Relaxing bedtime yoga pose...not so relaxing.

A couple of nights ago, I did a google search for pre-bedtime relaxing yoga poses. Now that I think back, I'm not even sure why I did the search. I take evening meds to calm and lessen pain in my IC bladder, and they pretty much cover the whole "relaxing" thing.  Still, I googled it, and got a few poses that seemed to be good options.

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com

One of the poses involved lying on the bed with my legs facing the headboard. I was then to skooch my behind up as close to the headboard as I could get it, with my legs pointing upward, leaning against the headboard/wall.  It was supposed to look like this -

I didn't have any problem getting into the pose, aside from the need to skooch.  There I was, lying on the bed in my softly lit bedroom, feet up the wall, eyes closed, breathing and praying quietly and relaxing and stuff.  It was actually quite nice.  Even the whiskers of a curious cat tickling my forehead did little to mess with my calm. I was supposed to hold the pose for 2 minutes, although from my position the clock was upside down, so I've no clue how long I was there.

When I decided to come down, though, I was met with a problem. Notice the lovely lady in the picture, on a neat, pillowless, catless bed.  Mine didn't look like that. In fact, I had a mound of pillows, quilts, blankets and cats on one side of me (I think there were a few books in there too) and on the other side was the floor...a pile of books, a garbage basket, a lamp, some candle holders and did I mention the floor?

My bed is also quite soft, so it took a fair amount of rolling, grunting, pushing, leg waving and kicking, and more rolling to get over the dam of pillows and blankets. I felt like a turtle on its back. In a very soft bed surrounded by pillows and amused cats.  By the time I got to a sitting position, I was panting, facing the wrong way, the bed was a mess (stupid pillows), the cats had left in a huff, and I had kissed my zen good-bye.

Still, aside from discovering that  yoga is best practiced on the floor, the experience was one more step in the lifelong quest to take myself less seriously.  Which is surprisingly relaxing.

Besides, it amuses the cats. And that has to be worth something.