Tag Archives: Yoga
Yoga Babies
My Tuesday noon class follows a morning of work for me, work which involves reasonably serious conversations with reasonably serious adults.
Then I whip into my office at 11:30, change into my yoga duds, and drive over to the studio, arriving ridiculously early for my 12:15 class. In fact, when I arrive, they’re still sweeping up Cheerios from the floor. Moms carry babies on their hips, all of them completely relaxed after a moms-and-tots class.
I love this.
I put my mat down in the back corner, and dream about being a yoga baby. In this dream, my body has no resistance. I flop forward and sweep my hands across the floor. My head turns like an owl. I do somersaults for the fun of it.
In this dream class, I laugh whenever I feel like it. I also sing: This Little Light of Mine, or Baby Beluga, or You Are My Sunshine. I dance while I sing. We all do, in this class.
I eat the odd raisin or Cheerio off the floor. I drink hot chocolate out of one of those sippy cups.I hang out in Child’s Pose when I get tired. I have a nap if I feel like it. And someone carries me out at the end. I like that part the best.
I am so into this dream that by the time my real class starts, I am about 4 years old.
Do you have a dream class? I’d love to hear about it.
Thanks to all of you yoga moms and yoga babies for the inspiration,and thanks to you for the conversation.
Release the Hostages
My lovely man is in the shower. He’s got yoga class in an hour. He’s pretty excited. Me too.
I do Vinyasa and Ashtanga classes at the moment. He takes Yin Yoga. You probably know more about that than I do.
What I do know is that ten years ago I might have spent time and energy trying to convince him that my form of yoga is so fantastic that he’d be better off in my class. With my teacher. My chanting. At my favorite hour of the day. On my kind of yoga mat. In my corner in the back row. And on and on into ridiculousness.
I was a little bit inflexible, which defeats the purpose, don’t you think?
I was also chronically bored, which is what happens when I only listen to what I’ve already said 47 times before.
I’m happy to say that at the age of 48 I’m just now learning to let the hostages go. To let others choose for themselves and to be happy with what that brings me.
What does it bring me?
Hours of discussion about Yin Yoga, for one. It sounds fantastic. I’ll try it in the fall.
The second thing it brings me is the idea that although yoga is about union, it is also an enormous and varied collection of beautiful ways to explore and take care of ourselves.
I can hardly wait to hear what yoga you love and why.
Thanks to yoga for helping me release the hostages, and thanks to you for the conversation.
PopTart Yoga
For the rest of my life, when the subject of PopTarts comes up, I’ll either have to tell shifty-eyed lies or I’ll have to tell the truth. I’ll start with the truth right now. I’ve been away all week at … Continue reading
Turning me Around
I’ve had a really busy week. It involved cramming four days of work into one day–today. I ran around this morning not very like a Buddhist monk with her head cut off. By the time I got to yoga class … Continue reading
Yoga Zombies
Thanks to yoga zombies for making me fall in love with yoga, and thanks to you for the conversation. Continue reading
Following Delicious: Build Your Home Practice One Bite at a Time
To Ty and Kelly, I hope this is helpful in some way. If not, keep looking and you’ll find the answer that inspires you.
In the meantime: thanks to all who comment for your thoughts, and thanks to you for continuing the conversation. Continue reading
Yoga Junkie
Some Days We Are Enormous
I go to two yoga classes a week, but I do my own practice at home every single day. I adore it, and I wouldn’t miss it for much.
It’s still dark when I get out of bed, I shuffle to the kitchen and make a coffee (perhaps when I am a real yogi I’ll drink something healthier), drink half of it, set the timer on the microwave, and begin.
The first three Sun Salutations feel a bit tight, a bit creaky. Even my mind is tight and creaky. I’m thinking about getting my hands positioned correctly, thinking about rotating my thighs inward and pulling that lower belly in (something I have no idea how to do, still). Heels closer to the floor, shoulder blades down, etc. You know all of this.
Then something or someone–some larger part of me, perhaps–begins to well up. The rabid thinking slows down. Something warm and delicious takes its place. I begin to feel more generous with my positioning. I feel happy all of a sudden, and light.
Some days, about ten Sun Salutations in, this thing takes over and I go crazy, like a whirling dervish. My breath pours in and squeezes out, I’m warm from the inside out, I am strong, I am beautiful, and I am huge, somehow. Unconstrained. You should see my Warrior II pose. I fill the living room. I fill the house.
I love those days.
This morning was one of those days. I’d set the timer for 70 minutes and was so enormous by the end of it that I didn’t hear it go off. Best Savasana ever.
Does this ever happen to you?
Thanks to yoga for making us huge, and thanks to you for the conversation.
Better than Chocolate
I’m not so much into literal interpretations of resurrection myths, but I am completely into being reborn in any way I can, any time I can. This Easter weekend has been the best ever. On the death/life cusp this weekend: … Continue reading
A Body Sings
A yoga friend of mine describes his morning practice as his body singing to him. Isn’t that beautiful? I think of it every morning during my own practice when I begin to hear those sticky, ignoramus thoughts about oh-I’m-tighter/chunkier/older/more-gravity-stricken-than-i-was-when-i-went-to-bed. I … Continue reading