Trying not to lose focus during the holidays.

Now that this months training module is complete, I have about 3 weeks or so until the next one. I've been shifting my focus toward ashtanga but haven't been consistently practicing primary series daily, due in part to all of the holiday business as well as my own unwillingness to get up any earlier than 8 a.m. I keep considering taking a break from technology (i.e. internet...) so that I can focus my attention on getting more done, in general. I'm so guilty of jumping on the computer to quickly check Facebook and before I realize it, having wasted an hour doing silly things online. Why does the internet have to be so goddamn interesting!? Anyway, I also need to focus on creating some different sequences and practice teaching. I did create one sequence...a 60 minute intermediate flow. Now I need to record myself teaching it and then practice it to the recording of my own voice.
    As far as required reading goes, I've completed Yoga Mala by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and have now moved on to The Heart of Yoga by TKV Desikachar which is proving to be a very informative read with all the info about different pranayama techniques as well as bandhas and such...These are not topics that are usually touched upon by my everyday yoga teachers. Sometimes I think that exclusively teaching ashtanga would almost be easier than having to come up with new sequences all of the time but at the same time, I really am inspired by teachers like Kathryn Budig and her ability to constantly pump out these really fun, creative flows with a great comedic relief in class. I also have had an itching to take a Bikram class, lately. It's not something I do often, since the closest Bikram studio is about 20 minutes away from my house but all of these holiday treats and rich foods have left my body in serious need of some detoxification and detoxified is the epitome of how I feel after 90 minutes of Bikram...perhaps tomorrow. We shall see.
   As far as my minor hip injury goes...it was beginning to feel better, slowly but surely less movements were aggravating it. I had an acupuncture treatment on that leg and had the doctor stretch out the whole hip. Certain movements like kurmasana and separate leg forward bend still hurt it but it was less and less UNTIL I decided to practice my handstand kick-ups on the wall and tweaked the crap out of it which led me to realize that must have been how I originally hurt it. I tried getting into frog pose, which is the posture that I initially thought caused the injury when a teacher adjusted me a bit further than I was ready to go but frog pose didn't even affect the muscle that has been in pain at all. I think the abrupt movement of kicking into the handstand was what did it because I had taken a workshop a day or two before the pain started that focused on handstand practice so I was kicking up a lot. At least now I know what NOT to do... I'm nearly back to square one now after tweaking it the other night...no handstand kick ups for at least a few months. It's a bummer to be limited. I had never injured myself doing yoga before this. I suppose I can chalk it up as a lesson to take it easy and remember what my yoga is truly about.
 

Oh and also... M told me the thinks I have a good voice for instructing. It was really nice to hear.