Bitten By the Downward-Facing Dog
Last spring, I did 100 consecutive days of Bikram Yoga. 90 minutes of sweating, bending, sticking, stinking yoga, every day for a for more than three months straight. I was invincible, toned, and annoyingly vocal about the benefits of Bikram Yoga. Everyone should do it, I proclaimed. (Well, everyone without a heart condition.)
The heat and humidity are brutal, but as far as the postures go, it’s relatively easy. Breathing exercises, standing postures, balancing postures, a few lying on your back, a few lying on your belly, a final twist and Bob’s your uncle. No inversions, no planks, no dogs facing anywhere.
So in 100 days, I got all bendy and strong and self-righteous.
Then I made a crucial error. I took a break. Straw #1.
Also, I started Extreme Gardening again, which I count as exercise, but in fact, a repetitive injury scenario. Straw #2.
In fall, a new, non-hot yoga studio opened, and my husband agreed to accompany me. (He’s convinced hot yoga will kill me, and he’s refused to be there to witness it.) I was all gung-ho to get bendy again and eagerly threw myself into the deep end. After all, I know what I’m doing. This is old hat for me, piffling yoga compared to the truly hard stuff. (Yoga’s not competitive, my eye.)
I forgot about the inversions. Downward-Facing Dog, to be specific. Third and last straw.
Imagine doing a push-up. Got it? Now, hike your butt up into the air, until your body forms an upside-down V. Keep your legs and arms straight, and your head between your elbows. (Hello, Dog? You had me at “push-up.”)
Inversions have been a problem for me before. I did a head-stand (yeah, I DID!) only a few years ago, during an Iyengar class. I had various bands and straps and blocks and braces holding me together, but the fact is, I got up and stayed up.
Then I came down and couldn’t move my neck. No more head-stands for me, said my chiropractor.
Well, this time, I modified my postures but continued doing them. Then, after escalating pain and swelling in my elbow, I attempted to use my curling iron and just like that, I couldn’t bend or straighten my right arm. (I know in the grand scheme of things, this is a minor problem. But try brushing your teeth with your unhandy hand. Try blowing your nose. There are limits to the level of spousal assistance I’m prepared to ask for.)
“Tennis elbow,” said the doctor at the walk-in clinic. “Take drugs and rest it.”
“Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow,” said the massage therapist. “Ice it and rest it.”
“Hm,” said my chiropractor, digging his fingers around my medial and lateral epicondyles (buggered) and triceps tendon (buggered.) “I think the main problem,” he said, pressing the head of the ultrasound machine into the joint, “is olecranon bursitis.” Basically, if it’s in my elbow, it’s buggered.
The warmth and pressure felt good, so good, I let my guard down. “A little adjustment,” he added, just before whacking the joint straight with the heel of his hand. Did I mention that I can’t straighten or bend my arm?
“No more Downward-Facing Dog,” he advised, once the screaming stopped. Also, no more push-ups, no planks, no shoveling snow or washing my car by hand. (Rats.) No golf or tennis. (Darn it all.) No hand-holding, enthusiastic waves, or sudden pointing. (Fortunately, if I’m careful, I can type just fine.)
And as soon as I can, I’m going back to the hot room. Pop-Eye’s Elbow? No thank YOU.
Got Personality? Take the Test!
- At January 24, 2012
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Life, Roxanne Writes On
- 4
What do William Shakespeare, Neil Diamond, Annie Dillard, Tom Brokaw, Lisa Kudrow and Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis have in common? They fall into the same Myers-Briggs personality category as ME! It’s true. We’re all Introverted-iNtuitive-Feeling-Perceiving kinds of people. (Although I have to wonder exactly how they got Will to take the test.)
If you’ve never done this test, or haven’t done it for some time, try this version here. It’s called the Jung Typology test. 72 yes/no questions, it doesn’t take much time, and it’s free.
At the end, you’ll get an assessment of your personality that includes:
- Your type formula according to Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers typology along with the strengths of the preferences.
- The description of your personality type.
- The list of occupations most suitable for your personality type.
These kind of things amaze and fascinate me – which isn’t surprising, given my score. But it’s so consistent! There are always questions in these type of surveys that are easy to answer, such as:
a) Do you prefer to act immediately rather than speculate about various options?…. NO. I want to speculate. For as long as possible. Back and forth. There are many things to consider, you know.
b) Do you prefer meeting in small groups to interaction with lots of people?….. YES. The smaller the better. In fact, do dogs count?
c) Is your desk, workbench etc. usually neat and orderly?…. NO. Have you seen my desk? (Seriously. I know it’s here somewhere.)
Then again, there are always questions that I have to read over several times before I even understand them. And then, I’m not sure which way to answer, possibly because of a) above. Like these:
d) Do you easily perceive various ways in which events could develop?… um, I might perceive a few ways, depending on the situation.
e) When considering a situation, do you pay more attention to the current situation and less to a possible sequence of events?… as in what, can I tell the future? Well duh. Can’t everyone?
f) Do you like to keep a check on how things are progressing?… what things? A watched pot? That line that fills in on the download screen? Do I look for grey hairs? Weigh myself repeatedly? What does this mean??
But here’s the thing. I’m as honest as I can be with the easy ones. And with the others, I try. Then I go back and do it over, several times, changing some of the answers I feel uncertain of. And no matter how I changed things, and how many times I did it, how many combinations and permutations, it always comes out the same. The percentages in each category changed somewhat, but I still landed in the INFP camp. I guess, like Popeye, I yam what I yam. (I wonder what category he’s in?)
Less than 10% of the population falls into the Introverted-iNtuitive categories. (Be kind to us. We’re lonely.)
What category are you?