Yoga makes me feel like death

Yesterday I yoga'd for an hour and a half, went to work, then went to kung fu where i taught grueling basics for about an hour and 45 minutes. I woke up yesterday at 5:15am and didn't get home until almost 9. I collapsed in front of a pizza with The Fiancée and cat and was asleep by 10:30. I had never done both yoga and kung fu on the same day until yesterday, but since I missed yoga on monday I figured I better get my ass to the yoga school.
This morning I woke up again at 5:15, feeling like I needed about 3 more hours of sleep. Nevertheless, I forced myself to get to the shala on time and practiced for an hour and a half.

I worked through the Sun Salutations slowly but carefully, doing jumpbacks and jumpthroughs on the last three repetitions of each set of A and B. I usually just step back on the first sun salutation and then jump on the rest of them, but today I didn't really have the energy for all that nonsense. Standing postures went pretty well considering how tired I was.

It was during Sarvangasana that I started to feel my life seep from my lungs. It wasn't the normal headsplitting intensity that I am pretty accustomed to now - instead I felt like I was being deflated and slowly choked out. When I was in the variations of shoulderstand (Halasana, Karna Pidasana, Urdhva Padmasana, Pindasana) the sensation only got worse. It felt the way I imagine death feels - air and life just slowly exiting the body. At one point I think I even made a death rattle.

This will sound like an old tired phrase to experienced yogis, but yoga really does confront you with yourself in unique ways. Never before have I felt like death was so close. I've been almost choked out in brazilian jiu jitsu, taken some pretty bad hits in kung fu, and had some close calls while rock climbing, but this was something different entirely. Thanks for the lesson, yoga.

But it wasn't all death and dying! I received my next posture! Marichyasana B!