Yoga

I practiced yoga at home today for the first time in over a week. If you don't know already, I sprained my ankle for the first time in my life. My reason is lame: I fell down two whole steps. Yes, it was a short staircase and I just didn't see the elevation change so I completely came down on my right ankle. It's been off and on. I iced and rested the first few days. Chase bought a herbal Chinese aerosol spray called Yunnan Baiyue. It worked pretty well and immediately. And it would bring pain relief and improve circulation and blood flow. And then I've been wearing an ankle brace. So this morning it felt stable enough to do standing poses. And that's what I did. In fact, doing standing poses were more like a cure than anything I felt this week. They stabilized the muscles in and around my ankle. They stretched and worked the ankle that I had left pretty much limp all week. And it felt good to get blood flowing and the muscles working in that ankle. I tried a few balancing poses and felt wobbly and now my ankle does feel "tired" but that's mostly because I've kept it so unused this week. 

Also another fun thing I did was turn on some music. It helped me be more expressive in my movements-- almost like I was dancing like how Shiva would dance if he was doing yoga. I love self expression and keep nudging to Chase that I'm going to take up dance lessons again. He thinks I'm kidding, but I really need a creative outlet in the form of dance. And there's a great modern dance company in Beijing, so I'm looking forward to taking one or two classes a week.... once my ankle heals completely of course. 

So our weekend has been pretty slow. We watched UT beat Mizzou this morning and now we are off to register to vote. I also am going to the Indian store now in my quest of Chai tea. There's no chai in any of the grocery stores in Beijing. I know it would be easier to just make my masala myself, but I can't find cardamom either. So off we go.