New Poses: Side Crow & Headstand

I've been really committed to my yoga practice - it's one of my big 2009 intentions. I'm going to get better about charting out my progress, but basically started the year being not that flexible. In the past 27 days, I've managed to keep up with a 5-6 day a week practice at my studio, and my body has been surprising me with its capabilities just about daily. I almost fell over in delight when my forehead actually touched my knees in a forward bend. woohoo! This week's big accomplishments were side crow and headstand.

Disclaimer: I can't imagine I looked quite as elegant as the chick in the picture doing side crow, but I did it dammit.







As for the headstand..... well, I've been struggling with this one for weeks because I have some serious tightness in my shoulders that has made this super frustrating. I did this great anusara workshop this past weekend though that really helped with heart-opening, and somehow I'm figuring out how to break through that tension. I only held the pose for a few seconds, but I had it.