Crow pose

Down with call week. I am SO GLAD Bishop is in his specialty because I don't think I could manage something with more call. It's been a rough one, despite my attempts at outings for my sweet little crazies. I even had to make a pact with myself that I would go an entire day without yelling at either of them (baby B doesn't provoke my inner yelling monster...yet...) and I actually made it. Then I made it a second. Then today hit and I felt desperately close to critical mass. Due to a series of unfortunate events I missed my yoga class this morning - usually I'm good with yoga at the gym or at home, doesn't matter, but today I really could have used the 90 minute child care - so I meticulously tried to arrange for all three kids to nap at once. I even coaxed S into a snooze by snuggling him on the couch and we set a timer. When that 15 minutes was up, I had a lovely power nap and S was sound asleep...it was my golden opportunity.

Let's talk yoga. I really love yoga. Strength, endurance and flexibility all wrapped into one glorious exercise discipline. I like it for up to 60 minutes usually, though on rare occasion I can deal with breaking the hour threshold (one of my favorite prenatal yoga dvd's is 75 minutes, and P90X's yoga is 90 minutes; both well worth the time). Most of the time I can squeeze in a 20-30 minute session from yogadownload.com, but today I needed the hour. Since I've been doing P90X2 all week I went with it and popped that one in. Seriously, if you don't buy into all the homeopathic claims of yoga I highly recommend Tony Horton's yoga DVD's. He doesn't go into anything like that and keeps it very athletic. Personally, I like to believe that doing a headstand is going to improve my complexion and plow will improve digestion, but hey, to each their own.

ANYWAY, Tony loves crow pose; it made the cut for both P90X and P90X2. I started to like it a lot more recently because I can actually hold it for the entire minute. Last week, though, I learned again why it is good to not rely completely on DVD's because at yoga class the instructor did a very detailed crow pose and made a minor, but dramatic, alteration on mine. I needed to look forward. Usually I'm so concentrated on holding my core in, keeping my hips flexed, etc. that I'm staring at the floor right beneath me. As soon as she helped direct my gaze ahead, everything felt so balanced, and I didn't have to struggle as much to hold a pose my body could easily handle.

Today during my DVD I applied this new tip with the same result. It was awesome. Now I just need to figure out how to extend one leg back for the handstand part...but that's for another day.

So, as I sit here having broken my non-yelling pact because of a rather vigorous bedtime routine with S&E on my own and, quite frankly, feeling sorry for myself that I have to endure call week, my thoughts turn back to the crow pose. I think I tend to wallow in the moment too much - like the U2 song, I find myself 'stuck in a moment that I can't get out of.' Perhaps if I just set my sights further ahead I'll find greater balance, and S's whines that his mosquito bites are itchy won't exasperate me so because I'd be able to see that he's learning about how much he is loved from me. It probably wouldn't have killed me to apply calamine lotion...again...for the fifth time. And maybe I'd remember that I'm not the one actually doing the call WORK - it's Bishop who's had to answer the middle of the night pages and stay late until every patient has finished their treatments for the day (and then come home and exercise on an empty stomach because of our 8-week challenge and his determination to have perfect points...no eating after 9, and you must exercise 45 minutes).

Maybe I'm trying too hard to struggle in a pose. Relax, look forward and perhaps get a better perspective.

I love yoga.

Off to go clean up today's shrapnel.

(Amazingly enough, yoga was the ONLY exercise I did today. Usually I feel compelled to flank yoga with something else, but today I just let it be enough.)

Crow Pose:

(this is not me :)