Hear me roar

[clevermanka]

Today's Tumblr collection is Tuesday, March 3: Ravens & Crows.

I finished typing up (and formatting and linking) all the yoga stuff. For those of you who were interested to see the sort of series of postures I use for home practice, here you go. I use Sanskrit names for poses almost all the time. I know most of them, but even the ones I don't, I look up and use those names. I think it's important to remember and respect the culture that gave us yoga and not westernize it too much. Just a small (and, for me, easy) way to avoid another cultural appropriation trap. I also link to a page that discusses the pose. I use Yoga Journal when I can, both for consistency and because I like their format. I use their suggested series often, just didn't last week. But I'll often just link to those and mention how I modified poses for myself when necessary rather than do individual links. Last week my body knew what poses it needed and I went with it.

Last night I dreamed about my job and...stuff going on in my job right now. I don't normally ascribe meaning to dreams (IMO, they're just brain vomit), but this one was pretty blatantly pointed. On campus there was a guy that took care of a lion. He'd taken care of it for years (on campus) and everyone knew not to bother the lion, who roamed around freely, but always in the company of this dude. I was in Strong Hall (the KU administrative building), leading a student around and I noticed the guy was gone and the lion was looking mangy and unhealthy and just really sad. I found out that the guy had died and the lion had nobody to take care of him. I approached the lion to see if it would accept me, and it did! It loved me! It would only take food from my hands and it followed me everywhere, being all lovey and affectionate. But I couldn't walk this student around campus everywhere with a lion in tow, so I had to decide if I was going to take care of the student, or this lion. I opted to care for the lion.

Hm.

I'm pleased that I slept well enough to dream last night. Woke only once (around 12:30) and was able to fall back asleep pretty readily. Today marks a week back on the previous levels of endocrine supplements. Hormones, man.

The new engine for the Chevelle arrives today. Yeah, remember when I said the engine was the only thing in the car that we were keeping? WELP. As mckitterick puts it, he basically bought me a kit car when he bought me the Chevelle. Here's the post where he goes on in detail in the comments about the new vs. old engines if you're interested.

I need to remember this sequence of yoga postures when I resume CrossFit.

Comments

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

Brain vomit... I like that description of dreams. It's a very apt one most of the time too, at least for me.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I love my dreams, don't get me wrong, but I don't place much value in them or feel like they're a means of communicating with my subconscious or anything like that.

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I took an intro psych course once, and our professor told us that dreams are basically our brain's way of entertaining itself when we're asleep because it's bored. I never forgot that.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

That's great! I love it!

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? And it totally makes sense too, because it's active even when we're not. It's like a little kid with ADHD, forced to be quiet in church. It can't quite manage it so it distracts itself any way it can.

[sherwood21.livejournal.com]

THE BIRDS. *explodes into black feathers and glitter*

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

P.s. I know you're not a Gaiman fan, but there's a scene in American Gods where the main character says (approximately) "Hey, Huginn or Muninn, whatever your name is - say Nevermore". And the raven says "Fuck you". I had to put the book down because I laughed so hard I cried.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

OMG.. me too! I'm so happy to hear someone else got that much out of it.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful set of crows & ravens! OMG, tail-pulling for fun. So they're basically 12-year-olds.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[write-out.livejournal.com]

Excellent collection today!

I'm so glad you're sleeping better. Here's to that trend continuing.

Thanks for sharing your yoga!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it!

Alas, woke at 3am today and I'm not sure I ever really fell back asleep. I think I just dozed fitfully until 6am. *sigh*

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

I love the tumblr.

I wish I was better at learning the original terms. I was raised with Mum's "Richard Hittleman" BKS Iyengar that I only think of them as "plough, cobra.." etc. But you are so right, honoring the origin is important. I will try harder. And that just reminded me of her explaining the poses where the thyroid is stimulated, and how she would talk about how important a gland it is to our entire body. Hmm. Must remember more poses with that.
Thank you.

I love that dream..(thankfully it wasn't a Wildcat, haha!)
I think of dreams in the same way, although at times, I do think that our subconscious is sort of saying "Hey! Dumbass! Do you not see this?!" And then I laugh about it.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky that my first teacher, Gopi, always repeated the Sanskrit names to us as we moved through our lesson. She would say it probably three or four times while we were in the pose. It helped a lot. I've thought about making myself flash cards for the more common ones that I still don't know.

For thyroid stimulation, nothing beats Salamba Sarvangasana (http://www.yogajournal.com/pose/supported-shoulderstand/). But if your body isn't up to that, here's some other options (http://www.yogawiz.com/health-issues-and-yoga/yoga-for-thyroid.html#continued). Edit: You know, looking at that list, I think I'm going to build a sequence around those for tomorrow's yoga session.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

YES! That's exactly what Mum used to say for that pose,

and also what we call the Plough.. the exact photo at the top of your second link. I'm too lazy to try and find the proper name. eep. She'd go from Cobra to Cat/Cow and then roll over to do the Plough. She studied Richard Hittleman, who was Britain's guru on the telly, and he was a protege of Iyengar. I think we seem to like the same forms of yoga.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

It's a GOOD YOGA. <3