I try to do a focus pose every morning when I do yoga. For a long time, I did a variation on tree pose. (Stand firmly on one leg, grab the ankle of the other leg behind you. Balance. Slowly lean forward, until your torso is parallel with the floor. Push against your hand with the other leg. Hold for the count of thirty. Slowly come back up to standing. Balance. Then release and do the other side.)

I did this pose every day for so long that I was getting bored with it. It was pretty easy for me to do the above.

I stopped doing this pose for a number of reasons – the primary one being that my knee wasn’t great. My knee would remind me every day when I finished that it did not like this pose.

My knee is slightly better at this point, so yesterday I thought I’d try this pose again.

Wow.

It’s only been a couple of months but I’ve completely lost the ability to balance in this pose. I can still stand on one leg. That isn’t the issue. It’s all the things that I do in this pose, like pulling up my leg behind me, the bending over, etc.

I feel as though I’m starting from scratch. Just do the first part, stand on one leg, bring the other one back and grab the ankle. Just do that for a couple of days and not try to bend forward.

I will admit that this has been disturbing. I always said that I needed to do yoga and balance poses so that when I was 80 I wouldn’t fall and break my hip. I hadn’t realized just how fast I would lose the ability to balance like this.

My knee is still not great. I’m going to see a doctor about it. I feel as though I’ve done all the things I can to make it better – exercises, PT, and the Hyaluronic Acid. I need to know if this is as good as it’s going to get, or if there’s something more that can be done.

Today isn’t the greatest day. I woke up headachy and without a lot of brain. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to do all the things and that it will end up being a pretty mild meh day.

It’s been 12 days since my last meh day, which is a pretty typical run for me. Still hoping that at some point I’ll have 14+ good days in a row.

How is your physical balance? Are you doing anything to maintain it? If not, should you?