Squeeeeeeeeeze

Tuesdays with Domenic Savino at Yoga Vida have become my “Therapy Tuesdays.” And OMG…love.

Every Tuesday I frolic down to Broadway and Bond and lay out my deep purple Jade Yoga mat and breathe deeply in anticipation for class.

Domenic has a way with words. In each of his classes, he embraces love and encouragement. His light shines so bright that you suddenly find yourself mixing your sweat with tears as your heart gives in and opens up freely. Its exhilarating.

When you practice yoga freely, and are able to let everything else go, you’re body has this amazing ability to go so much further into a pose. And the thing I love most about having a “schedule” with my yoga teachers is that they get to know me, the things that I’m working on in my practice, and exactly how to push me in the right direction.

Tonight’s practice was AMAZING. My intention was to remain in the room (I’m trying to work on ‘living in the now’) and everything was working right. And, since we play every Tuesday, Domenic knows I have been struggling with my forearm stand lately and somehow manages to always work one into his routine (seriously, love him!).

Tonight he tried something new. He stood on my hands to help ground them on the floor then, as I got my feet up, he had me separate my legs and put his fist between my thighs and told me to squeeeeeeeze (ignore all sexual connotations here, its too easy). Suddenly, as I activated every muscle in my body (totally causing a cramp in my right calf mind you), I realized I was holding myself up! Straight and everything!

Geek out.

Granted, not sure how long that would have lasted without his fist there, but for once no one was holding my feet straight. For as long as I’ve been working on this, this is the closest I’ve come to holding an actual forearm stand for more than 1.5 seconds on my own.

As a sidenote, this is even more exciting given that less than a year ago I had to spend a month in PT working on my shoulder after I dislocated it. I <3  progress.