Well I’ve experienced another Bikram first: I have officially taken a class that afterwards I regretted going to. I can honestly say that I’ve never regretted attending a class, despite the pain, suffering, exhaustion, etc. that I suffered…until today.
See, I had a headache today. I’m prone to them. And it’s not one of those headaches that you can take some painkillers for, take a nap and go to sleep- it’s a gnarly, hormone induced headache that tends to occur around the same time each month. And there’s really nothing I can do for them.
I got home from work today and the headache was mild- maybe a 3 on a scale of 1-10. I figured a session might help, seeing as how exercise tends to relieve pain and endorphins are always good to have floating around. So I went to yoga. But as I was laying in Savasana before class began and listened to the chipper conversations of those around me, I grew increasingly annoyed and agitated and my head started to hurt more. Not wanting to look like a pansy though, I chose to stay in the class. Horrible mistake.
The thing about these particular headaches is that they’re exacerbated by frequent moving of the head. You’d think I would have remembered this before class started. No dice. Every single pose hurt. The back bends were excruciating and every time I bent my head below my chest I felt like I was going to have an aneurysm.
By the time we reached the floor I thought I was going to die. I didn’t do a single sit-up with the proper amount of power, I didn’t even do the bow pulling pose in the floor series. Camel pose hurt me and I refused to even try Rabbit pose since I still can’t do it right so all the pressure is on my head.
By the time class ended I wanted to gouge my eyes out and scramble my brains around in the hopes that it would alleviate the pain.
I skedaddled to the locker room, changed my clothes, went to my car and just sat there. I was pissed off, not because I had a crappy class, but because I didn’t listen to my body before class started. I should have put my pride aside and walked out of that room and gone right home and gone to bed. But I stayed, I toughed it out, and now my head hurts infinitely more than it would have if I hadn’t pushed it.
As far as resolutions go, my yoga resolution has definitely already failed. i was out sick on Thursday and Friday and Sunday I was slightly hungover. And by slightly I mean it hurt to function. BUT! I have succeeded in my reading endeavor! I finished Into Thin Air last night, a week ahead of schedule! Also, I finished the whole book (330 pages) in a week, which puts to shame the fact that it took me a whole month to read The Great Gatsby (185 pages). Either way, Into Thin Air was excellent, and now I’m on the prowl for my next read!
No Mistakes!
The Life Chats 