My Life As A Yogi

I am so, so tempted to start a fourth blog all about yoga. But, I will refrain. For now. After a morning of coaching, writing, carpooling (i.e. listening to 2 four -year-old girls singing silly songs all the way home), and dealing with a couple minor child issues, I think I should stick to just this blog post. I do still have a speech therapy client this afternoon and then there's the whole dinner process. I digress...I committed to yoga after realizing how very little (absolutely nothing) I do for my physical body. This all came about as a result of blogging on Let ME Out!! last month. Checking in with your Self and how you spend your Time is very important!! This exercise that I did plus the excitement I feel over the next leg of my journey PLUS the complaints my body was voicing all resulted in me searching for a yoga studio close to home. As often happens, my request was met by the Universe - this time in the form of a Living Social Deals voucher for unlimited yoga classes at Vayusha Yoga 5 minutes from my home for next to nothing! How could I not? So I did.

I LOVE IT!! I've tried a couple yin classes and a flow class - two very different practices that encompass different parts of me. The yin is all about stretching those achy, wound-up connective tissues which my body thanks me profusely for. We hold the postures for several minutes at a time so I have plenty of time to listen to the messages my body is sending me. When the instructor told me how long we would hold the postures for I was like, "OK, I hope I don't get bored!" Seriously, in this day and age of on-line and real-time, I didn't know if I could "do nothing" for several minutes. But the thing is, I wasn't doing nothing. All the pent-up messages I had for my body and it had for me started spilling forward. I realize this sounds super hokey and is teetering dangerously on "crazy". It is what it is. And whatever it is, it feels damn good.

The flow was amazing and supported the strong warrior I mentally envision myself to be but don't normally get to let out and play. It was challenging but here's the thing I've learned from my short life thus far as a yogi: I am perfect in my practice in the moment. I don't need to get upset with myself for not being able to hold the downward dog for so long, or do them so many times in one hour! Once that pose doesn't feel relaxing or comfortable for me, I can slip into child's pose, show my body some love and respect and be perfect in my practice. This is a HUGE mental and emotional breakthrough for me. I'm so geared to doing things "perfectly" or not doing them at all - and usually the "perfectly" part is by someone else's standards. So, getting down into child's pose and not caring that everyone else was still doing the downward dog is actually a really big deal for me.

The other wonderful breakthrough I had was I let someone else support me in my yoga practice. At the end of each class, we are asked to lie on our backs in a completely relaxed state and just be. At the end of one evening class, the instructor offered a blanket to anyone who needed it; we just had to put a hand on our belly and she would come around and "tuck us in." My first reaction to that was, "I don't need to bother her for a blanket. It's not that chilly. I'm fine." But then I thought, you know, it's been a long time since someone tucked me in. Slowly, I placed my right hand on my belly and kept breathing, noticing that my breath quickened just a little. And then the excuses started. I started to make excuses for the teacher NOT getting me a blanket almost immediately. "It's OK if she doesn't get me a blanket, maybe she can't see my hand in the dim light." I realized how I have done this so often, whenever someone has disappointed me, just made excuses for them so as not to rock the boat. I do this a lot. But she came through, tucked me in with a soft cloud of a blanket and yeah, I'll admit, a tear escaped from the corner of my eye. I also do that a lot.I am thankful for this new path I am embarking on. It came at the perfect time, as always.Thanks for reading...