Yoga

I dabble in yoga.

It's not what you think. Maybe it is.

Do you have something that your mom always tells you that you are doing wrong? I have a thing. I slouch. My mom always tells me. "You need to stand up straight." She's right. It is still annoying to hear it. It isn't like I think to myself I should slouch more. I've always thought yoga would help.

My exposure to yoga started slowly. It started when I lived in Las Cruces and there was a girl in my masters program named Meg. She had the most fabulous arms. I thought she was a runner. " I do yoga." She told me when we were hiking together. I'd never done yoga. I didn't even know if I knew someone who had done yoga.

Then, a few years later, I had a friend in Albuquerque named Ashley who told me she did yoga. She was pretty rad, and she said she liked yoga a lot. It intrigued me. I even tried to go to a yoga class with her, but I couldn't find the room at the gym, so I went to kick-boxing instead.

About three years ago there was a group of people at my little grocery store I liked to go to. I was living in an apartment very close to The Sunflower Market, and I would walk to get my groceries. In the same little strip mall was a Dahn Yoga studio. It looked cool. One day at the grocery store the Dahn Yoga people were giving free energy readings. You put your hands on this thing and it would make a color of your aura. I am kind of into stuff like that, so I thought I would try it. My energy was red. That meant I wasn't having a lot of creative or nurturing energy in my life. I was also feeling very stressed out, feeling overwhelmed with my full time mothering role and traveling husband, and so I was looking for something to relieve my stress. I signed up for 10 yoga classes at Dahn Yoga.

I learned how to punch my own stomach with my two fists, breath, count to ten many times, stretch my body in different ways, and I even did a weekend thing where I found my true self. She was just as awesome as you would expect. I was skeptical of this whole experience, but it turned out to be something I really enjoyed. Doing the yoga poses and meditation helped me feel connected to myself in a healing way. A happy way. A calming way.

It was expensive, and it didn't have child care, so I didn't keep going. But, I loved it.

Now, I have moved to a new town. My indoor soccer team is still in Albuquerque. There is no soccer for grown-ups here. It snows every Friday and sometimes in-between, so I need to find a new outlet for exercise. There is a community recreation center with affordable memberships and Ian is very motivated to workout. Therefore, we have purchased year memberships. One of the classes is a twice a week yoga class.

Today was my first yoga class in Nebraska.

It is weird going to a class for the first time. I didn't know I should bring my own yoga mat, so I didn't. All the other girls had their own yoga mats. They were all wearing spandex, and I was wearing my stretchy pants. The two guys that were in the corners of the class had yoga mats, too. Since I was in a practically empty room, I didn't know who's spot I was stealing. I was there early. The advertised time for the class was 5:30, but there was an understanding within the group that it started at 5:45. Everyone there had a friend they chatted with while waiting for class to start, and I didn't have a friend. It doesn't bother me to be on my own, since I know I could have talked to someone if I wanted to. I just sat on the mat I was borrowing from the mat closet and waited. Sometimes it is so nice to be quiet.

And I like to listen in on other people's conversations.  Eavesdropping. It might be rude. I do it anyway. There was a lady who had been trying to sell her house for two years in Alabama and she closed on it yesterday. She had lived in New York for a long time. I thought she was pretty. Then there were ladies who had never been to yoga either, and their friend was telling them how hard it was. Then there was a man who was heckling the ladies in the back of the room. The ladies all had different variations of spandex on. The man was wearing basketball shorts.

Then the teacher came. She was very tall and blond. She told us the kind of yoga we were going to be practicing. Something about breathing like the ocean. Then to child's pose. We child's posed for a long time. That is the one where you lay on the ground like you don't want to talk to anyone, and your arms are out in front of you, like a prayer. I like child's pose. We kept going deeper and deeper into it, so my ears were trying to push down below my arms. My shoulders felt tight about that stretch.

Then the yoga started. 30 minutes in, and I was ready to call it. The legs were burning from sitting in imaginary chairs with arms up like torches. Even downward dog was causing my legs to shake. But, quitting half-way through is bad form, so I carried on. It got easier. Abs. Then laying in corpse pose. That is the best one. It is laying down on your back like a police officer is going to trace the outline of your body with chalk. Anyone can do it. While in corpse pose, we closed our eyes and just breathed. This is the part of yoga that seems boring, but is actually wonderful. It is so calming. The yoga teacher had Adele playing, and I love Adele. I just breathed in and out, forgetting if my stomach was supposed to expand when I inhaled or exhaled. I still can't remember.

I'll be back on Thursday.