to postures like this one, you really have to just let go of all your fears.  Fears and doubts just hold you back in yoga.  Fear that you'll fall out of the pose, fear that you'll fail, fear that it'll hurt, that it'll burn, that you'll sprain or strain something.  If all you do is fear, fear, fear, then you'll never be able to let go and flow into the posture and you'll never progress in your practice.  Such is the same in life eh?  As the lululemon manifesto says you gotta just "Do one thing a day that scares you". 

In a past post I mentioned that Beth Childers was one of the awesome yogis in this video and that watching her intense yoga/surfer bod was a source of motivation for me.... well I decided to take a few shots of my TV screen to demonstrate her fantastically toned body so you can get an idea of what I was talking about.  Here they are!  Here's hoping that by the end of the summer my own bod will resemble something like this...