In the valley

I curse. I'm sad and disappointed. My practice was painful. Not all the time, but this pain was felt again and again. I had to get out of shoulder stand. At the end I had no willpower anymore to stand the pain.

It is as it is. I don't expect anymore that this pain will disappear fast. I'll have to live with it. It seems as if back bending relieves my back, my nerves, my muscles. This shall be my focus. I got so stiff, too.
Not to work on flexibility is not an alternative.

A timer helps me. I know that it's important to hold a pose long enough if one wants to move deeper and deeper into a pose. Today I used my timer. I set it to 1 min and 10 sec. I give myself 10 sec to get into the pose. Then I focus on breathing. After a while the body adopts, I could feel how the pose, ustrasana, improved during that time.

I practiced. This is what counts.