it's normal

the past week or so was hectic. not only did i spend two nights underground which was an amazing if somewhat exhausting experience in itself, but also made my way from paris to london and onwards to manchester where a friend was wed surrounded by the picturesque english countryside. from there i flew to finland a few days ago in order to spend the month of august in the motherland; something which i am not overly excited about as i have a sever case of fomo-syndrome (fear of missing out) when it comes to paris.

this, however, i feel is a good sign. paris is definitely growing on me, and actually starts to feel like a home. and of course is not _that_ horrible to get to see and spend time with family and friends. not to mention i get to go to my shala.

something which i desperately need after having practiced only by myself for the past six months. even if i have been able to keep up a steady schedule of 3 to 5 practices a week, it is nowhere near the same to practice alone as it is to go to a shala; and during the past month or so i feel this has started to influence me more and more. i often find it difficult to concentrate and don't get the same feeling out of doing yoga as i used to. right now my practice keeps me feeling normal but not much more than that.

although this state  - feeling normal - is something i shouldn't overlook. due to the hassle of the past days i didn't have the possibility to keep up with my yoga schedule, and i must say that the outcome of this took me by surprise. it might have been a combination of many things, but in the end the way my body reacted to not practicing in about 5 days was very unpleasant and very painful; all the muscles in my back seemed to shrink about 20 percent which then caused a significant amount of discomfort, up to the point that it was very difficult to exist in my own skin.

i find this quite interesting partly because i don't know how to feel about it. even though i'm sure that the lack of yoga wasn't  the only thing contributing to my awkward state (i was also missing sleep a lot, had some fever, did a lot of traveling in a sitting position to name a few) it did make me think why it happened in the first place. is my body so used to being used on a regular basis that an interruption to this causes a some kind of shock reaction? am i doing something wrong with my practice?  do i have some underlying condition that slowly turns me into a rock unless i stretch? 

whatever it is, i'm not necessarily very worried about this as a few light practices restored my physical well-being back to the above mentioned normal (which, to be fair, is more like excellent after that ordeal) but it does puzzle me a bit. but whatever the reason, at least it serves as a good reminder to keep up the practice even on the days one doesn't necessarily feel like it - like, say, after six months practicing at home.