I am so excited to get to yoga today. It has required some child management craziness. I am entering the studio after having brought the boys with me to yoga. I have shown them the bench in the lobby, the bench outside and sent them to the dollar store down the way with $2.50 each to “buy something” and $1.25 each to get something to eat, since once we left the house they were “starving” after 3 hours of being home where there are $200 worth of appropriate snacks I bought at Costco yesterday to try to combat exactly this perpetual starvation. Mel is on his way to get them but hit traffic and so didn’t make it home today. We had talked about this dollar store option early in the week and the boys are excited about going shopping alone. I wonder if I will be worried about them the whole time or if I can relax and enjoy my yoga. We’ll see. They run off and I get changed and line up for this very busy class. There are people everywhere lined up to get in. Apparently Moksha Yoga has prime time at 6:30 on Friday night. I stand near the door since all the seats are taken. I am feeling like it will be packed and mention it to a woman next to me. She says she loves the feel of the collective in full classes, the feeling of all the people moving together in unison. Talk about a perspective shift. I enjoy the feel of the collective and make it through the whole class. The teacher is a woman who is shaped more like me. I really like this about this yoga studio. People have said everyone who does yoga is twiggy but this is just not the case here. I feel welcomed, treasured, supported, and stretched. My mind and my body. I love...
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I get up early and make it to the 6:30am Silent Moksha class. I have avoided this silent class because I felt like I really needed the teacher’s voice helping me do better yoga. I realized yesterday that I know the poses well enough to get through this class. I also have a medical test tomorrow and I am not supposed to exercise. This has provided a fair bit of brain fodder. Should I cancel the test? Should I miss a day of yoga? Neither seemed very satisfying as far as solutions go. Somehow it all mostly comes together, though. I am physically tired and this seems like a great day to lie in shavasana thus “doing yoga” and not physically exercising. A silent class seems like a great way to lie on my mat in silence and breathe. I get in the room. The teacher is friendly and very upbeat for 6am. I decide to try a few poses just to see how the yoga works. I let her know I may be lying down most of the time so she doesn’t think I am not following or having a physical issue. I find it easy to follow the poses and I enjoy it. Then I decide to lie on my mat. I hadn’t realized that because it is a silent class the lights are on bright so people can really see the poses–makes sense but it was distracting for my shavasana. I am also struggling with stilling my thoughts. In the beginning it was so much easier. I could just lie down and let things drift away. I am struggling with thoughts of a client that are hard to let go, weird thoughts of challenges that aren’t real–literally battling imaginary monsters as I drift into a deep relaxed state. I make it through the hour but somehow miss the illusive “inner peace.” I am noticing my attachment to achieving this and decide this journey inside my head is completely okay, as is...
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The teacher today is less rigorous in terms of correcting postures than the teacher yesterday. Some of the teachers are so rigorous and generous in their correction of poses throughout the class. If they correct even one pose, helping me to have better form, I notice how their words stay with me for days as I try to get to that perfect form in subsequent classes. Some of the teachers do this regularly and some only occasionally. I notice that I prefer rigor. I like to try to get the poses perfect and to stretch into postures that are as correct as possible. I make it through this class today and feel proud that I have made it through a second class where I was able to do most of the poses. I am very sleepy today afterward. I feel deeply tired. I have a medical test on Friday that requires me to go easy on the exercise and I think tomorrow I will take it really slow and try to give my body a...
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I get to the 6:30 am yoga class this morning. I turn in my card to check in and the teacher asks me how it’s going. I said pretty good but I feel like I lie around on my mat a lot. She asks if I have tried the Sweat, Stretch, Unwind class. “Yes, but it was really hard on my knees,” I answer. “Has anyone ever shown you how to make a donut out of a towel? Have I shown you?” she asks. “No, no one has shown me,” I say. She shows me how to wrap my towel around to make a donut for my knees. This is a real game changer for me today. By using my donut, I am able to make it through all the poses and I get a great workout. I feel so proud that I am now doing the whole class. I tell the teacher after the class and she congratulates me. It is nice to share my accomplishment with someone. Yoga is not very chatty. It is a silent practice and I really don’t talk to anyone. I am sore after class and I am really aware of all my muscles all day, but I have a spring in my step and a sense of pride that I have done it. I did my first whole yoga class. I am starting to really love...
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Today I am going to do 2 yoga classes. I missed one and it is really bugging me that I am on day 7 and it is my 6th yoga class. I want the alignment of being on day 7 and being on class 7. I start with a 6:30am class. I am still feeling the heat and am making it through more of the poses. I am finding incredible peace as I lie on my mat. I am craving spending a long time in shavasana which is essentially lying on my back on my mat with my arms to the side with my hands up. I have heard several things in passing about shavasana. One person suggested spending 20 minutes a day in this pose. That has stayed in my head. I have heard it is the most important pose in yoga. Which makes sense because it is in this pose that I really feel my breath settle in and I get completely relaxed. I am still content to lie in shavasana when the heat is too much for me and my heart rate feels too high. I am also hoping I will be able to do more of the work-out soon. I am craving a good strong work-out. I find I am challenged by the heat so I can’t keep doing all the poses. But then I am feeling like I didn’t get a good physical work-out, which is ironic since I am spending so much time going to yoga classes. It’s 8pm and I am at my second class and I am so sleepy. The class is completely packed and I am pretty sure I am just going to lie on the mat in shavasana. Oh no, a girl just came and put her mat so close I can’t extend my arms to the side in shavasana. I try to get comfortable but I feel totally crunched. I am noticing my attachment to space. I have a passing thought about India...
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Today was the 6th day of my 21 days of yoga and my 5th class at Moksha Yoga. It was a class that was mostly done on the mat. I was super excited to get there and to lie on my mat and breathe. It just felt so good to get there after missing yesterday. There was more work in this class that required me to sit on my knees for an extended period of time. It is interesting trying to find a position that isn’t going to hurt. I was able to to some of it. I am getting stronger and am noticing muscles I haven’t noticed before in a long time. A friend was watching the boys for me and I felt so grateful for her being able to take them while I went to the class. I really had to allow myself not to rush at the end. I love lying there for a long time just breathing. Is yoga addictive? I am really loving it and can’t wait to go back tomorrow. Day 6 was a great...
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