No Frills Primary

It was good.  First full primary, ie. including all the chatturanga in a while, well since I hurt my shoulder. How I missed chatturanga, I felt so happy, like I'd come back home.  Shoulder is not perfect but the pain has gone.  Practice was basic, no frills, no jump throughs or attempts at jump backs.  I want to ease my shoulder back into things, regain strength no rushing, so I'll shall have a week of pure primary.  Yay!!!

Injuries can be the toughest teacher.  It can be hard to know what to do.  Some react well by practicing through as Grimmley seems to be doing, to stretch it out, others by resting, as mine did.  We all spend hours coming face to face with ourselves on the mat, moving meditation watching the crazy mind, observing breath and noting how this affect the body.  Over the years I've come to know myself a lot better, especially the workings of my tricky ego.  I've become more familiar with the mechanics of the body, through both my own accidents, by watching and helping the people in my classes, obstacles to over come in asana.  I have come to really love anatomy books, to understand the problem is the first step in overcoming it, in all areas.  So when my shoulder started to hurt I noted all the movements that caused pain, checked through all my books, prodded, wiggled and twiggled myself until I thought I'd figured it out.  Then, went to a Dr. to make sure.  He was wonderful, he wiggled and twisted my arm then pulled out books and a model of the shoulder and gave me a lesson on shoulders.  The shoulder is really a very complex joint, so much going on in there. It was fascinating, and one of my theories was right! horay!  Not that it helped to fix it, but at least I knew the exact problem and could therefore avoid aggravating and start to heal it.

So my bike riding through snow with heavy bag over one shoulder, over enthusiatic Dhanaurasana and Supta Vajrasana and the finale of a big snow board crash resulted in the sub-scapularis and supraspinatus becoming sore.  Rest, and avoid anything that causes pain here.  Which I duitifully did, not too happily I'm ashamed to admit, I so missed chatturanga.....and finally it's better, not perfect, but on the way.  Hope everyone out there with injuries is on the mend too.