Its not a dingle dangle after all.

The best thing about our inversion class on Thursday night is that we are a very small group. Last night there were only 5 of us plus Sue, and my new friend and fellow teacher trainee Jyoti was there for the first time. She had been really intimidated to come as inversions are not her thing, but with our inversion weekend up next and Sue being her mentor, she decided to give it a go. I remember MY first time at the class, walking in and Sue saying, "Can you do a headstand?" and me being all "Yes, I mean, I guess, right?" and going up in to the old tripod headstand of gymnastics like 30 years ago (30 years? Eff). When she and the others then went on to show me the correct way to do headstands and all of the arm variations, I was properly mind blown. A whole new world of toys to play with!

Anyway. The fun of the class is that no one takes themselves too seriously. We always joke that if we ever had to participate in the yoga inversion Olympics we would have to enter as a team, as amongst the regulars there are some who are great at one thing, and others who can't do that to save their life (or me that's Firefly. My wrists hit compression and unless I do it with fists, it simply won't ever happen), but other poses come easily to them. Its really fascinating how it works and what certain bodies can do. and lest anyone think that its all about just being strong, or being lithe, or being.....anything....probably one of the strongest practices is that of a 71 year old man who has been taking the class for 3 years. You just can't generalize, and if you work it you will get it. The camaraderie means that we are constantly swapping ideas and learning not just from Sue, but from one another as well. Just last night I got a tip that made Donkey kicks (kicking up into a handstand with two legs at once instead of one like normal) much easier.

The other fun of class is that Sue doesn't use the real names of anything. The above pose, for instance, has been called "the dingle dangle" since I started. Why? Because that's exactly what you do. In this case you bring your right knee up over your right shoulder, hook your left foot over your right, drop your hands down to the mat, push yourself UP and then OVER to the front......essentially hanging there (with strength and balance of course)....and with a little bit of sway you are simply there dangling....like a dingle dangle.  These  are all of the hand positions that we utilize in headstand, but we call them fancy things like "twinkle fingers" (#5) and "Crucifixion arms" (#8). Again, we aren't a reverent bunch, but man are some of the people in class good. When I first started this class 4 (isn?) months ago the dingle dangle....known to more serious yogi's as Astavakrasana (or Eight Angle Pose) was something that I was sure that I was never going to do. My hips have always, always been my tightest area. My arms aren't long in proportion to my body (making any arm only balance easier), and while I can push back through my wrists, or be up OVER my wrists well, I cant have my forearms ahead of my wrists, physically. So, it just didn't bode well for me as far as getting into this pose.

This one? No problem at all (though I generally keep my mouth closed). I move fine in flexion and extension. Sitting cross legged? Or anything involving externally rotating my hips? HATE IT. Its downright painful to me and I avoid it without a bolster or blanket under my hips if I'm going to be there for more than 5 minutes or so. (Not do yogic, eh? That whole sitting in lotus for hours meditating? You wont find me doing it unless I'm doing it like this.

I'm so off track here. My point was that the body is funny. One would think that since I broke my right hip, my right hip would be the one with more tightness. However, its my left that presents with far less range of motion. So as I've been inching into this pose over the last few weeks, its on the right, half metal, side. This is normal, as my non injured hip was the one tightening, compensating, being limped into for all of a year while my right healed.  My other point was that I've never worked so pointedly at something in yoga as I have on inversions over the course of the past 4 months. I've always just been generally practicing, and seeking to better my practice, asking a question or getting a tip here or there and going on my way. I've rediscovered that beginners joy at leaning new things through this class. That "ah-ha"!!! moment where something that previously seemed completely physically impossible happens, and you realize that it wasn't about strength, it wasn't about force, it was simply about balance and release....about allowing your body to be in the right spot at the right time with the belief and faith that something might be different this time. Thats it. I mean, I know you could probably find anything analogous with life, right? Like, if you were really really into dog walking I bet you could do it every day and find great truths or ways that dog walking was a parallel to life. But (because I'm again in that heady rush of new love infatuation with yoga at the moment even we have been in a 20 year relationship), I'm seeing parallels between yoga and life everywhere I turn. You have to show up, and you have to have faith, because even when it seems unlikely, today could be the day. Today could be the day things change, and if you aren't there, if you aren't open to it, you miss it. And then you never get to dingle dangle, after all.