flamenco class # 5 / yoga # 66.5

[supercheesegirl]

Back to flamenco again last night. It was better this week--even though I hadn't had class in two weeks (migraine, then Thanksgiving), I feel like my body is starting to get the movement a little better. I also think I'm finally accepting that this is not going to be my thing--I've been training my body in a very different physical activity for the past six years, and it would take a lot of serious work to train it to do flamenco. It would be a big investment that I'm not willing to make. So instead of getting stressed out about how bad I am at flamenco, I'm trying to just enjoy the time I have with flamenco. It's hard, though, because the class just isn't fun for me. Elba is a hard taskmaster, and we students don't really talk much--we can ask questions, of course, and she's supportive and encouraging, but we don't chat or make jokes or anything. And even though I was working on lightening up and enjoying it, by the end of class I was back to making my determined face and getting angry at the steps. But I'm okay with that too--as Elba says, you need a certain amount of anger to do flamenco properly, and I wouldn't be me if I just flaked out now and stopped trying. I'm going to keep trying to get it right, as best I can, but I'm not beating myself up about "failing" at flamenco anymore. I am trying flamenco. It's an interesting experiment!

This morning I did some jammy yoga, about 20 minutes. I definitely had some soreness from flamenco, soreness from not having done yoga since Tuesday, and soreness from not getting a good night's sleep, plus some emotional stuff going on. The yoga was a good thing, even if I only did a little bit. I felt refreshed and much more ready to face the day.