Long term spiral.

Day 26:  I really tried to ask myself if I was needing a break or creating the need for a break and was able to keep it real, I think.  I was able to keep working on the breathing technique of doing my three counts in and backwards from four out during some tough posses.  I think I did the best standing bow in my life with the help of that little technique.  I fellow yoga mate actually stopped and gave me cudoes for doing that pose so well this time  Really made me feel good.   

Only four days left.  What will it really mean to hit 30.  I know I am going to continue practicing and working hard.  However I guess I have proved to myself that my options and posibilites are quite large. I can push my body way farther than expected.  I have also proven to myself that my body can heal itself and reverse the terrible down hill slide I felt I was on.  The body is really an amazing thing.  

So a few days ago a friend of mine lent me two really cool books.  They are yoga guides that show the human form as a skeleton with muscles showing.  The muscles are differnet colors, various shades of blue for contracting and blink for stretching.  The various yoga poses are discussed with details of how the muscles work in each pose and the tips to optimize the benefits.  Totally cool.  

I can only look up a couple poses at a time and then try to apply little fixes to the poses when I do them next.  So I was working on downward dog.  Really making my shoulders and elbows stretch as well as the legs and back.  This helped me get my legs up higher on the flows.  

I can feel that this is a long term study.  It is not like an exam where you can memorize things. You have to build the memory in your muscles and the only way to do that is through repitition.  And each time you can do more, you need to teach yourself to do more and more.  Interesting sort of spiral of learning and adjusting.     Maybe the 30 days are just the tip of the iceburg and I needed to learn that althought I have accomplished a lot, it is just a start on a long journey.  While I do not have to go everyday in order to progress, I will need to keep going frequently to work on that spiral.  Stopping almost seems scary at this point.