Saturday, June 30, 2012

Contentment assist

I did my second assistant screening is week. Actually I did it Monday night. Which was great cause I definitely wanted to ride the wanderlust high as long as possible. So I was feeling pretty zen when I started. Which was good. I also did not get nearly as strong of a I'm going to vomit feeling. So that was another bonus.
Overall I felt pretty good again. There were still some moments that felt very clunky to me. But not a ton. And there was a few moments that felt really good. There is something completely satisfying about seeing someone melt under your touch and relax into it. And that happened a few times too. So all all in all a really good practice.

The interesting thing about doing this screening with many different people is the type and quality comments afterward. Tony definitely had some things that he wanted me to work. Which I think is going to be an always sort of thing. I mean that's how we improve right. The really good thing he said was he liked my overall presence during the practice and said that I was very grounding. When he said that I was just thinking "SCORE"!!!!!!

So in summary definitely getting better and can't wait to do another one.

So in saving this post temporarily I realized I never finished first assist. Oops we are out of order.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

First assist

I did my first assisting yesterday and it was awesome. I was understandably terrified. Partially cause I didn't really know the teacher I was about to practice on and I didn't want her to turn around and be like "ok you suck" I mean maybe not a fully legit fear but a fear none the less.

We did it in a Prana 2 music class which was nice but it made it very hard to breath loud enough, or at least feel like you were breathing loud enough. But I didn't get any critic on that one so yay. The best thing was right before we started the volunteer come over and said to feel free to try new things on her. Which I appreciated because I don't know if I would have necessarily been that bold on my own. But it was nice in the poses that had two sides to them to try the straight forward assist I one side and then make or try to make up something new on the other. Some of which felt really good.

The main take aways I will take from this first one into the second are to get right in there at the beginning. Because one thing that I find amazing is how much people pick up I my nerves at the beginning of a practice. Even when they are barely feel able on my end. So definitely need to figure out techniques in which to "shake out" the nerves more. Also I will focus on using my palms more. This was a very interesting point because palms feel much less creepy. In general. Which isn't exactly something you think about right away. Also in using the palms ita a much more energetic way to give an assist which is always a good thing.

So overall it was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to do my second one on monday.... With a dude. Hurray

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hat free

With the impending heat wave I decided to go hat and scarf free to work. I had released the view to a few people but im biting the bullet and walking in the front door. Here goes nothing.... Pardon the sweat. I just walked to work :)

Sunday, June 17, 2012

The final tally

So I looked up how far I went yesterday and it was definitely over 3 miles. Wooho!!! I ended up walking almost that distance again later and then walked the two miles to work to get sushi in Kendall. It was a big tally day :) this morning legs feel like lead.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

I concurred

Today was epic and it's on 1050 in the morning. I wanted to get some sweating in this morning because I'm going out for lunch and dinner. Not the ideal meal plan but it happens. Fortunately I don't have groceries do it was well timed in that respect. But I didn't want to truck it all the way to work out world. Since now it's really not convenient. Even the one in Cambridge is on the other side of Cambridge. Can't wait to start crossfit ing again cause that is close.... .3mls I will be walking. But I've been so busy lately I thought I'd hold off a little on that one. Anyway. So I figured I'd try running. Now that I live one block from the charles. And I will say it was great. I was nervous about how far I'd be able to go. But I left the house armed with iPod, and interval timer.

Initially I set the timer to 30 seconds and 2 min. Figuring I'd go 30 seconds and then rest for 2. I definitely underestimated myself. I ended up going the two min and resting 30 seconds. For about 10 intervals. I switched back to the original plan after that for a few and then stopped. So I think I was going for about 30 min all together. I did the JFK bridge to the river at bridge once with another loop most of the western ave to JFK bridges. I'm going to look up how far that is when I get home. But it actually felt good... For a large portion of it.. Now my IT bands are screaming. But I'm happy about it. And feel like

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Day 1

Today so far has been really interesting in the yoga training realm. I mean the day started in the most un-yogic way possible: loading my queen sized bed, box spring and all on to my aunts forerunner. Driving through torrential rain to get from newton to Cambridge. And then unloading and realizing exactly how much space I don't have. And in typical my fashion it pretty much stopped raining as we pulled up. So I have a bed in Cambridge which I'll be luck to sleep on tomorrow... If I lucky.

Well I could dwell on that but lets get back to what happened...finally...since its only been 3 wks..oops.

I came in very nervous.  I realized that quickly most of the girls knew each other from  teacher training.  So I was like oh great here comes the feelings of being a social paraya.  So I ended up talking to this one girl who also didn't know everyone which was excellent. So i knew there had to be others.  But another one of my worst fears happened , that I was the most and I mean capital most inexperienced in the group...typical.  Feelings of inadequacy welcome to the game. 

But anyway, we started with a long chat about what assisting was and the goal and sort of things to expect in the training.  Like don't be too hard on ourselves because its a very kinestetic teaching method which Ms. Textbook...me... was a bit unsure about.  Understandably.  But we commenced and an interesting thing happened.  I had to hold back tears.  We had a few warm up  "games" and stuff.  Then we learned the assist for child's pose.  Definitely a good one since every class you spend a fair amount of time in it.  And its a really good way to get someone to relax.  If you're good at it...that is.  Including in an hr of power class.  So anyway we learned the basics about how to assist and then we got to practice on eachother.  Which was a total yikes moment.  So of course the very first time....i touched a person...ever... I was extremely tentative and just ok.  Fortunately in child's pose there is little you can do to hurt them.

I realized how much of a need I have to want to do things "right".  Maybe its the scientist in me. But definitely something I want to work on because other things its not good for the blood pressure.  Fortunately with a kinestitic environment there is a lot of chances to practice.  So as the day went on it became easier in that pose.  Then we went on to assists in vinyasa assists (during a flow)  Or breath assist.  Those are a whole different ball game.  Because the person is moving a lot.  Though in some ways I like those better because since its so quick its almost like you get a chance to try something quick and leave so its also a quick abort.  Like if you try and adjust someones shoulders or something. You can go in and try it but if you try something and finish and say that didn't feel right it was only a moment of the practice.    Whereas if you assist someone in child's pose and they aren't feeling it or something its a lot harder to abort.  So we practiced those a bunch and did this thing called the typewriter.  Which is a fancy way to line everyone up and practice assists in a "class" setting.   Which was good to at least simulate the speed of a real class.    We broke for "dinner" and a bunch of use went to Life Alive.  Demi Adventurer...YUM!!!

After dinner we did half pigeon assists.  Which was also one that I was very excited about because it can feel amazing to have it done to you.  But also has the potential to really hurt someone.  I mean I've even hurt myself in half pigeon by trying to be too much of a badass.

It actually had a lot of similarities to child's pose assists.  Also good.  Much less to remember at the onset.  Though this one is hard because there is a huge possibility to hurt someone because the knee is in a bad angle and a lot of people can't take the pose for that reason. But it is a really cool assist because it feels really good.  I got to practice on Ray for this one which was awesome because its good to practice on a person who is bigger than me. 

I feel like we did something else but I don't remember. 

At the end of the practice class we had a 20 min or so restorative practice.  Can I say heaven.   Especially since I was sore already because it was the first day that i had done yoga in a month.  During this practice Ray did a spinal traction on me which was unbelievable.  I was excited to learn this assist because it was that good.  I will definitely be using it. 

After it was all over I walked to whole foods and picked up some stuff.  In my usual fashion I roamed around the store for awhile because I was tired.  I did get my favorite chocolate peanut butter and spinach and baby kale.  And I've been enjoying salads all week.  I went back to check on my bed... still wet.  Off to newton for the night.