Better than breathing

Full disclosure: the vacation has not been perfect so far. The most notable thing, if you saw me, would be the black eye, which I got when, um, part of an elliptical machine fell on my head. (It was mostly my fault, and I'm okay.) I also chipped a tooth, which amazingly I was able to get fixed the next morning because someone cancelled their 8AM appointment with my dentist and I called them at 8:08. (That, friends, is good tooth-karma). I've had two different people tell me they're "unimpressed with my vacationing skills" thus far, but no, this is how good I am at vacation: such things are not nearly enough to ruin it. I vacation onward. :-)

I'm writing to share my favorite "be present in the current moment" trick, and that is: pay attention to gravity. Somewhere, right now, it's pressing you into whatever is supporting you. What's pressing? How strongly? Where? Does it feel good or bad? Other parts of your body are pressing down into, or dangling from, those supporting points or areas. How do the lines of force run? Are your shoulders and hands being held up by the body's structural systems, or by muscular tension -- or are they the supporting system, in which case how are you reading my blog while doing yoga?

This trick is not as widely known as taking a few deep breaths, and it wouldn't work well in orbit, but in general it works just as well for me, and can sometimes be faster. For advanced enjoyment, try swings, trapezes, balance boards, handstands or subway surfing.

What are your tricks?

Dear body, thank you for holding up

I love how, when I'm not sure I feel like going to yoga and almost skip it, those often turn into the best classes of all. I also sort of love coming out of class, and there's a crowd of people I don't know waiting to go into the basics class, and I remember being one of them and watching "the advanced people" come out of the early class. :)

I don't love how my eye is now prompting everyone to say "Oh my god, what happened to your face??" It's a lot more visible today than yesterday for some reason, but hurts less. Things I have done with l'oiel noir:

• Going to work (no, my husband didn't hit me)
• Requested a large wire transfer at the bank (no, I was not beat up and coerced)
• Introduced the author of xkcd for a talk at Zillian (ladies and gents, I'm just pretending you can't see this)
• Gone to yoga (um, I don't think I can do headstand, but handstand's okay!)

Anyway, props to my body for not falling apart through all this crap. I know I haven't talked about it much, but I have my splits back (on Sundays) and my wide-legged forward bending is better than ever. I would totally understand if it had stiffened up over the last few months, or flat-out rebelled somehow, but it hasn't.