I’d stopped doing Ashtanga months ago, because my back was hurting; but then I recently started trying to do it again. As I think I mentioned. At first it was hard, it was like I’d never done the practice before. Then it got a little easier, but even when I got more comfortable with it, my body had forgotten how to do jump-throughs.
Frustrating! It had taken me years to learn jump-throughs! They’re such an essential part of Ashtanga.
Oh well. I did the rest of the poses, and thought about how I’d teach myself how to do them again.
This morning I was doing the practice, and had decided not to even try jumping through. I was thinking about something else entirely–nervous about real estate, I think–when I suddenly noticed I was sitting on the floor, my feet out in front of me. Oh, I realized. I just jumped through.
My body had remembered. I just had to stop focusing on it.
Of course the next ten times I tried, I couldn’t do it. I was thinking about it again–overthinking it. But that little breakthrough was enough, that little somatic memory, because eventually I found my way back in, and by the end of the practice, I was jumping through as if I’d never stopped.
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It was a day of other accomplishments too. I broke up a lot of butterfly bush and filled the yard waste bin; then pruned the second bush as much as I could. There are a few branches I can’t reach. I just need to be a couple of inches taller…or, hmm, have someone a couple of inches taller visit me in a few days. 🙂 Yeah, that’s what I’ll do, as well as, I got a home maintenance checklist to know all the work I have to do at home.
And lots of stuff in the house; and freelance work, aquarium maintenance; and real estate homework; and even some all-important lying-on-the-couch-and-reading. A good Sunday.