Sunday, January 3, 2010

Astanga

I fought my alarm clock this morning and won, ended up sleeping in until 7:30. I just couldn’t wake up. I had a headache and I felt achy. I felt worse as I started to practice. A muscle on the right side of my back was cramping up. I’m temped to blame my QL, but it’s probably just an errant erector muscle along the spine. I wondered what happened? Did I sleep at a weird angle?

At one point, I had to stop and come into Child’s Pose. The cramping sensation was so intense, it took my breath away. Child’s Pose turned out to be a poor choice of resting poses - it was actually more uncomfortable. The only pose that offered relief was Chaturanga. So there I was, holding my Chaturangas because they felt so lovely. Irony!

Somehow, I made it through the entire Primary Series. And now I feel fine. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

I must be coming out of my funk, because I started a monumental decluttering project. Nothing beats the winter blues like getting rid of piles of stuff. The thing is, I already live in a small space and declutter fairly regularly, so there’s not a lot to throw out. I mainly rearranged stuff in a tidier fashion.

I did pack up two huge bags full of books, making room for new books on my shelves. I cleaned out my desk, including the ‘junk drawer’ and the ‘clippings file’ (the two places where I tend to deposit stuff I don’t know what to do with).

I didn’t get rid of many clothes. My wardrobe is in a sad state, but I *do* wear everything on a regular basis. My nicest clothes are yoga clothes - for work, of course. I don’t like dressing up, so my favourite outfits tend to be shabby and worn. I wish I could care more about clothes, but I just don’t. I think I’m missing the ‘clothes-horse gene’.

But I more than make up for it with my collection of bags. I love bags! Not purses (ack!), BAGS. Knapsacks, shoulder bags, sling bags, big bags, little bags. My cousin gave me a colourful little neck bag from Mexico and I went into spasms of ecstasy. It’s perfect for my subway pass and my debit card and that’s all I tend to carry with me anyway. I’m going to ditch my wallet.

In the process of all this re-arranging, I managed to finally use my shiny new label maker. It’s embarrassing how happy this made me. I was happy as a clam, typing up tidy little white labels. I even labelled a clear bin that was quite obviously full of tea lights (you could see them!) because just IT FELT GOOD.

I am sooooo easily entertained.

2 comments:

alfia said...

Hi, Kai! Your de-cluttering seems to go really well!I only did one pile of paper (albeit a HUGE one!), and was too proud of myself to continue for long. :D

About cramping - I used to have regular cramping in my feet (sad, overworked, flat feet). Since I started taking EmergenC mix (by Alacer) in the morning, the cramping is gone, even though it is really cold out here, too. So I think it was either a lack of potassium or magnesium.

Kaivalya said...

@Alfia
That's an interesting idea about the cramping and nutrients. I'll check into it. Thanks! (and happy purging!)