Sanskrit Scares Me: The Yoga Challenge: Day 15: A Procrastination Christmas

I'm trying really hard not to be a Grinch this year. I usually don't like the holidays all that much--the crowds of sick people, the stress, the pressure, the expense--much to the chagrin of my husband, I'm more likely to dismiss it all with a "Bah humbug!" and wish we were skipping Christmas.

The beginning of "Four Christmases" before their flight is cancelled was my fantasy.

But not this year. Now, I have a kid and it's his first Christmas. Sure, he's only 10 months old and he'll probably be more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents but I'm still excited. I love that we get to celebrate with him and I'm even more excited that he's not in the hospital.

But that being said, there's still so much that isn't done. We have a tree but it's not decorated and we bought presents for our son but they're not wrapped. So what's my solution?

Do yoga!

I started with a couple of my usual A series warm ups. After that, I didn't have much of a game plan. I did a bunch of downward facing dog and I managed to do three-legged dog without my glutes cramping so I'm considering that a win.

I noticed an improvement when I decided to try and move from pigeon pose into king pigeon pose. I was able to pick up my back leg so it was perpendicular to the floor. My thigh muscles panicked a little so in addition to my Edelman shoulder, I apparently have an Edelman thigh.

For those of you who don't spend all their time following fantasy football,
Edelman hurt his thigh this season and apparently got a concussion
OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE DURING FANTASY PLAYOFFS.

I had a couple other wins and losses during my practice tonight. I decided my head hadn't taken enough damage when I fell over in crow yesterday and tried it again. However, I wasn't able to get my balance back and today I just wasn't able to get back up into it. My Edelman shoulder was also giving me some discomfort so I decided not to push too hard.

Tonight I also wanted to try lifted lotus. I've never been able to do this one before because my arms always seemed too short.

But tonight I thought, "Hey, why not?" and for a moment, I actually got my feet off the ground.

Do you like how I said I didn't want to aggravate my shoulder
and then I went and did another arm balance?
Me = Masochist

It was really only a moment but it's more than I've ever been able to do so that gives me hope that as I get stronger, I'll be able to do more.

I was also able to get back up into wheel and I held it for a few breaths but again, my shoulder started complaining so I had to quit. If a body part hurts, I really need to stop pushing it.

Is that how your concussion happened?!
I WANT ANSWERS!!!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my practice tonight. I didn't do any standing poses and I probably should have but I'm pleased with the work I did. I feel like my flexibility is increasing every day and it's happening at a much faster rate than I expected. I figured it'd be ages before I could even touch my toes let alone comfortably do some of these other poses.