For all you non yoga people saying, ‘what’s down-dog and who cares?’.  It’s a position where you are on hands and knees and your butt goes up in the air.  Why can’t I do it?  I can’t put pressure on my hands.  I also can’t put my arms overhead without pain and tingling.  This has been going on for over 10 years.  My pattern with yoga classes(besides certain yin classes) has been…  I get my mat set up and lay in suptavata kanansina while I wait for the class to start.  That’s laying down with my legs bent like butterfly wings and feet together with blocks under my knees.  Laying flat with legs straight is not comfortable to be.  I’m laying there praising myself for making it to class, thinking about how great this is.  The class starts.  For usually the first ten to fifteen minutes I am thinking about how I’m going to go to yoga all the time and which classes I’m going to go to and when. At one point a few years back I made a calendar for yoga classes I wanted to go to at multiple studios. I didn’t hardly end up going to any and didn’t use up at least 3 groupons for studios because I started them not realizing they would expire when I was on vacation. Anyway, so there I am, in yoga, praising myself and planning all the other classes I’m going to take and then bam- Down-dog.  I try to go it a little.  It hurts.  I panic.  I don’t know what else to do.  The pose switches to something else, good I think.  But then, it’s arms over head, or bending the arms(something else I can hardly do), then back to damn down dog, then plank, then cobra, then downdog, then arms over head.  Here comes the teacher, looking at my like I have the plague.  No… don’t come over here.  They want to help me.  Just leave me alone. They end up helping sometimes.  Okay not so bad.  I make it to the end of class.  The teacher wants to come talk to me like it’s my first yoga class ever and like I have no idea what’s wrong with me and haven’t tried anything to heal myself ever.  This is why I hate yoga I think.  Why am I here.  Well I think that earlier actually.  When the teacher is attempting to be my savior guru at the end of class I’m thinking nothing.  I can’t even remember what Thoracic Outlet Syndrome is or that I’ve tried massage, acupuncture, PT, stretching, saunas, cupping, meditation, chiropractors, special pillows, nutrition, supplements, etc.  I’m sitting there talking to them like I’ve been eating every meal at McDonalds( I worked with someone who did that), and digesting everything mainstream media tells me to think.  So that’s been my usual yoga experience. I do have one teacher I love that is not like this.  I love you Suzanne.  These last few days have been different.  I have 5 classes that are about to expire so I wanted to use them up.  I’ve gone three days in a row now and i feel amazing.  I didn’t do stuff that hurt and I didn’t care what anyone said or thought.  No teachers came and said annoying stuff to me.  I just did my thing and knew my limits.  I didn’t explain myself or anything.  I even went to the wall and did my push ups against it when it was push up time.  So yeah.  Take that down-dog!