Boga Yoga

Spring has definitely sprung and rising temperatures have lifted us all off the couch to get outside enjoy the weather. As everyone else laced up their sneakers and dragged the bikes out of the garage, I decided to take my first pass at rollerblading. As soon as the UPS man dropped the box with my new skates, I was ready to tear up the bike path. I had been ice skating for years, so I figured I had to be OK with rollerblades. Truthfully, I was sure I was going to be really good.

The feeling was a little uncomfortable at first. The skates were stiff, my ankles were stiff, and I felt a little like a dragonfly in Frankenstein boots. Sooner or later I got a feel for things, and began to move with confidence and speed. This is great I thought - I could go on forever! I crossed street after street until my partner recommended we turn around, since we probably covered enough ground to have moved into the next city. Type A that I am, I’m quite certain I would have skated clear to Long Island Sound had it not been suggested that I still had to make the return trip to the car. No problem I thought - I’m not tired, I’m doing great!!

Suddenly in the last stretches my feet and ankles started to feel tired, and my mind went immediately to yoga. I no longer felt balanced on top of my skates, and felt my left ankle beginning to turn out. I focused on balance, balancing poses, and trying to center myself on those wheels. I recited “focus, concentration, determination” in my head a thousand times just to push myself further. With only about 200 yds to the car, my left ankle just gave out and sent me for a tumble on the pavement. I bruised my shoulder and left cheekbone, and truly could not imagine how I would get back up on those skates to make it back to the parking lot. I considered walking back in my socks were it not for the sheer embarrassment of having to pass all the other runners and bikers with skates in hand.

I made it back to the car in the skates, and as I laid on the couch with the ice bag on my cheek I thought, I really need to work on my balancing. I should really practice my balancing poses, especially building strength on my left side. I decided I would take to blow drying my hair on alternate legs for minutes at a time, and that should definitely help. Refining my balance was my self-diagnosis to a more successful rollerblading trip, and I returned to yoga class and told my story. I need to work on my balancing, I must be out of balance.

Somewhere in the quiet moments of the days in between, and all the extra balancing exercise, the truth found me. It was not about my balancing, my balance was good. Somewhere on that path I stopped listening to my body. My enthusiasm, my will, and my determination to be good overshadowed my need to listen carefully to how far my body could carry me. Suddenly it was no different than my pulled hamstring in yoga class, and I knew the reason I fell was that I was not properly finding my edges.

Over and over we hear our yoga teachers tell us to listen to our bodies, and do what we can. Finding your edges is a skill and it does not mean forcing them. It means really feeling them, and gradually finding them. Reaching the next level gently.

I have returned twice to the bike path in my rollerblades, and have set my rollerblading “edges” for the time being to three streets up, and three streets back. I still feel a little like a dragonfly in Frankenstein boots, but I remain verticle.