Detoxing, Releasing, and Moving Forward!

I didn't expect to experience anything very dramatic or noticeable so soon in the challenge, but I feel as if I am really releasing some tension, some pent-up emotional stuff. I'm also seeing mild signs of physical detoxing.

After Day 4, ( the pukey day), I came home, drank juice and water, ate a nice light dinner with lots of fresh veggies in it, and settled down for the night. But I could not sleep. And then I found myself on a bit of a crying jag. I was awake for most of the night, tearful and uncomfortable, but after 2 or 3 hours of sleep, when I had to drag myself out of bed, I felt calm and weirdly refreshed. I think that I've been carrying around a lot of old stress and worry, and I was finally ready to let go of these things.

I taught a fitness class for seniors in the morning, and in the afternoon, I went to 4:30 Bikram class. Our teacher was a woman who mainly teaches elsewhere in town. I'd taken one class from her before. She has a great, solid grasp of dialogue and challenged us without any shaming or ridicule. It was a hard but good class. I hydrated well beforehand, and I again found that I didn't need to drink as much water as I used to during class. In final savasana, I had an odd sensation of heat in my face and head, as if I might be running a fever, but the feeling passed quickly. When I got home, I was ravenously hungry, and I ate too much soup. I had juice, some Emergen-C, and water as well, and I felt like I might burst from all the liquid inside of me.

Got to sleep early that night--like 9:00. I slept like a log, and I slept a full 12 hours. When I woke up, I had a very stuffy nose, very much like an allergy. Worried for a bit that I was coming down with something, but all of the snotty/stuffy thing went away quickly and didn't come back. I decided it was a little more detoxing.

Taught an afternoon yoga class at a senior citizen's housing complex, and I was really happy with class. It's a weekly class at this facility, and I just started teaching there in December. One lady had been taught pranayama breathing, but other than that, none of the participants had ever done any yoga. They are getting more sure of themselves, willing to challenge themselves a little in some balancing postures. It's so gratifying to see people making progress and enjoying the class.

My Wednesday practice, at 4:30, felt great. I had another almost-new-to-me teacher, someone who'd taught at our studio regularly in the past but had been away for several months. It was probably about the third or fourth class I'd ever taken from her. She killed us, but I was feeling rested and ready for it. She kept us in balancing stick for almost twenty seconds each time, and she kept the room very hot. I did all of the postures, and I didn't feel the need to drink much water. If I keep going at this rate, I may be able to take a class from Mary Jarvis someday (She's one of Bikram's senior instructors; I've been told that she doesn't like to see people drink any water during class). Went home to dinner, hydration, and sleep.

All was well until early this morning. I woke up at about 3:30 AM and slept only in fits and starts until 8. I was forgetfully lolling around, reading in bed, thinking to myself that I had nowhere to be until 2PM, so I might as well relax. My boyfriend brought me breakfast in bed--a veggie omelet and potatoes with coffee, and I didn't eat a lot of it, but I ate some. By then it was
well after 10AM.

And I suddenly remembered that I really had to go to 11:30AM class if I was going to go at all today. I had meetings and teaching from 2 to 6 PM, and they were on the other side of town. I could try to get from the West side of town all the way to my studio between 6 and 6:30, but traffic can be unpredictable at that time of day. Past experience says that my chances of getting there on time are only 50/50 at best.

So I leapt out of bed, dressed and packed my stuff. Off to yoga. I was very worried about the food in my stomach and the probability of nausea. The teacher was a new graduate, and I've never had a class from her. For whatever reason, the room was much much cooler than normal. She even opened the window for an extended period. It was quite serendipitous--a nice cool room on the day I was most likely to feel nauseated in the heat. I made it through class just fine, but I kind of feel like we cheated.

My only worry right now is that I've been noticing a very slight discomfort in what I believe is my right medial collateral ligament. It feels strained whenever I catch myself without a properly contracted quadriceps during any 'lock the knee' activity, and it feels strained during head to the right knee position. From past experience, I know that being super aware of it, contracting the quads like a mofo, and not pushing or straining it will most likely lead to healing fairly quickly.

I've been enjoying soaking in a tub with lavender and epsom salts too.

My big question is, how do people with normal jobs ever manage to do something like this challenge? I feel as if it takes up so much time and energy! I hope that by the end of the challenge, doing yoga will seem like a routine maintenance activity, like brushing my teeth. Right now, it fills my thoughts constantly--time, transportation, eating soon enough but not too early, trying to find that perfect proper balance of hydration, getting the laundry dealt with, etc. I know that it will become more of a routine, and boy, am I ever looking forward to that!