New Learnings
I was very intrigued over the weekend, learning about joint movements and spine types!
It opened a whole new perspective in understanding yoga poses and how they help in joint mobility. There are so many movements that each joint should be able to do. It also helps us be more aware and conscious of what we need to engage and what movements we should be actually doing instead of focusing on how the pose looks. For example, palms on the ground in arm balancing doesn't mean dorsiflexion of the palm (bring the palm towards the top of the forearms, just as how it looks), but it actually means the other way round (palmar flexion, bringing the palm towards the bottom of the forearms) because we need to press down onto the ground. Most interestingly, we can actually cue yoga poses just by using joints and their movements as reference points. I still have difficulty remembering all the terms though xD
We also learnt about different spine types and commonly seen traits/issues. We got to see different 'specimens' among our batch mates, which was fascinating lol. I think many of us discovered things about ourselves that we didn't know before. I thought people with nice arched lower back that accentuated their bums are lucky but who knew it was considered as slight lordosis (although harmless and not detrimental)? Or that the 'master side' can show so obviously just by looking at the back muscles :O I didn't know that my left shoulder is higher than the right, which Jess had pointed out to me. One day later, my left shoulder is aching so much more than my right, which I never noticed before! There doesn't seem to be any issues with my spine, but that also means that my tight upper and lower back are purely flexibility problems and not related to my spine at all.
Progress
More pincha practice this weekend - it was better for me on Saturday. My shoulders seem a bit more open than last week (I hope so after doing chest openers all week xD), which felt better as I got into it. I'm trying to tuck my tailbone more to get that straight line but I can't stay for long. Think I need more strength in my shoulders to push away from the floor more too.
My wrists are also better this weekend after checking with Jess on my palm placement. I found it so difficult to keep the 'meaty part' of the palm on the ground initially; I noticed they were flaring up no matter how hard I tried to push them down when I was doing Chaturanga and my wrists hurt. Turns out that my index finger needs to point super straight forward and to spread my fingers wider to the sides. That helped me place everything flat on the mat much easier.
I think I have a lot to work on in terms of meditation. After 5 weeks, I'm still finding meditation very difficult. I need to learn to accept the discomfort and breathe through it, rather than giving in to it and fidgeting to get the uncomfortable feeling away. That uncomfortable feeling is when I can't really feel my joints/limbs and I feel like I need a good stretch but I need to remain still. I wonder if it is related to my daily life and how I deal with problems - I usually don't leave things be but I have to do something to tackle the issue. The post-numbness is also something that I haven't gotten past. Not sure if it's emotional baggage stuck in my hips or the way I'm sitting, but there isn't any other better way to sit already ): sigh. Made a note to myself to practise meditation every morning this week.
In terms of teaching cues, I feel like I blank out a bit when it's my turn. I roughly know what to say but when it's time to do so, it comes out with a little stutter. Hoping to be more comfortable with this as the weeks pass, and capturing a good timing with the cues (while also breathing myself) is also quite important. Sun salutation is the most challenging, because we need to be selective in what to say while keeping to 1 breath 1 movement.
For this week I'll work on chest opening, strengthening my wrists, and some pincha practice at home too. And daily meditation.
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