Battening down the hatches in November

This is a video I took showing my vertical form entering/exiting a handstand while practicing at my yoga studio on Thursday afternoon. I am feeling much more in control going in and out of the posture and my body is now feeling in pretty good form,  just need to keep practicing! I’ve been noticing that I have on and off days. Also I generally stay up longer after an hour of yoga practice, I think because my muscles are fully warmed up and primed. Morning tends to be easier than night, it is increasingly difficult when I am sluggish at the end of the day, particularly after dinner. Another thing to note: my balance is considerably affected if I am not wearing my prescription contacts. I guess my inner ear relies on visual cues to micro balance..

While I was floatin’ around researching on the web this morning, I came across this handstand poem that amused me. Thought this seemed like an appropriate forum to share. 🙂

The Handstand

I still do them sometimes,
because I can,
or maybe I just like
staring at the world
upside down.And to others,
I probably seem
as though I’m in perfect balance,
motionless…

but in reality
those relaxed moments are fleeting,
and what appears as balance,
as stasis, is really
the continual overcoming of
vibrations, twitches and wobbles,
with small adjustments
to keep myself from falling.

We do the same
while standing,
waiting for the train,
or while hanging on
to whatever purpose
gets us across the tightrope
of each day.

If you seek perfect balance,
look away from the living,
to the void,
the merely conceptual.

Life is a surfer teetering
on a breaker’s crest,
a wriggling, writhing thing
poorly contained
by neat little linguistic cages,

and balance an illusion,
a magic trick,
like hiding wrinkles with makeup,
or misery behind a smile,
or living an ordinary life
until you die,

always with a persistent feeling
of not quite.

– Brian Rihlmann

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