Well another forced yoga break for me. Haven’t practiced physically for over a week, but I have been meditating more, doing some simple pranayama exercises, appreciating life and coming to terms with how close I came to death.

“I came off a scooter”, that’s what I’ve been telling people who ask what I did to myself that warranted a body full of scrapes, scratches, bruises and dressings. I missed a corner because I was too inexperienced on a two wheeled motorised vehicle, ran off the road onto gravel then hit a pole (one of those thigh high poles with a reflector on them), flew over than handle bars and landed on my jaw/face/forearms/front torso.

Long story short… I’m one of the lucky ones that came out of this type of accident with only scrapes, scratches and bruises. No broken bones, no spinal injuries, just superficial stuff.

I thought I was ready to share my experience, but I guess I’m not quite there yet. Still coming to terms with what happened to me. I’ve been so focused on getting better physically I’m not sure I’ve fully attended to my mental well-being from this experience.

One thing I will share is how lucky I feel now, in hindsight.

I’ll never forget the care and compassion that everyone gave me in my time of need. The nurses, the doctor, the radiologist, the cops, the paramedics, the kind people who stopped to offer assistance, everyone who offered well wishes and most of all, M. I love you dearly.

The days between posts seem to be getting more and more, but at least I got my lazy butt onto the mat an incredible four times this week. Yes, FOUR times… woohoo for me (ok, so I realise it’s not quite a 5-6 days a week practice, but I’m making my way there again).

So a quick breakdown… Strength has taken more than a couple of steps back. Stamina seems to have left me completely. Flexibility has already returned for the most part. Bandhas are intermittent. Breath is surprisingly all there. Drishti is in and out. Concentration has improved.

Out of the four practices this week, I only had one full practice. I was dreading the full practice because I didn’t want to find out how much I lost in kurmasana, supta k and garba p. Turned out I didn’t lose so much in any of them, and surprisingly, no bruises post-garba-p.

I do feel as though I’ve lost some of the passion I had for yoga. I don’t feel the “itch” to hop on the mat like I use to. I’m still glad I practice, and I’m encouraged with my progress with increasing the number of practices again. I’m considering taking classes again, morning classes (yikes), but this probably won’t happen for another month or so.

In more personal news, which I don’t often share online, I’m off on my annual holiday to my favourite country town, Margaret River. No ashtanga classes there, but I’ll bring my mat just in case the yoga-bug bites.

I’m glad I don’t make new year’s resolutions because I seriously suck at keeping any. I said I wanted to do more yoga practice in 2007 and it took me a whole week to get to my first yoga practice for 2007.

It’s now been probably close to a month since I did any proper practice. Naughty naughty, but then again, who’s going to sue me?

So practice wise, it was only half primary up to and including navasana with vinyasas between poses and not between sides. I took all forward bends at about 60% of what I can do. Everything I did today was just to ease myself back into a regular practice. I didn’t want to over-do anything, mostly my hamstrings, but also my strength and stamina.

Actually, I think I over-did the strength aspect because my muscles are shaking a little as I type.

Haven’t really lost anything, can still jump back with a touch-down and can still jump through but with a small amount of feet dragging. All 5 navasanas were there but the final lift and vinyasa was non-existent.

Injury-wise, both the back and left hip thing seems to be almost back to normal. The back started to tweak a little (or maybe it was my imagination) towards the end in backbends but otherwise it was a very pain-free practice.

I don’t even want to think about attemptin kurmasana, supta k or garba p right now. I’m happy just getting reaquainted with bandhas and breath.

Wow it’s been ages since I blogged. It’s also been ages since I’ve done any yoga.

The last part of 2006 has been a rollercoaster. A stack of personal problems that lead to fewer and fewer yoga practices until there has been virtually none. All I can say for now is that things are better, so I’m looking forward to re-dedicating myself to Ashtanga in 2007.

I’ve definitely lost some flexibility, particularly in my hamstrings, which have always been my “weak” point. Strength and stamina would also be less than before, so the first few practices are going to be more a practice in mindfulness and respecting my limits more than anything else.

In other news, I had a quiet new year’s eve, which was a change and ended up being the best new year’s eve I’ve had in ages. Great company, great conversation, great food and I was in bed at the *reasonable* hour of 1 am.

Hopefully I’ll have some practice news in my next entry.