Nov 7 & 8, 10:00 am

One post for two days of practice.

Yesterday was a really interesting class for me. In Awkward 2, my toes started to go numb. You know when you wake up and your arm is asleep, and it is SO asleep that you can't move it and need to pick it up with the other arm to do so? That is how asleep my toes were. Awkward 3 finished the job, making all 10 toes completely numb - I couldn't feel them at all by the time it was time to change postures. I had to lean forward a lot and rock back on my heels to come up. I did the second set of Awkward 1, reasoning that my weight is on my heels and I don't need my toes anyway. Awkward 2 and 3, second set, I stood still on my mat and wiggled my toes around.

My balancing series is my worst part of the class, as I fall out of pretty much everything, though occasionally hold Balancing Stick. My toes were still numb, though I was regaining a bit of feeling, through all of the standing series. It is *extremely* hard to balance when you can't feel your toes. My toes were still tingling a bit while we did the floor series, though I didn't notice very much as they aren't really relevant in any of the postures here. After lying in final savasana for a few minutes, I grabbed each of my toes one at a time, wiggling them and pushing them back and forth. The feeling was back in all but 3, all in my left foot. I chatted with the teacher after I'd showered and changed, and by then, I all my toes were fine.

I've told this story on the yoga forums before, so this may sound familiar - between the ages of 14 and 21, I wore high heels every day. I then started getting pain shooting up the centres of my feet, and started wearing flats. I now (27 years old) only wear heels when I go to weddings - just haven't been able to find a pair of flats that are dressy enough. When I wear heels now, I lose feeling in 3 of my toes (the same three that were numb during final savasana), and it takes about 3 days for all of the numbness to go away.

So what was going on in my feet? Is it related to the problems I have when I wear high heels? I talked to the teacher yesterday after class, and she didn't have much advice for me, and told me to talk to our studio's owner. I talked to her after class today, and she didn't have much to offer, anyway. Her best guess is just changes in circulation, or possibly a pinched nerve in my foot somewhere. The visiting teacher was in the lobby as well when we discussed this, and she said she used to have numbness in her big toe, and it turned out to be due to the shoes she was wearing. She said she was able to press down on a part of her foot where the shoes were tight (when she wasn't wearing the shoes), and could cause the numbness. I may play around with this idea, too, but I think it is the "on the toes" action that causes the numbness. In either case, I hope yesterday's numbness is the beginning of working through an old injury, and I am happy that the feeling was gone within 2 hours, rather than the 3 days I have experienced from wearing high-heeled shoes.

Coming out of the discussion with Janet, the owner, today was some good advice (I hope!) for me for Awkward 2, though. My Awkward 1 and 3 are both pretty strong. Awkward 2, I am not even close to getting into the chair. Janet recommended that I concentrate more on just getting down, and then raise my heels/go up on my toes more. She says not to think about the toes at all until I am sitting in the chair, rather than trying to do both at once. I'll try that tomorrow and hopefully make some good progress!