Ahh... it's amazing how nice it is to just stop. Stop and hear your heartbeat, stop and feel your breath, stop and clear your mind. It's the power of yoga... to become inwardly focused and concentrate on your divine spirit.
I started yoga about 6 weeks ago just to get some balance in my life. I didn't realise how instantly it would affect me... learning to take in deeper breaths to relief the anxiety building up, finding myself stretching in ways to relieve the tension... I'm really finding myself stopping and taking time out for myself.
Tonight, I started a new 7-week course with a new instructor. A South American male instructor. A very well toned, overly flexible male instructor. A lycra clad male instructor who liked to make us sweat. Our class is in this very sweet house with all the sounds of wind-chimes and birds, the scents of ylang ylang and lavender and all the old world charm that makes it a perfect place to revive your spirit.
There are only three of us in the class - one lady I hadn't seen before who looked like yoga had been part of her life for the past 20 years - she was so controlled, toned and annoyingly petite. Then there was the tiny motherly grandmother lady who looks like she loves her pasta, and gives everything a go, but struggles with some of the poses. And then there's me... a little bit flexible, not-so-toned, a little bit wobbly but able to do some of the advanced poses (then breaks the concentration sometimes when my 'tree' pose becomes uprooted and I crash into the wall).
Our lycra clad South American worked us harder than our previous instructor. Sweat was pouring off us in the mugginess of a stormy evening. I had to ask to put the ceiling fan on half way through our one and a half hour class as I was getting so sweaty, that my feet were slipping and the poses just weren't happening. The others were happy I asked, as it wasn't just my un-toned body that was feeling it.
Thankfully, after a warrior pose No 3, an inverted table and a very long shoulder stand, he let us relax in corpse pose taking in the sound of a Tibetan bell, before sitting cross legged, fingers & thumbs connected with wrists gently sitting on our knees, and resonating our 'Ohms' till they were in harmony.
So after all my thoughts of dysfunction, work and concern had vanished from my head, I opened the door, and somehow, all my thoughts rushed back to me again... but it's the one and a half hours in that room, that made me more calm and rational about them...
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