5.27.16- 6am

Today was a special day worth recording...I finally touched my head to my knee in Standing Head to Knee and exited with full control. It was awesome! And even better it happened in Steve's class and he is always my biggest cheerleader and I know it means a lot to him to see people make progress. YES! Feeling very grateful and somewhat transformed. I wonder if I'll ever be able to do it again?

5.17.16- 6am

Well clearly this isn't going to be a daily blog. It will be an "as I'm inspired to write" blog. I've been generally doing Bikram at 6am Monday-Friday and then running or in some cases *GASP* relaxing on the weekends. This is working nicely for me... I can't live without morning Bikram most days. Sometimes the alarm goes off at 5:15 and I want to roll over and go back to sleep but within 5mins my brain starts thinking about how much less enjoyable the day will be if I don't go...and soon enough I'm up! Today was a great class with Erika. I felt stronger in standing head to knee than ever. Not because I could keep my forehead on my knee without falling (still can't really do that) but because I felt stronger and more in control of my focus and breath than ever before. It comes and goes but when it's there it's AWESOME. And to be vain for a moment it's great to actually see that I have stomach muscles. I always assumed my stomach was a big blob and would be that way no matter what...running marathons certainly didn't change it. But it turns out I can get ripped. My weight has regulated to about 140lbs or less without any sort of dieting. I eat what I want when I want it but strangely it's not nearly as much as I wanted before, and what I want is healthier (generally). I know yogis say this happens, and I can report that they are correct. I have been almost totally  vegetarian (I eat fish) for about 6 months...not for political reasons, I just lost my taste for meat and so did Colin. None of these things are why I do yoga but I'm not mad about it either!

5.2.16- 6am

I have been reading a lot of mediation and mindfulness literature lately...I actually look forward to going home at lunch and reading my mindfulness book, it's very unlike me. Each day for the most part (although we all have bad days) I am getting deeper and in to meditation before class and to an extent during class. It makes a world of difference in the ease and flow of the class. I've always known it would but now I can actually experience it! In Standing Bow today, though I fell out a couple of times on the first set, on the second set I got in to a level of concentration I don't think I've ever achieved before. I really did stop feeling the strain, I was so focused on my BREATH, not so much my knee...and that's what got me there. If I can truly and deeply focus on the rhythm of my breath and keep it slow and steady, the opportunities are limitless!