21-29.05.10 Never-ending Week, Circling UP

Fri: 20 mins; Sat: 1 hr w Martine, 1.5 hr teaching, personal day off; Sun: 25 mins; Mon: 25 mins, 1 hr teaching; Tues: 20 mins; Wed: 45 mins; Thurs: personal day off; Fri: 1 hr guided class; Sat: 25 mins

I've had so much trouble being in my body the past week. I've been depressed and lonely, mostly because Billy is going to the US for 10 days and he's had to be super-productive and worker-bee like for the past couple of weeks. I'm very sad that he is having to work so hard, but also that I haven't gotten to see much of him in this time before he has to leave. I've found that I have struggled to find time to complete anything, including my yoga practice. Everything has seemed hard this past week, hence the pause in blogging as well.

My life this past week has felt like Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)... but continually moving toward the centre of the pose. But yesterday I came around the bend. And today is not pouring rain, and I'm on the upswing. I found myself finding my reserves of energy yesterday and today--stopping to talk to people, offering kind words and encouragement to colleagues, and smiling at the world.

Last night I went to new type of yoga class--qi yoga. Only I didn't know that's what I was doing when I went to the class; I went to an instructor's class that I'll be covering for a couple of months to see how she led her class. I liked that it was flowing. But mostly I didn't like it at all. The class seemed much more Pilates-esque than yoga, and I didn't have the same feeling of connection with my body when I finished the class. I felt out-of-sync after the class, which I attribute to the breathing patterns we used. Instead of inhaling into updog and exhaling into downdog, we did the opposite. And cat/cow used the opposite breathing pattern that I'm familiar with also. After breathing in that way throughout the class, I was left feeling wrung-out as I left the room... but not in a good way.

Because of the experience I had last night, I spent my practice today in very long holds, really connecting to my breath and body. I also spent time doing alternate nose breathing to help balance myself back out. As I balanced myself today in my yoga practice, I'm seeking to balance the rest of my life over the next week. The past week of difficulty ends as I'm circling my way up today. Ending and beginning, circling, balancing.