Alignment – Day Six

Thursday – 5:30pm class with Lorenza

Today’s class was better than yesterday.  Lorenza gave us air recognizing the humid conditions and that was merciful.  I did every posture and felt strength generally.  It will be interesting to pay attention to my lower back – I feel strain there somewhat that is different than muscle strain (which I feel a lot in my legs).  I have scoliosis and some of the reading I’ve done on this indicates that some of the postures in Bikram yoga are potentially not good for scoliosis.  I notice it in subtle ways throughout almost every posture and it was only after practicing for about 3 years that I really started to tune into this and see how different postures were impacted by this.  The asymmetry we all have is quite pronounced in me.  The lateral bending of half-moon pose highlights the differences in each side – it even shows up in triangle and how “up” or “down” my rib cage appears.  I often get a correction on the right side of triangle and then the left side of triangle is indicated as “better.”  It’s simply due to how my spine curves.  So…I’m paying attention to my lower back.  

Also my fall last August really impacted my practice for the last several months – and I’m still feeling the effects, but it is getting better.  For example – for a while, simply putting my ear on the towel fully while in savasana during the floor series was challenging when looking to the right.  My neck had lost that range of motion – it’s almost back to where it was.  

Alignment – that is the key in yoga and indeed it seems in life.  Living your live in alignment with your values and goals. Keeping yourself aligned with your partner and their values and goals, keeping a team aligned in order to work together.  When things are misaligned – the course is impacted and your point of arrival changes.  It’s amazing how small misalignments can lead to big “misses.”