I didn't know where to post this so hopefully the General one is appropriate.
Hello all. I'm new to the forum and this style of yoga but I've been visiting the site quite a bit. I've been struggling with something for a number of years and something else for a week or two. I'm hoping someone here will have some insight. This is a two part post. The first part is a long story but I'll try to be brief.
1. About six years ago, I started to get serious about my study and practice of yoga. Well, what I consider serious anyway. Most of my knowledge has come from a Rodney Yee book supplemented with the internet. Based on a template Yee provided in his book and some trial and error, I came up with a sequence of poses that worked well for me and began a serious practice.
One of the poses I chose was wheel pose. I decided, for whatever reason, that I would eventually do wheel pose, however long it took. It took approximately two months. It wasn't pretty and I couldn't hold it for long, but I did it, and continued on with my practice.
Something miraculous happened along the way. I felt better, physically and mentally (various physical difficulties, anxiety, depression, etc.l), than I ever had before. This is probably pretty familiar to most of you. However there was something else.
My fear response was greatly reduced. I'm not saying my fear was replaced by love or that I went through the A.W.A.K.E. process to see that my fears weren't very realistic or that I was more brave and just able to overcome them. I'm saying that the response just wasn't there. Or greatly reduced.
As someone who has had pretty severe anxiety his whole life, this was...well, you can imagine. Wheel pose was responsible for most of it but there seemed to be a synergistic effect with the other poses as well. I've given a lot of thought to what exactly happened. Probably something to do with energy flow. Probably something to do with opening the body in the opposite way of what happens physically when we're afraid. Whatever the whys and hows, I had stumbled on a doorway to become a different person. Someone better. Someone more. There were some other interesting effects as well but this is already turning into a book.
Anyway, things were going really well and, as so often happens, I screwed it up. Some things happened and I was no longer able to do wheel. I was focused on other things at the time (a wild goose chase, it turned out) and didn't worry about it too much, but when I tried to later, I couldn't and I was never able to get back there again. I've been chasing what I had for over five years now, thinking about little else. It's become my white whale.
Recently, I finally gave up (well, the practice I was doing). I had heard about yin yoga a while ago and started reading up on it. I've done one proper session so far and I'm intrigued. I'm wondering it this might be another path to get where I'm trying to go.
Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Or ideas how to get back there?
2. In that spirit, this is the sequence I've put together. I'm trying to regain that feeling I talked about above. I'm also trying to put together a complete practice (addressing all the meridians) without being excessively long. Here's what I've come up with:
Wrist circles
Butterfly
Sphinx
Camel (the modified version with the hands farther back)
Toe Squat
Bananasana
Reclined Twist
Savasana
I've started with two minute holds, or as much as I can. Each is followed by appropriate counterposes. I've also been doing dangling before bed for a while now, though I didn't call it that. Based on my knowledge (admittedly limited and mostly yang) this seems fairly complete. Wrists, feet, ankles, forward bend, backbend, side bend, twist, neck is covered with the last four. Would adding some yang movements be warranted?
Sorry the post is so long. I'm kind of desperate so if anyone has any guidance it would be much appreciated. Thanks.