The Junky's Wife (thejunkyswife.com (can anyone tell me how to do the thing to make the words themselves link to the page? I'm sure it's very easy, but I can't figure it out)) wrote about yoga, and since I like to copy her when I can, I decided to write about yoga.
I had not been to a yoga class in 14 days, and today was great. I have two yoga classes, Tuesdays with V and Thursdays with N. They are very different. (Ed. note: at first I was using full names, but then I thought, due to the fact that this is blog and all, that I should maybe not use names, so I am using initials.)
Tuesdays with V used to be Tuesdays with D, but D left our studio because she needed to devote more time to other classes/parts of her life. I miss her: first of all, she was (is) very beautiful and I liked to look at her long, long hair, but more importantly she is one of the calmest teachers/people I've ever met, and her class was pure peace. Before D, we had Tuesdays with L, but L stopped teaching when she was about 5 months pregnant. She is teaching again but only at night. Her class was great too.
Anyway I've only been to Tuesdays with V a few times, but I like it a lot so far. V is both energetic and serene at the same time, which seems like a hard balance to maintain, but she does it well. She is encouraging and very specific with descriptions when she teaches, which I find helpful. And today, she said she needed people to massage for free to help her with her massage therapy training. The universe smiles on me yet again!
Another reason I like Tuesdays is due to the group of people who often go to the Tuesday class, or in yoga words the kula (Sanskrit for "heart community"). There are a few Tuesday people I've known since I moved here, and they are fun to talk to before and after class and they make me feel like I belong in the neighborhood.
But the greatest yoga day is Thursday, with N. N is wonderful. She is an excellent, excellent teacher. You can always tell that she has put a lot of time and energy planning the class. She knows and cares about her students-- she even emailed me a great email about chakras when I was out of town. One of the things I like most about N is that she is not afraid to challenge her students. Sometimes in yoga class, you can get so into "honoring your limits" and not demanding things that are too difficult from yourself that you actually never push yourself to go as far as you might. N finds a balance between not letting people hurt themselves and encouraging people to grow and find new limits. In N's class, I have gotten (mostly) past a fear of handstands (although I still can't do one alone), and it was in N's class that my heels first touched the ground in downward dog. Now I am working on lifting my heart in cobra-- very difficult for me.
One of my favorite quotes from N is "Yoga means union, not... mat."
Another great thing about yoga is the comfy, comfy clothes. If you are lucky, on yoga days you can wear your yoga clothes all day! I am lucky lately, as it's been summer, so I don't have to change. And I'm not teaching on yoga days this fall, so I can be cozy in my cotton and lycra for months.
Sometimes when I take a train or plane trip I but The Yoga Journal. I was reading in the last one (I bought it for the CA plane rides) about starting a home practice. I am beginning to practice at home a little. It's hard without a teacher there to soothe you and boss you around, but I think it helps to do a little on your own when you can.
Okay, enough yoga randomness. Questions: any more praise for yoga? Favorite poses? Poses you hate? (I currently hate revolved triangle pose.) Things in your life that are like yoga in mine?
Here's a link to a fun yoga pose to try at home:
It's Bharadvajasana, one of my favorites, although I didn't know the name till just now when I found it on the web. One teacher I had told about how gently separates your vertebrae and allows new blood to flow into your spine. I could almost hear the suctioning sound of my vertebrae separating, which is a great sound in my mind.
If you want to find your own pose, go to http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/index.cfm?ctsrc=tnav
Namaste!
2 comments:
Being pregnant for the first time ever, and therefore thoroughly clueless, yoga poses right now scare me. I know my uterus has quatrupled in size or something and things are not where they normally are... It is slightly terrifying to consider contorting myself all the more. I am sure there is some "forbidden position" that blocks all blood flow to the baby, or would cause me to pee all over myself, or etc.. Maybe I need to invest in one of those "pregnant yoga" videos. From the last ultrasound though, I can say that my baby has mastered baby-yoga, as I saw quite a variety of poses.
YOGA rulz!
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