Tag Archives: vinyasa

Working (it) Out in Vinyasa Class

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Yesterday was such a Monday.  I mean, really, it was a MONDAY.   From the instant I got out of bed until I got home at 5:30, my day was full of stress producing interactions.  I can’t really detail them here, but I had to defend an individual’s right to have, and state, a position with which I strongly disagree.  It caused a need for multiple unpleasant meetings, and in between that there were a lot of other fires to put out.  By the time I drove home (with my brain still spinning and my phone beeping every 2-3 minutes as yet another complex email arrived), every part of my body was in a knot.

I got back to the house and rushed into the dinner prep process (roasted beets, potatoes, onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, cilantro, and peppers – mmm), which is always an event in itself, pausing to slice a thumb along the way and spill a variety of things around the room.  I managed to get things wrapped up just in time to serve the food before I dashed out the door for a 7:30 Vinyasa class.

Oh, I needed that class.  As soon as I got to the studio, I could feel a little lightness come into my body as I made the mental switch from work/home to yoga.  I could feel my back yearning for the stretch that I knew was coming and I looked so forward to the challenge that I knew would keep my mind away from the events of the day.  Beth, the instructor (Yogawood in Collingswood, NJ), did not disappoint.

From the very first pose, through the Surya Namaskar A, to the shoulder stand and plow pose, and even including the zaniness of Bhujapidasana, it all felt good, even when I was sweating like a pig and things were a little ouchy.  Getting the curve out of my upper back is always a challenge and I’m never sure how well I succeed, but I certainly was trying last night, because my back just needed the stretch (short of yoga, I think I would have needed a Medieval rack).

By the end of class, I felt relaxed and calmed, both mentally and physically.  I was able to go home, have some food, answer a couple more of the crazy emails I had received during class, and go to sleep without the events of the day whirling madly through my mind.

Even if this was the only benefit of  yoga, it would still be worth it! Luckily, there are many many more.  What are some of yours?

Namaste,

L

Oh, Yogi! Who’s Zoomin’ Who?

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In teacher training yesterday we considered the second of the Yamas (restraints), which is Satya – truth or non-lying.  Our conversation of Satya was quite interesting and I could think of many examples where I am not fully truthful (as I think we all can).  Often, for me, being untruthful occurs in an attempt to protect my face (the image I want to present to the world) or the face of others – more on that later.  So, I woke up today in the right frame of mind to think about Satya as I went through my day.

Image by CrystalGinger

Having gotten the kids up and off to school, I quickly hit a road block.  I have been having a flare-up of rheumatoid arthritis this week, because of a combination of a change in weather, hormonal shifts, and being off of two medications that I normally take.  The result is that my joints are very sore and feel simultaneously really tight and really loose (in a bad way).  The pain associated with this also causes nausea, compounded by a lovely little sinus issue, and I haven’t been eating much either.  So, the upshot is that I’m not feeling so hot.

The decision before me today was whether or not to attend a 9:30 Vinyasa class.  As I went through the rest of my morning leading up to the time when I really had to get ready, I was thinking about teacher training class the night before.  So, when time came to make a choice, I found myself in an interesting conundrum.  On the one hand, I could go to class – but then was I lying to myself about whether this was right for me and overdoing in a way that could be bad?  On the other hand, I could stay home and rest a bit before work – but then was I lying to myself about what I was capable of and not stretching my boundaries in the way needed for growth?  Hmm…  I went back and forth and back and forth and finally, as time got late, just put on my yoga outfit and headed out.  Great!

I would love to now tell you that this was absolutely the right decision and that the class helped me feel better.  But, I cannot tell a lie (ha!).  By 10 minutes in, I knew that this wasn’t working out.  I got through, spending a good amount of time in Child’s Pose or Adho Mukha Svanasana.  That’s ok, but even then, I was somewhere in between crying and yarking the entire class.  It just was so not pretty.  I couldn’t really concentrate on the poses because I was so busy concentrating on not physically falling apart.  And, as you might guess, there was no calm to be found.

So, great.  I made a choice in an effort to not lie, but it turned out that it wasn’t that simple.  How was I to know what choice to make?  I’m still not sure about that, but in reflecting on the whole situation, I am pretty sure that this all came down to an issue of Asmita (egoism or an attachment to a particular “self”).   I reduced the options I had to two in my mind (stay or go – might there have been another? – I think so) and then attempted to make sense of them through this lens of Asmita.  It kind of ended up as a question of:  Should I stay home, which signifies my being “honest” about my physical state, and therefore a good yogi?  Should I go, which signifies my willingness to work hard at this practice, and therefore be a good yogi?  If I stay home, does that mean I’m lazy and a bad yogi?  If I go, does that mean I’m not hearing my body and a bad yogi?

Yikes!  No matter how you slice it, I am pretty sure I was being overly interested in this image of myself (for myself or for others) as a good yogi.  That’s not very good yogi of me…  This craziness is made all the more crazy by the fact that I knew on one level that I was in danger of practicing because of need for a particular self-image.  But, I hadn’t parsed it out enough to see that there was a whole other level of the same Klesa going on there.  Oh, this is such a process, eh?  Learned patterns of behavior or thinking are so hard to unlearn.  But, that doesn’t mean we can’t keep trying.

Namaste,

L