My practice

Other than the fact that I feel like a bunch of rabid monkey's broke into my room last night and beat me to a tender pulp (I must have been lying face down at the time) with baseball bats, I am doing better so far than I had expected myself to do.  Body pains seem as likely as sunshine here.  As I was warned, my practice varied A LOT.  What surprised me is that it did so from the very first class. As we all know, there are two kinds of yogis.  Those born strong and those born flexible.  I am NOT the bendo doll, trust me every millimeter I can move from perfectly rigid was earned in sweat (and many cases tears). Well, for the first 2 days I could not balance on one leg for more than 10 seconds at a time.  While it is getting better, all the poses I traditionally find "easier" have taken me work.  Elements of poses that formerly took no effort are now my nemesis :(  On the bright side I can forward bend all of a sudden.  The bad news is that I am so not used to being able to do this that I am struggling to find the happy medium between trying hard enough and injuring my back further than I have already (2 pinched nerves to date).  Please bear in mind that this will not happen to everyone.  I have some pre-existing conditions I have to contend with.

TMI ALERT

I knew before I came that I would have 3 cycles while here. I will tell you I had my PMS dialed up to a 12, Spinal Tap style.  OMG I wanted to punch everyone in the nose! I have never in my life felt so enraged. I tried to contain it but I would not be surprised if some folks are like "yeah I met her and WHAT a bitch!"  If you are not used to doing class during your TOM I advise you do some before coming to TT so you can gauge what typically happens to you (I typically get dizzy, and knowing this allowed me to be prepared and take some honey which is the one thing I've found to help).

I want to deliver a gargantuan THANK YOU to all the instructors that corrected my form and the form of those around me. I want to thank you for every "lock your knee", "straighten your arms", "flatten your hands", "keep still!", "heels together", "NO towel!", and other admonishment ever delivered before, during or after every class I was ever in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. While it is true we have some rubber people here we also have many folks that are going to get such corrections delivered in a less nurturing way.  I accept I will be corrected, but I am grateful that it will not be for things I aught to know better about... things that you all cared about enough to make a habit for me.  So next time I suck in my gut, tuck in my tailbone and relax my shoulders away from my ears without so much as thinking about it... that's thanks to you guys!  I luv you and miss you all!!! (PS, thanx for all the texts, messages, emails, etc... keep em coming!)