Seeing My Toes

Will I ever see my toes in "Floor Bow"?.......I ask myself this question after 4+ years of practicing Bikram's Yoga.

Of all the 26 postures in Bikram's, I can tell you which ones (postures) I was not genetically born to do. Combine that with starting a yoga practice after the age of 40 and what can a person expect?

Tight hamstrings......that's my first problem, and I take responsiblility for it. Sure, I can take the time to stretch on a regular basis.....stretching and practicing yoga, by the way, are two different things. So, any kind of forward bend is challenging for me....let's start with the first forward "head to knee" posture.....how about "seperate leg, forehead to knee", even a simple seperate leg, forehead to floor.....these three postures are the reason that I decided to train for my level 2 RKC....(again, another blogpost for another time.......)

Here we are, backbends......ahh....backbends....I can figure these out. In fact I find backbends, well, I'm not going to say easy, but easier, because I know if I contract my glutes (swings....) that helps t release my hips and voila....so why was arching back to the point of seeing my toes in floor bow (a backwards bend) so far from reality.....or so I thought.

A few months ago I noticed, from my peripheral vision, one of my yoga instructors (who is naturally flexible, by the way) get into the full expression of this posture, effortlessly.....what was different with her pose than mine? Her neck. The extention and flexiblity of her neck....you can only kick your legs back, and up, so far, and then what? And then your neck, has to have the flexiblilty for your eyes to look behind you to see.....YOUR TOES!

Monday April 5th, 9:15am Bikram yoga class (after a 7:15am "warm up" class, lol) Tracy Reifkind saw her toes, in "Floor Bow", for the very first time!

OMG! I've been hell bent on seeing my damn freakin' toes for a few months now. Now that I had figured out it was the flexibility in my neck that I had to focus on.......and now it paid off! Was that real? Did I really just see my toes? Yep! First my right side toes, and then I looked quickly to my left.....yep, there they were, both sides, two feet.....good Lord, today it seems like a dream....but it did happen!

I flagged down my teacher during savasana and excitedly "mouthed" to her....."I saw my toes! For the first time ever!"(thumbs up)....She announced it to the class...."Tracy just saw her toes for the first time!" And she's been practicing for years.....see! It'll happen".....(it was thrilling to have my fellow practioners, besides me, congratulate me, and a few more of my friends after class, take notice.

Whew....now, if I can ever get my damn forehead to my knee......

Top picture was taken about 4 hours after my Monday mornings yoga practice....obviously whithout heat, and after my Level 2 training with Mark.....but it starts to show the difference from the next picture, taken about 2-3 years ago....see the difference in the neck flexibility and extention? The last picture is of my backward bend......much easier for me to do than forward bends......but as you can see with the rest of the class it's not easy for most.