Ages!

[ElDee]

As usual its been ages since I've posted! I don't know why I thought I would be any different about communication in this aspect of my life than I have been in any other. I came late in life (relatively, late teens) to the telephone and since then I've never really become attached to communication without a person physically in front of me. And thats not been helped by working in an area where my need to socialize is just about used up by the end of the work week and all I want to do is read and spend time alone. This doesn't mean that I don't think about those that mean something to me that are not physically with me...in fact I think about them all the time but I just find it difficult to skip past the small talk without body language to guide me so I don't tend to bother at all. It's ridiculous really as I love to read other peoples blogs and their lives via books etc. Maybe its just laziness on my part?
So where am I in my practice to get straight through the small talk;) It's been great generally and I suppose thats all you can ask. Maybe once every couple of weeks I'll have an off day where I have to plow through and afterwards I'm annoyed and disappointed with myself and feel like I can't go on but most days it really is the best part of my day.
I'm doing full primary more often than not now and finding it energizing. The sun salutations that I once dreaded are now cherished and I sometimes do 6 or more sun B's as I love the heat generated and the increased comfort in my hips that they give in the later asana........if the me of even 6 months ago could see that she would be very impressed! I'm still in the honeymoon period where every few weeks there is a landmark and I recognize that this will not go on forever but I'll take it for now!:) In the last few weeks I'm binding supta kurmasana, lifting up, and with some small toe-tips to the ground, transitioning to bakasana and jumping back(badly! but I'm doing it!) from there. I'm a home practitioner so this for me is huge! Perhaps if I was practicing in a mysore environment this would have been happening months ago but this feels big for me so i'll take it!
Physically I'm seeing a lot of changes in my body. I'm no whippet thin Astangi but I definitely see some definition in my arms and a solidness in my abdomen and hips. In fact I probably just look normal....since recovering from an eating disorder in my early twenties that ate all my muscle I've always been very soft, even when my BMI has still been normal. Or maybe there have been no major physical changes and my perspective has changed. I like my body now. I know its strong and can do so much. And that, without ever being able to stand up from UD, is enough! But it would be nice someday!;D
Love to all of you
xoxo

[Chris]

I'm glad that you are liking your practice. It's inspiring just to read all of the good it is doing you! Did you learn Ashtanga at home? If so, how did you do it? I want to try it out, but I'll need to learn from DVDs or something because I haven't found a teacher nearby.

I could relate to your communication comments. My kids and some of my friends are twittering and texting and IM-ing and facebooking and talking on the phone all the time -- usually doing all of it at the same time. I don't really get that ... I generally just want to talk to one person face-to-face. Come to think of it, though, my mom would probably enjoy a call or email ... maybe I should try a little harder.