So it is day 11 and I have attended 10 classes. I will have to make up for a class I missed by taking two in one day.. Perhaps I can do that on the final day, just to really end with a bang! I am starting to feel my tightening schedule predict the classes I can go to. Now I am really at the mercy of just what I can attend. Good, just like in the first week. However, more intense. I have been to several hot flow classes and advanced classes that I haven’t been to before. I have to say, I am embracing it all. It is fun to see all the different people who go to the yoga gym. Sooooo many different people. Even when I am at a class that is clearly beyond my level, I can get through it. It makes me realize just how far I have to go in yoga. If I want to. I feel myself getting so much stronger. I can feel my core gaining strength. That is truly what holds us up and helps us hold the poses. Also, having more control over my breathing in class has been amazing. For so long I was too winded to breathe with each movement of a pose. I wondered how people even did that. So, those are two big things I have been noticing in my own practice.
I have also become so much more aware of how we can get hurt. This is especially true when we try to go into a harder pose than we have done or are ready for. The key is to be truly completely present with ourselves. The second we disconnect from that we lose the true ability of our bodies. I close my eyes a lot during class. I have to not have distractions when I am really feeling my body. At times and in a certain pose I can actually feel distinct tendons. I feel my muscles and my balance, but to truly feel every vertebrae even is amazing. I think it is good to be acutely aware of your body. Perhaps this is because I am a body worker, but I feel like it can benefit every person. When we disconnect from ourselves is when there is a potential for hurting ourselves. I used to make entire shopping lists, or plan my week when in class. And I overextended many times. I kept wondering why I was getting hurt.. Now I know. I was on auto. I can make a shopping list anytime. Any other time.
The other fun part of course is getting to put a star by my name each time I attend a class. There is just something about that!
To end with a quote.. “It is easier to act yourself way into a better way of feeling, than to feel yourself into a better way of action” O.H. Mowrer
