"Surely," said I, "Surely that is something at my window lattice..."

[flexagon]

* I've spent a good portion of the weekend memorizing The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. I'm very, very close now to having the whole thing. I am very excited about this. :)

* I had a flexibility dream last night in which I was able to bring my foot to my head in king pigeon pose, on both sides, using a wall to help me. It was so realistic, and it felt so good! I woke up and I still so can't do that! Motherfucker!!!

* I'm reading Life-Size, a book about an anorexic woman that I bought (despite its triggering nature) because it's so well-written. In some ways, it's written in the way that I would like to write, that the writer I would like to be might write. I'm fascinated by the switches it makes between scenes of immediacy and detail, and descriptions that cover more time. I think now that dialogue doesn't scare me as much, the passage of time in stories is the thing I have the most trouble negotiating gracefully in my own writing.

* I seem unable to fall nicely from a handstand to a bridge, even a shallow elbows-bent bridge. Ow... head hurts. Next time I want to know if I can or can't do something acrobatic, I will not do so on a hardwood floor when I am alone in the house. And if I do, then after I fall on my head the first time I will not try again.

* There is a large stampede afoot in which people are apparently trying to get away from me. All right, I know that isn't true, but... of my four in-town female friends, one has plans to move, another is 7 months pregnant and about to have no time for friends, and one is thinking seriously about moving; another less close one, who worked in my building and went to yoga at my studio, has stopped going to that studio and dropped to working 1 day a week (and her company is moving to Kendall Square in August). That leaves B, whose job as a teacher is nearly all-consuming, and my male friends, of whom I have 2-3 pretty good ones (and aykroyd's recent attempts to move to LA were recently thwarted. ha). So that's my awesome social sitch... and if you tease me about having an abandonment complex I will reach right through the Internet and pinch your nose, hard! I don't really worry about it anymore when people leave, because they do have an uncanny way of coming back through, but, sheesh. Nobody gets into my IRL social circle from now on unless they love Boston.

I'm going to go study The Raven some more.

Comments

[nevers.livejournal.com]

i'm surprised you can't get your foot to your head -- your back seems pretty similar to mine, and i can (although it's highly uncomfy). you must be close.

i never read life-size, surprisingly, considering the ED-book kick i went on several years ago.
passage of time feels so difficult to figure out and pace properly when writing. i hear ya.

i also hear ya on the falling into a bridge -- i have hurt myself many a time. it's taken me a few months but now it's actually getting to feel pretty intuitive and natural! my first piece of advice is to do it on a yoga mat (if you weren't already) so that once your feet land, they can't slide away. the second tip is something i only figured out a week ago or two ago that makes a huge difference. that is: the less of your body that falls, the easier it is to catch yourself. therefore you want to think of keeping your head and shoulders where they were in the handstand, rather than letting them move in the same direction your feet are going. if your head and shoulders can stay (close to) put, then only your lower body is falling, rather than the whole thing. in fact, as you begin to fall into the bridge, think of pushing your shoulders away from your fingertips, even farther past the heels of your hands than they were in the handstand, if possible. it makes the bridge landing sooo much lighter.

also play around with different ways to get into it -- handstand to bridge with legs together, or with one leg at a time, or split handstand and then as you start to tilt over bend the back leg and land with it first, then the next leg.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

p.s., because i'm verbose this morning:
the way i started to think about it was what if you could lower into a bridge controlled the whole way down (which IS possible)? you would need to counterbalance your legs going back with your shoulders going forward past your hands, like here (http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/flexiprincess/d863d423.jpg). so at least pretend that you're going to do that, even if you don't really have the strength and shoulder flexibility for it yet.

[flexagon]

What I think I really need is a planet with lighter gravity to play on. I could get the whole handstand-to-bridge thing there and then I could practice it back here. It would help! I know it would! But without access to that... thanks a ton, your tips sound REALLY helpful. I will try to do what you say, next time I try this, which will probably be in the yoga studio with someone to spot me.

As for foot to head in pigeon, I might be close if I could try practicing it with a strap. I can touch feet to head (both feet at once) but only starting from a camel pose so that I have gravity to assist me and also the floor to push against. Our backs may be similar but your hips are way more open than mine. If my legs would only be happier pointing back from my body, I'd have my splits for sure, as well as probably this foot-to-head thing. Sigh... must keep working.

Life-Size got worse instead of better as it went on, in my opinion, which is not to say it wasn't good. I'm still pretty fascinated by anorexics... though not very tempted by anorexia itself anymore. I get too hungry.