FIRST TIME FOR DROPPING BACK WITHOUT LIFTING HEELS!!

I did it once by myself, and then I managed it again during assisted dropbacks, which is more difficult than it sounds.

This is major for me, and owes itself to workng with straightening my legs in Urdhva D (thanks Vanessa-not-my-sister) and to stretching the hell out of my really-really-short psoas (thanks Tova). And maybe Laksmi is working with her Yoga Chickie Barbie. I don't know. Could be that too.

Practice is TOUGH now. I am working hard on grounding. Grounding my feet, grounding my hands. You would think that gravity would be helpful. Yet everything about me wants to fly up, up, up. My heels don't want to stick to the floor when they should. My hands don't want to stick to the floor when they should. Every updog is it's own asana, as far as I am concerned. I am working every single one of them. By the end of my Primary Plus Two sequence, I am feeling no pain in my psoas or lower back.

People talk about how tight hamstrings bring about lower back pain. Well, I'm here to tell you that tight front-hips will make the lower back pinch as well. If the lower back wants to flex into an arch, and the front hips act like a brick wall, then the lower back is going to hurt as it slams into that brick wall. I'm trying to soften the blow. It's working. But it's hard work. Am I up to the task? I don't know. I guess so. But I don't know. I was getting used to a nice, relaxing practice that didn't require me to push myself too hard in anything. Of course, I was ignoring backbends. Denying their existence. Not caring that my updogs were not much more bendy than a really bad caturanga.

Anyway, it's hard. And it's tiring. But I saw instant results today. What happens tomorrow when I don't? I hope the motivation stays high. I want to have a backbend. I don't want to be the girl with no backbend.

YC