Partially due to exhaustion and partially due to schedule-based necessity, I did a small restorative practice today: svasana, cat/cow, brief downdog, pigeon, child's pose, (yin-style) butterfly, svasana. I forget the immense energizing value of a restorative practice when you are tired. How could I when Josh Summers, my Yin teacher training teacher, said that an indication of your energy levels and the appropriate activity is determined when you are tired by how you feel after a yang or yin class: meaning if you are MORE tired after a yang class then you were truly tired, if you were MORE tired after a yin class then you had stagnated energy that needed to be moved around, like in a yang class. The reverse is also true. I wouldn't go so far as to say I am brimming with fresh energy, but I don't feel like I could just drop at any second. I will definitely sleep fantastically tonight!
As I write this, I am thinking about how all my posts to date have had some sort of reflective theme to them. To be honest, I am running dry tonight. Maybe it is just the exhaustion, or it is just not being in as reflective of a mood. The only thing I want to accomplish with this blog as I move through my days is honesty. I admit there was a part of me that tried to find a way to twist my activities on Thursday in such a way that could be argued as yoga, and I guess I did that while talking about being present with my day and current company. But in my heart, though I know yoga is only one-eighth asana, I knew that when I made this commitment I was committing to 365 days of asana. I have already committed my entire life to the practice of the whole of yoga - at least as much as I can manage in this lifetime!
Wishing you happinEss and metta from a little dot in the universe called Boston,
Heather
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Glad that you're back on track! A quick note though, I have a little different take on the Yin/Yang deficient/stagnant qi thing.
ReplyDeleteI often find that Yin practice is great at unblocking stagnation so if you're more tired after Yin then you're deficient of Qi and should rest. But I often find Yin to be MORE energizing than Yang because it doesn't deplete Qi but will surely remove some blocks. And of course we both know that if you already have a good store of energy there's no better way to get it moving than a Yang practice, but I also think that it can generate some - like the internal fire as they say in Ashtanga. But if there's no Qi to start with then you should just rest, like me last night!
Of course what you said in the blog is completely accurate, I just find that there's so many levels to the whole thing to discuss and I'm just throwing my thoughts out there.