Day 23: adjustments

Krista taught today (the owner of my studio, who wrote me the letter of recommendation for training.) Boy, she is the *best.* She told me to take a smaller step in Standing Separate Leg Stretching and all the discomfort I complained about before disappeared. She also told me to bring my head down in that pose, to straighten my neck. Turns out it's a very restful, comforting pose. And the backs of my knees weren't all woobly for Triangle. I need to shorten my step there, too, and bring my hips forward and my shoulder down and back. And "reach, reach, reach!" At some point when we were on our stomachs in Savasana, she walked on my feet. Oh sweet delight, it feels so good I just want to weep when she does that! Then she asked me, "What day is this for you?" I said 23, and she announced it to the whole class: "It could be worse, Marmot's been doing this for 23 days straight!" After that I felt conspicuous, like I needed to be practing REALLY well. After all, I've been getting plenty of practice. But I think she was just trying to inspire other people. I need pointers more than ego boosting! But I won't lie, it was nice.

Then in Camel I got more help from Krista--I have been too goal-oriented, just grabbing my knees because I can. I haven't been LIFTING my chest enough to get the proper curve in the _upper_ spine! It made a huge difference, a great opening feeling in the breastbone. I won't be going for my ankles again until I can keep that chest lift. I hope I can do it again tomorrow properly!

It was a hot class today. It was tough; I was really running out of juice toward the end but it never crossed my mind that it was hotter than usual. I did think I was sweating more than usual so I'm not sure why I didn't put that together!

Saw "Thank You For Smoking" tonight--very good! MSH laughed for no good reason in a couple of places. We both got excited to see that Todd Louiso was in it. He's been an inside joke between us ever since MSH made me guess him in the "guess the celebrity" car trip game. Like I would know his name! Well, now I do. Anyway, the movie had some great lines in it. I recommend it.

In response to Lisa's question in the comments about my Lumi towel being really skid-free: I am not putting it to the skid test until late in the series, when it's pretty sweaty. And when it's sweaty, I can definitely testify that it does NOT slip, nosirree. I will try to remember to do some test poses on it before class tomorrow, when it's dry, and see how it does.