Be careful what you wish for folks, seriously. Yesterday I said I needed a crappy session or two to knock my big head down a few pegs, and karma, ever-willing to provide me with life-lessons, happily delivered.
Today was crap and I’m not sure why. I suppose it was a combination of things. I had a crappy lunch around 1:00 (a sandwich, chips and a soda…I didn’t have time to pack a lunch last night), I practiced at 4:30 instead of 6:30, my arches hurt worse than ever, and I just wasn’t feeling it today. I was incredibly hot, chugged water (though I managed to refrain from wiping my face) and I couldn’t make it in a lot of the poses. I did manage once again to kick out in head to knee pose, though I couldn’t hold it for too long. Still, that’s progress and I’m pretty damn proud. I rocked fixed firm pose and I did really well in camel. But literally every single pose gave me trouble. Even the floor series was difficult for me today.
Again, I’m not sure if it’s a combination of the aforementioned things, but a part of me thinks it was my attitude today. I felt fabulous before and after class during the past few classes, but today I just wasn’t feeling it. In fact, I almost fell asleep in Savasana before class started, and I was actually a little irritated when Jeremy came in and started class. And for some reason I knew today was going to be a wash. And it was. I tried, I really did. It was incredible mental challenge today because it took all the mental strength I had to really give it my all in the poses. I haven’t had to push this hard in a long time.
And so it goes with Bikram, and challenges in particular. They’re a roller coaster, and right now I’m chugging up the hill and having to put a hell of a lot more effort in than I did when I was coasting down the descent.
Namaste.
The Life Chats 
It probably WASN’T harder for you. It’s probably that you’re getting used to the easy stuff and the fact that you expect more of yourself, you inadvertently push yourself a little more without realizing that you’re stretching harder and pushing further. This happens in running. There’s times when one feels like crap and it feels really hard only to find out that you’ve been running much harder and faster than you thought. The difficulty in Bikram is that there is no way to measure your effort other than how you feel. The fact that you were there is a success!!!